Ella Ran has been teaching at the Yoga Shed since 2016, and became the studio owner in 2019. Her yoga practice began in 2006 while living in Israel and became a more integral part of her life after moving back to DeLand and taking regular classes at the Shed in 2012. Ella began working closely with a senior Iyengar teacher in 2018 and became a Level 1 Certified Iyengar Yoga Teacher (CITY) in Oct, 2021.

During her time as a professional skydiver, she suffered a skydiving accident (repeated whiplash), leading her to dive into the practice of yoga for its therapeutic aspects of pain management. After completing her 300 hour SIYI teacher training program at the Yoga Shed, a life-changing event, she began teaching weekly back care classes with the hopes of helping others move out of chronic pain or prevent future injuries.

Ella’s classes offer an opportunity to explore awareness of body, breath and mind while following the methodical approach of Precision Alignment Yoga. She is an enthusiastic and caring teacher, who provides each student with individual attention and help, to ensure every body is able to participate and receive the benefits of yoga.

Her classes offer ample modifications, making her classes welcoming and open to those from absolute beginners to experienced practitioners. She is passionate about sharing the gifts of Yoga with others, and looks forward to every class she teaches and each student who gives her the opportunity to share her journey with.

Arielle graduated from The University of South Florida in Tampa in 2012 with a B.A. in Dance Studies. In December 2013, Arielle completed the 300hr Teacher Training Certification in Precision Alignment Yoga through the Southern Institute for Yoga Instructors (SIYI) program offered at The Yoga Shed. She has studied with Emma Tranter, founder of The Yoga Shed, as well as with the founders of SIYI, Betty Larsen and John Charping.

The experience of yoga is a very personal one, and so I share my experience the only way I know how; as a personal story. Dancing since I was 3 years old, I never knew yoga existed until college. I took a few yoga classes, but I always came out feeling a bit confused. What was the purpose? If you want to stretch, just go to a dance class. You’ll get more out of it! Or so I thought. Until one day a friend urged me to try a class at The Yoga Shed. She was certain I would love it, so I reluctantly agreed to attend a Sunday 7:00am class taught by Emma. Sun burnt and drained from the previous day’s activities, I left feeling renewed. I had never experienced anything like it before. My whole life I had worked hard to push my body, and now I was being told to accept it as it was at that moment. Something had changed, and even though I didn’t know exactly what that was, what I did know was that I wanted to experience it again.

During my freshman year of college, I suffered an ankle injury and had to take a whole semester off. My plans had to change and I never fully recovered from it. I was lost, but through practice and self study I found a path to discovering my truest self. Even on those bad days where I feel lost all over again, I have the tools to find my way back towards that place of absolute consciousness; that place of union with the “Self” (the self with a capital “S”). A place I aim to experience with every person who takes a class that I teach. That doesn’t always happen, but that’s ok, too. As a teacher, I am still a student, still growing and still learning.

Gail has practiced yoga since she was a teenager and taught yoga since 2013. When she moved to New Smyrna Beach, she found her “yoga home” at the Yoga Shed in Deland. Their practice of the Iyengar lineage “Precision Alignment Yoga” allowed her to explore her alignment. In her thirst for more knowledge, she attended and completed the Shed’s teacher training under Emma Tranter. It was during this training she first experienced Yoga Nidra. Gail fell in love with this meditation & deep relaxation technique. Wanting to know more she continued her studies of Yoga Nidra at the Amrit Yoga Institute. Attending both the level 1 training and the Advanced Program. This became her passion and lead as many sessions of Yoga Nidra as she could. In 2020 her curiosity was again peaked; how could she get deeper into the transformational meditations. She returned to the Amrit Yoga Institute and starting from scratch she took the Level 1 Yoga Teacher Training. This training focuses on using postures to move the body into deeper relaxation and meditation by preparing the body and mind though breath and the flow of energy through the body. Truly, a transformational practice!!!

Hippie, punk, goth, vegan-flexible, yoga fan searching for harmony at all levels, physical, sensual, emotional, intellectual, “relational”. I want to follow my dreams but I don’t know which one, so I make it work with what I have, where I am, with whom I am.

Born and raised in Belgium, I am a linguist by formation and by passion; I have studied literature and linguistics in French, English, American, Dutch, and Italian. I also have a background and training in ballet. Exploring the capabilities of mind and body led me to yoga and eventually to sharing yoga with others. I have completed a 300hr SIYI Precision Alignment Yoga certification, which was the logical culmination of a 12 plus year yoga practice. In yoga I love to challenge the body (safely, unlike ballet) with discipline, focus and gracefulness (like ballet) to achieve the only form of meditation that really works for me. “Yoga is my version of flying.”

Yves-Antoine is also a professor of French at Stetson University in DeLand. He has been a faculty member since 1992.