Meet Our Team
Experienced and Dedicated
Gian Shakti
Gian Shakti is an E-RYT 500, YACEP Yoga teacher. She is a Certified Kundalini Yoga Instructor and Teacher Trainer, a Gong Avatar Trainer, a Reiki Master under the Usui Reiki system, an Access Bars Facilitator, a sound healing and meditation guide. She is the co-founder of Jupiter Yoga and also the designer and creator of Devi Tala Designs -- Healing and Empowering jewelry. Through her dedication to her sadhana (daily spiritual practice), she is able to continuously work on her radiance so she can be a forklift for her students' elevation.
Sotantar Suraj
Sotantar is an E-RYT 500, YACEP Yoga teacher. He is a widely recognized Gong Avatar Teacher, Kundalini Yoga Teacher and Trainer. He is a co-founder of Jupiter Yoga and the founder and creator of Gong Avatar Academy. Sotantar is dedicated to bring Strength Awareness, Honor to All. His passion is teaching Gong Avatars, Kundalini Yoga, Tantra and bringing the healing and transforming sounds of the Gong to the world. He enjoys giving Gong Sessions, Personal Counseling, Meditation and Healing Planet Gong Concerts to celebrate oneness, peace, love and joy which is our natural state. Check out his website www.gongavataracademy.com or follow him on instagram @sotantarsuraj.
Nichole Susi-Blair
Nichole discovered her love of yoga asana and pranayama (movement of the body through postures and the study of the breath) as an offset to the daily stressors or working in a corporate environment for 15 years. She found that yoga aligned with her interest in health and wellness, the mind/ body connection and self discovery and awareness. After 7 years of dedicated practice, she took the 200 hour Teacher Training in 2009 and knew this was the path for her. She completed an additional 300 professional training in 2009/2010 and has been teaching ever since. She has a soft spot for beginners, teaching entry level classes for many years, along with more advanced Vinyasa Flow and Hatha. Her years of experience with groups, private clients and companies has allowed her to meet each student where they are in that moment, creating a safe space for students to experience, observe, expand and grow their personal practice and self connection.
Juris Zinbergs
Katrina Elizabeth Quackenbush
Katrina is a New York native with a long lasting passion for sports and fitness. Seeking less snow and more sun, she moved to Orange County in 2013. Katrina is absolutely in love with the Southern California lifestyle, and all the opportunities it provides! On any given day, you can find Katrina hiking, bouldering, walking her dogs, going to the beach, or riding her bike. In 2015, Katrina decided to deepen her yoga practice by obtaining a 200HR Vinyasa Flow certification through Yoga Tribe in Huntington Beach. Katrina also accomplished certifications in Yin Yoga, Yogalates, and 300HR Training Certifications in Yoga Therapy. Katrina has completed the 850HR Yoga Therapist Training and only has Practicum hours to complete! Katrina ensures to deliver premium, educated, spirited classes and private sessions on a multi-faceted basis, as she is able to cater to, help, and serve her client's highest needs. Katrina teaches Yogalates Sundays at 9:15AM.
Bella Linder
Bella's yoga journey began as a child in gymnastics where she loved to push the extremes of what the body can do. She began choreographing for her teammates and felt a higher calling. After several injuries, she found a way to heal her body through the asanas of yoga. The physical part of gymnastics was not enough and so when she discovered yoga and found a spiritual and emotional connection, she was able to understand a deeper purpose. This was to strengthen the wellbeing of people through yoga. She completed a teacher training at 16 and later went back to get a 300 hour training to deepen her spiritual knowledge. Santosha, or contentment, is present in her when she is able to give the gift of yoga to others. Bella teaches Energizing Flow Thursdays 10:45AM and Saturdays 9AM, Rejuventating Flow Fridays 5:30PM, and Yogalates Monday & Wednesday 7AM and Thursdays 10:45AM.
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Jenny teaches with her heart. Her love for movement and grace is what led her to study yoga. She began her practice with Ashtanga Yoga, and later took advanced trainings in Anusara, Kundalini, and Vinyasa Flow. She received her Hatha Yoga Teaching Certification, RYT in 2004 from White Lotus Foundation in Santa Barabara, CA.
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From her years of dance training, she guides her students gracefully from one pose to the next with effortlessness and ease, teaching them proper alignment so they feel an openness in their bodies. Her calm and yet cheerful demeanor, soothing voice, and seamless transitions giver her students the space to release the tension from the day, strengthen their bodies, and attune their minds to the peacefulness within.
