Teacher profile: Katy Appleton

After dancing professionally with the English National Ballet, Katy Appleton  switched careers to become a yoga teacher.  As well as leading retreats around the world, she now teaches a glittering roll-call of celebrities, including Geri Halliwell, Sarah Ferguson, Paul Mcartney, Heather Mills and HRH Prince Andrew. Based in London, Katy heads appleyoga.

What led you along the yoga path?
My mum did yoga was she was pregnant with me, so you could say that it all began then! That was 36 years ago! I used to go as a kid with her and then came back to yoga whilst I was a ballet dancer in my 20's.

How long were you practising before you trained as a teacher?
Actually not very long at all, a few months of yoga classes but my background as a dancer allowed me to find the postures with relative ease.

The breath and meditation side of yoga though had drawn me in as a dancer for several years before training as a teacher to balance the very extreme physical side to my career.

Which training course did you do and why?
Originally Sivananda yoga with Narayani and Barbera Gordon at the Sunra organisation. A friend was doing it and I didn't really know about the other styles until a little later on in my yoga teaching.

I have also studied with dear friend and incredible teacher Shiva Rea for years, Donna Farhi, David Swenson, Judith Lasater, Eric Shiffman to name just a few.

What type of yoga do you teach and what drew you to this style?
It depends on whom I'm teaching; I have studied various approaches and styles and so assess why that person wants to do yoga and what they are looking for. I can then find the best routes in for their needs.

My group classes and retreats are appleyoga vinyasa flow (flowing hatha yoga) with wicked musical vibes and my very own flavour of essential liberating tools weaved in as sweet guidance for all along this path called life!

I'm draw to this way of teaching and moving because of my dance background and my findings along my own yoga journey.

How do you fit your own practice around your teaching?
I just get up a little earlier!

What do you enjoy about teaching?
All of it! I find it very uplifting to teach, yoga is like channelling JOY! I am blessed that I have found yoga in my life and then I have the honour and responsibility to pass it on! Whoop! Lucky me.

What makes a good yoga teacher?
That you do your own yoga practice regularly and your own work upon yourself as a human being. Then you can connect to your students and speak from that space of knowing rather than one read in a book and not actually realized.

To you, what are the most important elements of yoga - and what are the challenging elements?
Its definition. It matters that there is presence, authenticity, joy and being open to the approach that yoga has offered me. 'It's not what you do but the way that you do it!' - how true that expression is.

Challenges are that it is so vast and there is always more to understand, embody, and learn and we only have one lifetime, supposedly.

How is yoga perceived in the UK now? Do you think it will continue to grow in popularity?
I know that both I and the students that I teach do it because it enhances our lives in so many ways, gives us a fresh lens and incredible tools to understand the workings of mind, body, energy and spirit. The unreal perception of yoga comes from those who don't do it!

I can't think why people would stop doing yoga if it gives them, and those they touch, so much.

Is it feasible to earn a reasonable salary as a yoga teacher in the UK?
Sure, why ever not?

What advice do you have for someone currently training, or considering it as a future career?
Do your practice and breathe it with love! You will have many authentic gifts to pass on!

www.appleyoga.com