Our team of teachers:

Meet Fulvio Grandin – Owner and teacher

Yoga is a continuous journey for me and embodies what inspires me most in life. Both practicing and teaching it. Over the last 8 years i have joyously spent much of my time at my yoga studios. When i am not at the Yoga Zone i am with my family - life is good with 2 young boys and a French wife.  Aside from yoga, the studio and my family, i have a passion for scuba diving – (even in these cold Cape waters) but i do prefer, and travel to, the diversity and warmth of the tropics. In yoga it is a constant inpiration for me to work with other teachers and have a studio where so many people practice and enrich their lives.

Yoga is challenging, and integrating its practice into our lifestyles is rewarding beyond measure.

Meet Kate Ball

My yoga journey began with a Bikram class at Mother City Yoga Studio (Yoga Zone’s predecessor). I was studying at UCT, highly stressed-out, and aware of a deep-seated lack in my life. That first yoga class changed me. It was one of those rare experiences where, after just 90 minutes, I could say with absolute certainty that I would be doing it all my life. Despite having been a dedicated runner, I immediately abandoned my training regime in favour of what was, to me, the deepest, smartest exercise I’d ever experienced. From then on, I found myself going to yoga 5, 6, 7 times a week. Yoga healed me at a very deep level: my insecurities diminished, my relationships improved and, in general, I was a much happier person.

About a year and a half into my practice, I realized that I wanted to teach yoga and dedicate myself to giving people this remarkable life-tool. It was quite a severe change of plan – I was a writer and editor by training and partway into a Master’s degree. However, life can be amazingly cooperative when the right dream comes along. I managed to put things on hold so that I could complete my first teacher-training course. Later that year, I moved to San Francisco – the yoga-Mecca of the West. I was exposed to some of the best teachers in the world and, from there, made my next teaching move: training with one of my yoga-heroes, Ana Forrest. For the rest of my time in the States, I taught yoga in between travelling, writing, and visiting as many different yoga studios as I could.

Life eventually returned me to Cape Town where I settled back into the daily rhythms at Yoga Zone as if I’d never left. I feel deep gratitude to be on this particular life path and to have the privilege of sharing yoga with people each day.

Meet Tammy Wilde

Yoga first came into my life when I was 7 and would accompany my grandmother to yoga class at her old age home. I would invariably be asked to twist my young self into pretzel positions, much to the delight of the oldies! Those early experiences foreshadowed what was to come. Fifteen years later, I walked into Yoga Zone and my life changed then and there. I will never forget walking out of that class and promising myself, “I’m going to teach yoga one day and I’m going to teach it here!” Over the next months, I experienced a powerful shift that inspired a love and passion for yoga that will be with me always.

My yoga journey took a big step a couple years of later when I enrolled in Jim Harrington’s teacher training course. From there, I taught at different studios in Cape Town. Once I’d gleaned some good experience, I approached Yoga Zone for a teaching position. After some intense power-vinyasa training, I stepped into the same yoga room where I’d started, this time as teacher, and felt gratitude that life had come full circle.

I believe that yoga is for everyone and you do not have to be anything more than who you already are to be a yogi. It has been the single most transformative practice I have experienced and one of the great blessings of my life. My relationship with yoga is continually evolving and my commitment to the practice only deepens as I witness my students go through their own transformations. Yoga holds something unique and pure for each person. It will change your life for the better. I guarantee it!

Meet Stuart Kirton

I have been practicing Yoga since 2002 and teaching since 2004. I enjoy a more dynamic form of practice such as Power Yoga and Astanga Yoga and I was originally trained and certified in a form called “Chaya (Shadow) Yoga.”

Shadow Yoga is a form that is very circular and flowing in its nature and encourages a progressive practice leading towards free form. It is also very strongly influenced by Shaolin Kung Fu and from this interest I studied Kung Fu, which has created an even larger sense of free form in my life and practice.

I do not make any understatements when saying that my Yoga practice has changed my life and given me the strength to approach life in a very wholesome and positive way. One time a student said to me that she thought I have such a great job, because I make people happy. I never said it at the time, but the truth is, it is not me that makes them happy, but rather the commitment to their practice and to themselves that makes them happy. I take great pleasure in watching students overcoming challenges and fears and understanding themselves on a much deeper and real level.

Meet Jenny Brash

The first time I tried Bikram yoga was in 1997 in San Francisco. I loved it! It was the first yoga I had ever done. Since then I have tried various forms of yoga but nothing leaves me feeling as good as Bikram!

I am from Cape Town. After completing my CA, I spent time in London where I really got into Bikram yoga. I was training for the London Triathlon and started going to Bikram classes to stretch out after training. I decided to go on the Bikram Instructors Course in Los Angeles at the end of 2004. I did not go on the course with a definite idea in mind . I wanted to learn more about Bikram yoga and I was really excited about doing 2 yoga classes a day for 9 weeks! I returned to Cape Town at the start of 2005 after being away for 10 years and started teaching at Yogazone in April 2005.

I spent 4 months travelling around India in 2007. I spent 6 weeks in Mysore practicing Ashtanga yoga. I also completed a Clinical Yoga course whilst there.

In October 2009 I completed the Africa Yoga course in St Francis certifying as an Ashtanga and Vinyasa teacher.

I love teaching the yoga as much as I love practicing it!

Marinus Muller

We are very excited and privileged to have Marinus join us as a Bikram Yoga teacher towards the end of June.

He also has extensive practice in Ashtanga Yoga and loves the Vinyasa Yoga classes we do.