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Jenny has been studying dance since the age of four. She has studied ballet and contemporary modern dance extensively, with her main influences coming from the Vaganova Ballet Method and Martha Graham Modern Dance. She has also studied jazz, tap and gymnastics. After college Jenny performed in a contemporary dance company. Jenny has been teaching dance since 1997.
Jenny Day
Sonny Ali
Strong, playful, and mindful, Sonny's classes are invitations to bridge the gap between the body, mind, and spirit with humor, style and grace. Using a keen eye for detail, he teaches people rather than poses so that ultimately students feel more empowered, buoyant, and enlivened. For him, to live a richer, more connected life is a worthy goal for each student.
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Dani Fankhauser
Molly is one of the friendly faces you will see at our front desk, ready to welcome you with a smile to Jupiter Yoga! Her love for yoga asana, pranayama, and dhyana brought her to Jupiter Yoga as a student, and then led her to join our team. Currently enrolled in Yoga Teacher Training at Orange Coast College, Molly is set to graduate in May 2024, eagar to share her passion and knowledge with the world.
Molly Marscellas
Bianka Riveiro
Bianka has a background in kinesiology, personal training and competing competitively in powerlifting. Having been an athlete her whole life, she’s always had a passion for fitness, heath and the mechanics of the human body. And has had fulfillment from teaching and sharing her knowledge to help others. Always following her highest excitements, these stepping stones eventually led her to kundalini yoga 8 years ago. Also along this journey, she discovered Ayurveda (the sister science of yoga). With these two sister sciences she has transformed, expanded and created a life of truth, peace and bliss… bringing the mind, body and soul in union and balance. She is now a Kundalini yoga teacher, she completed her 200hr teachers training here at Jupiter Yoga! And she is also a certified Ayurvedic healthy coach. She lives a lifestyle integrated with the ebbs and flows of nature because she believes we ARE nature and she brings this to her teachings. She teaches with integrity in honoring the sacredness of these two sciences, weaving in the understanding of the elements and gunas so that students can have a deeper understanding of themselves, their environment around them and how each kriya, mantra and pranayama intertwines and affects their individual being…because although we are all one, no two of us are the same. Bianka teaches Kundalini Sundays at 5:30PM.
Dani fell in love with her first yoga class in 2008 and signed up for teacher training just three days later. Since then, she's learned under teachers and mentors across vinyasa, ashtanga, yin, and yoga nidra. She followed her curiosity to trainings and certifications in reiki, energy healing, Buddhist mindfulness meditation, and astrology.
As a fiction writer, she merges her love for yoga with her instinct for narrative to class sequencing to create a dynamic structure. Through many life transitions, yoga has been her home, and her playful teaching style invites students to be at home in their bodies. You can find Dani teaching Energizing Flow on Thursdays from 5:30pm-6:30pm, and Restorative Yoga + Reiki on Saturdays at 10:45AM.
Fiona Palazzi
Fiona grew up in rainy Olympia, Washington running from club soccer to theatre rehearsal to dance classes to any other sport or art activity they could squeeze into their schedule. They discovered yoga when they moved to Portland, OR for undergrad and began using it to recover from sports induced injuries, understand how to move their body in an efficient and healthy way, find moments of stillness and deepen their understanding and use of breath in everyday life and in their acting work. In June they graduated with their MFA in Acting from UC Irvine where they also taught acting, breath/ voice and movement for the actor, using elements of yoga, pranayama and meditation to deepen their student’s work. They spent November and December in Rishikesh, India achieving their 500hr Multi-style Yoga Certification. Their teaching style is compassionate, strong and encourages the development of one’s proprioception and inquisitiveness. Fiona teaches Rejuvenating Flow Mondays at 5:30PM, and Energizing Flow Tuesdays & Thursdays at 6AM.
Practicing yoga since 1993, Juris is a well-known and respected leader in the Orange County Yoga community. In 1997, he became certified by the American Viniyoga Institute to teach asana, pranayama and Sanskrit chanting in the same Yoga
tradition as TV Desikachar and T Krishnamacharya. Juris' passion for yoga lead him to begin training and mentoring Yoga Therapists in this living ViniYoga tradition. Emphasizing appropriately placed, accurate and integrated yoga techniques which are purposeful and clearly helpful, in any individuals transformation. Juris is recognized by C-AYT as a certified Yoga Therapist and by Yoga Alliance as an E-RYT500 Yoga Teacher. Juris Teaches Ashtanga Mondays & Fridays 10:40AM and Gentle Yoga Wednesdays 9:30AM and Mondays 4:15PM.