Cherie Newman founded the Yoga Loft in Sonora and has taught many styles of yoga over the course of 19 years. In addition to teaching weekly yoga classes Cherie has also developed and teaches the yoga curriculum at Columbia Junior College. These college classes not only covered yoga poses but also yoga philosophy and some anatomy and physiology. Cherie has also led many yoga retreats and yoga immersions. Cherie is skilled with teaching many styles of yoga, including vinyasa, alignment focused, yin and restorative.

Hoyt Cory received his yoga teacher training certification from Integral Yoga Institute after attending a one month, live-in training at their Ashram in Virginia. This program was very inclusive and deeply connective to all aspects of yoga. He attended two additional training weekends, one in Integral Yoga and one in Kundalini Yoga. Since his trainings over 16 years ago, Hoyt has been teaching yoga regularly in the Tuolumne County area as well as offering workshops. Hoyt has been teaching 2 to 3 class a week at Yoga Loft in Tuolumne County for over 12 years. In addition to his classes at Yoga Loft, Hoyt has taught at most of the fitness and holistic health centers in this area, including Class 5 Fitness, Mathieson Memorial Health Clinic, Stillwater Yoga Center and Area 12. He currently teaches regularly at Yoga Loft, Gold Country Yoga and Twain Harte Fitness. In addition to yoga, Hoyt is a Shambala Meditation Instructor and helps lead weekly meditation classes at Sol y Breath Wellness Center in Sonora.

Jessica studied both Yoga and Ayurveda in Los Angeles, CA and became a registered yoga teacher in 2008. After wanting to take a break from the city life, she returned to her hometown of Sonora where she began taking classes with Cherie Newman at the Yoga Loft. Jessica was lucky enough to be offered her own class to teach at the Yoga Loft in 2011 and eventually was given the opportunity to take over ownership of the studio in 2016. In addition to teaching classes, she created and has been leading Yoga Loft's 200hr Yoga Teacher Training Program since 2017. The Yoga Loft has been a place of refuge and peace during Jessica's time living in Sonora and she hopes to continue to offer this space of tranquility to our community.

Dellamay is a true Lebenskünstlerin: an artist of life. The world is the canvas and yoga is the medium
with which the masterpiece is painted. Breath in... Breath out...where the mind goes Prana will follow.
Having had the great blessing to study under many wise men and women in lands both near and far along
with the curiosity to explore and question what is “real” and “true” she discovered the joy of being both
student and teacher and that potential in every being.
She completed her teacher’s training at the Mount Madonna Institute in Watsonville California, which
follows the classical Aṣhțāṅga system outlined in the Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali. With this foundation in the
purification of body, breath and mind her personal praxis and teaching style are formed.
She also has a playful side which expresses itself in acro yoga- a movement form which combines partner
acrobatics and therapeutic flying into a fun, trust based and playful form of mindful movement. As a
multi instrumentalist and singer her poetic and musical nature is enchanted by the beauty of Bhakti.
Offering and participating in Kirtan- chanting names of the divine in sacred sound, brings her great joy.
An invitation is extended to those who read this to come explore themselves and this sacred art form we
call Yoga, for if you never ever go, you will never ever know- isn’t it so?

Surfing got me into yoga initially. I learned some stretches from core surfers in Montauk NY when I lived there and later I found out they were yoga. Surfing and yoga are a natural fit because they are both spiritual practices under the surface of the activity. Later on I moved to the Sierras and got into yoga to increase conditioning for surfing, skiing and cycling. I was just as surprised as anyone when I fell in love with yoga as the passion to unify the body with the mind  

I don’t surf much now, (because I don’t need to) but I do practice a lot of yoga. Yoga helps me to appreciate this thing we call life even more. Hiking, road and mountain biking, dancing are passions, but they have injury downsides and yoga has helped to limber and strengthen my body, slim it down, recover faster and reboot my metabolism. My practice is earthy and basic hatha yoga but there are useful elements in the other branches of yoga including vinyasa, restorative, yin. Prana is key and resulting meditations will move us incrementally to do what yoga is supposed to do: calm the noise of the mind.        

Paul Hasegawa Overacker