Emily Seymour is from Camden, Maine.  Dance is her first love and Yoga is her passion.  Her intial dance experiences were pre-natal ballet classes. Emily’s professional training began in 1995 with Sara Yarborough Smith, an Alvin Ailey dancer who included yoga postures in her warm up sequences.

In 1996 Emily met Arthur Hall, a trailblazer of Afro-American dance and a lineage holder of the West African Ifa tradition.  She began studying and performing with the Arthur Hall International Dance Company and became Arthur’s apprentice in 1998.  Emily spent the next three years touring with the African Festivals in American Schools Residency program.  Her apprenticeship involved teaching dance and yoga to thousands of children throughout Maine, Arizona and New Hampshire.  This life-affirming experience inspired her to become a teacher.

Emily went on to study dance and movement at Naropa University, a Buddhist-inspired liberal arts college in Boulder, Colorado.  She received her Bachelor’s degree in Traditional Eastern Arts in 2006 and completed her 1000 hour Yoga Teacher Training in 2007.  She has 225 additional training hours as Yogi Nataraja Kallio’s assistant.  Naropa is the only University outside of India where it is possible to receive a degree in Yoga.

Emily is a modern day nomad and has taught throughout the United States, while traveling as far as Hawaii and the Virgin Islands.  She currently teaches in New York City and the Hudson Valley region.  Her style reflects an integral synthesis of Hatha Yoga stemming from the lineages of Sri Krishnamacharya, Swami Sivananda, Swami Satyananda, Sri Aurobindo and Purna Yoga.  She weaves this rich tradition together with the nexus that is her personal practice.  Her mission is to raise the collective consciousness by assisting people in their journeys towards Self-empowerment.  The Mind Body Mandala is her dharma.