Studio
Our studio is housed in an elegant heritage building on Dunkley Square in the vibrant Gardens area of Cape Town. We offer changing rooms, shower facilities, a comfortable lounge area and a beautiful yoga studio with high ceilings and vintage wooden floors.
Every detail of this unique space has been created with care and intention. The interior is designed by Envy and Co to provide a connection to the environment and to the individual. The walls are decorated with local artists including Robyn Denny, Kathy Robins, Jennifer Morrison and Tanya Bonello. Photography by Anke Loots.
The Shala also offers the highest quality online classes allowing you to practice from the comfort of your own home. New classes are recorded and added to our library weekly.
Owner, teacher & co-creator of the Teacher Training Course.
E-RYT500, YACEP
In 2004, after four years of dedicated practice in a diversity of yoga lineages including Ashtanga, Vinyasa and Iyengar yoga, Tamsin completed her first teacher training with Louisa Sears at Yogarts. She subsequently completed an intensive two-year Bihar teacher training with Carly Louw at Yoga Connection in Pretoria, and travelled to Kerala, India to study Sivananda asana, chanting, puja and philosophy. In 2009 Tamsin completed additional teacher training with Shimon Ben Avi, and between November 2016 and March 2018 she completed her 300hr Advanced Yoga Teachers Training with Patrick Creelman and Rinat Perlman in Hong Kong.
She has a special interest in the role of yoga as a practice of healing and repair on all levels of Being. Her most inspiring work comes from teaching on The Shala’s Teacher Training programmes. The art of lymphology and digestion are key focus points for workshops and courses. Tamsin opened The Shala – Cape Town Yoga School in 2007.
Co-owner, teacher & anatomy teacher on the Teacher Training Course.
MSc, E-RYT500, YACEP
Thomas has taught yoga since 2008, alongside the study and practice of nutritional therapy and naturopathy.
Thomas completed MSc Advanced Complementary Medicine (Research & Practice) in 2021, writing his dissertation as a constructivist grounded theory exploration of yoga instructors’ understanding of eating disorders.
Thomas teaches group and individual yoga classes, anatomy and physiology modules on 200hr and 300hr yoga teacher training courses, and presents workshops on food science and digestive health.
Teacher & co-creator of the Teacher Training Course.
E-RYT200
Self enquiry and yoga philosophy teacher.
Adila originally studied in the Ashtanga yoga tradition with Africa Yoga and Shimon Ben Avi.
Her practice, study and learning has been enriched by many diverse spiritual traditions. In the yoga tradition, she has found a universal system of spiritual principles that, if applied to our lives, can support us to be more stable, happy and wise humans. It is her passion to bridge the gap between the experiences we have on our yoga mats and the reality of every day life. Teaching is her most fulfilling work, and her students and children, her biggest teachers.
Teacher
RYT500
Naomi was introduced to yoga at a young age. Her mother is a senior Iyengar yoga teacher and her passionate immersion in the tradition has been foundational to Naomi’s own love of the practice. She completed her 200hr teacher training at The Shala in 2016, and her 300hr advanced teacher training at The Shala in 2021.
Naomi has been teaching group yoga classes, plus private and corporate clients. She aims to integrate the alignment precision of Iyengar yoga with the fluidity of vinyasa yoga to provide students with safe, intelligently sequenced classes. She encourages students to practice intuitively, to move and breathe consciously, and to curiously explore the internal connections that make up each pose. She hopes to facilitate this ‘connection-finding’ through clear instruction and as much individual attention and hands-on adjustments as possible.
Teacher
RYT500
Néna Butler is an actress, yoga student and qualified yoga teacher with a passion for helping people find more comfort, joy and connection on their yoga mat and in life. She grew up in Noordhoek and was introduced to yoga as a teenager and since then her curiosity and love for the practice have blossomed. She completed her 200hr and 300hr training at The Shala and considers this space her home away from home. “Yoga for me is freedom, self love, community and strength. The practice is a powerful, multifaceted gift that I hope to share through my classes and interactions with people.”
Teacher
RYT500
Physical activity runs in Mandisa’s blood and when she found yoga in 2013 she had found the best type of physical discipline. She believes that yoga is the art, the mat is the canvas and the body is the paintbrush. Yoga allows her to fully express her passion, her thoughts and her desires both on and off the mat. Mandisa completed her 200hr teacher training at Yoga Warrior in Johannesburg, and her 300hr advanced teacher training at The Shala in 2021.
Teaching yoga has become an extension of who she is; very expressive, she loves working with people as well as adjusting students in order to get them deeper into a pose. She brings smiles, freedom and loves building strength both mentally and physically in her practice and teachings. If you like to be mentally challenged and taken into an adventure of the self and into the unknown, then do try out her classes.
Teacher
RYT500
Yanna teaches slower paced, detailed vinyasa yoga, which hones breath awareness, safely strengthens and opens the body-mind, and encourages the cultivation of grounded, loving, and curious presence, moment to moment.
She is an RYT500 yoga teacher and a qualified Dance Awake facilitator. She also holds an Honours degree in Human Geography and recently completed a 2yr postgraduate training in Mindfulness-Based Facilitation through the Faculty of Medicine at Stellenbosch University.
Yanna has been facilitating in diverse settings since 2012 (schools, NGOs, retreats, businesses, and prisons), offering mindful movement and art processes that nurture the development of compassionate awareness and embodied presence. She sees the individual work of integration and healing as the first step toward a collective movement towards unity, in the face of complex challenges.
Teacher
RYT500
Len-Barry was introduced to yoga through theatre and performing training at the University of Stellenbosch. Tightly knitted into the physical theatre leg of the course was the necessity to explore the physicality and internal environment of the human body. After graduating in 2015, he completed both RYT200 and RYT300 yoga teacher training at The Shala. Len-Barry encourages his students to be curious not only about the external expression of the asanas, but also the relationship between mind and body, how we can use the practice of yoga to shift our internal reality and energy states.
Teacher
RYT500
For Magenta, yoga is a practice that has become the foundation of her daily life, which stimulated a desire to learn more about the complex interactions of our anatomy and physiology. She has a special interest in the practice of yoga as a method of self-connection and repair. Her most inspiring work comes from teaching private clients as it grants the opportunity for going deeper.
After five years of dedicated practice, Magenta went on to complete both her 200hr (in 2018) & 300hr advanced teachers training (in 2020) at The Shala Cape Town Yoga School.
“Whether you already have a practice or are embarking on a new journey, yoga is about practising intuitively, but consciously with breath, finding the tools that work for you, and integrating them into daily life.”
Teacher
RYT500
Through a lifetime of curious exploration, Candice has developed a self-practice rooted in intuitive movement, yoga, meditation, breath work and self-study. She believes this potent combination of weaving breath, movement, contemplation and meditation is the path to healing and empowerment.
Candice’s teachings are mindful and explorative, threaded with embodied philosophy. She holds space for students to journey to their own rhythms and embodiment as gateways to embrace their depths, delighting in their own empowerment and awakening.
Pre-natal Teacher
Harriet has been practicing yoga for the last 25 years; initially studying and practicing the Ashtanga form in London under the guidance of Liz Lark and Gingi Lee. Since arriving in South Africa 16 years ago and discovering the fabulous and friendly Capetonian yoga community, she learned to deepen and vary her practice from a pure Ashtanga base; and found an even greater respect for her body upon falling pregnant for the first time in 2007, thus softening her practice and increasing her fulfillment from yoga.
“The commitment I made to yoga during my pregnancies taught me an enormous amount about my body, about my practice and about myself. Without a doubt it increased the enjoyment and ease of my pregnancy, the birth and my recovery from the birth. I also truly believe it has influenced the characters and wellbeing of my children. Since becoming pregnant, I have developed a deep interest in pre-natal yoga and how this combined with diet and exercise can influence a pregnancy and birth.”
Teacher
E-RYT500, YACEP
Kathleen’s yoga journey is largely inspired by her mother who has been a dance instructor for over 30yrs and has always had a strong interest in eastern philosophy. Due to her mother’s influence, Kathleen’s understanding of the connection between movement, spirituality and healing began to develop at a young age, and has acted as her stepping stone into the world of yoga.
In May 2015, Kathleen left her position as film producer and took a leap of faith to begin her journey toward becoming a yoga teacher. She completed her 200hr teacher training in 2015 and her 300hr advanced teacher-training in 2020; both with The Shala.
Kathleen has a passion for teaching beginners. She strives to encourage all her students to be mindful about their alignment and foundation, to embrace their inner teacher, and to take the time to develop a self-practice. Kathleen feels strongly about the importance of addressing mental health issues through movement and meditation, and continues to use yoga as a tool to help her clients with depression, anxiety and other illnesses.
Teacher
MA, RYT500
Firdose is a yoga teacher and sports journalist and holds a Masters in the Traditions of Yoga and Meditation from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. Firdose is pursuing doctoral research on the historical developments of yoga across the Indian Ocean and within the Indian Diaspora in Africa and the Caribbean to explore effective ways of decolonising the practice. Her Masters dissertation looked at the methods of teaching yoga in refugee projects, taking into account the race and class differences between teachers and students. Firdose has experience teaching in several diverse settings, including in migrant projects in London and Cape Town and is committed to making yoga accessible to all.
Teacher
RYT500
Zimbabwean born Mikkie-dene Le Roux is the creator of Voice-Integrated, a business inspired by the connected experience of clear and undivided self sounded expression.
Harmonising techniques, tools and philosophies from her 500hr Yoga Teacher Training (The Shala Cape Town Yoga School) and an Acting Degree from the University of Cape Town , Mikkie-dene is called to hold and account the movement both in herself and others toward the pleasure in the embodied- voice existence.
The Voice – Integrated practice is one that restores a feeling of autonomy, choice and discernment through an integrated process of breath, meditation and vocal work.
The Shala Online
