A teaching team since 1982, this senior married couple connects the dots between mind, body, breath and relationships. It is the sharing of self that touches the student’s heart, and the power of teaching is the ability to share the inner and outer body experience with their students.

Whether on a slackline, on her hands or with other humans, Heidi loves being in a conversation with gravity. A pioneer of the hands-free movement, she loves the acroyoga of ‘staying’, especially when using minimal points of contact between base and flyer. The collaborative, creative and technical possibilities of acroyoga and partner acrobatics are what drew the former architect out of the office, and into the world of movement. Her highly original flows and classes are infused with clever drills that will keep you coming back for more!

Years of martial arts and infinite shenanigans. Then Acroyoga entered Mat’s life. Balance, subtlety, strength – always favorites. Connecting, creating through partnership: that’s why he does this Sharing the practice and what it fosters: is why he teaches.

Mireille first evolved into the world of classical dance and then expanded her field of expertise to the circus arts, especially contortion. Her artistic activities led her to explore singing, rhythmic gymnastics, improvisational theater, hand-to-hand and choreography. Mireille is also a acro-yoga teacher since 2013.

Mel’s two feet started dancing at a young age in a small town in the Canadian Maritimes. She completed a 3 year Professional Theater program and danced and acted professionally for 20 years. She is a Certified Movement Analyst (CMA) and currently studying to become a Certified Core Energetics Practitioner.

Mel created Inner Fire Dance from a deep desire to offer a SAFER, BRAVER space. She celebrates embodiment, empowerment, and full self-expression. When we light up our own INNER FIRE we light up THE WORLD.

Joey Stafford-Abbott is a co-founder at AcroYoga Global and a professor at Vanier College. Driven by helping folks to live healthier lives, he takes pride in teaching AcroYoga to beginners. As a professor, he introduced the practice to the college world by creating the first credited course of its kind. That’s right, AcroYoga for college credit. He lives in Montreal and likes dancing, mangos, and jiu-jitsu.

Glenn Farley became involved in yoga and ballet and Acroyoga nearly ten years ago in Sedona, Arizona, USA.   He has studied with various teachers to hone his skills in Acroyoga, Partner Acrobatics, and Dance Lifts. Glenn is a certified Acroyoga Teacher Level 2 through Acroyoga Montreal (2016) and trained with Pitch Catch Circus (2018).  Glenn has been co-teaching Acroyoga with Ali Geter for five years in Northern Arizona.

I started practicing acroyoga in San Francisco back in January of 2009.  I’m a Level 2 certified teacher with AcroYoga Montreal, and I am also certified through Partner Acrobatics. My main goal is creating a sense of community whose individuals can all support each other in their mutual growth. I co-conspired to create “Awkroyoga” which is what I’d love to teach again at Viva, as a playful way of inspiring the creative process to come alive, and habits of self-judgment to soften and ideally fade away.

I’m a playful mover who loves creative spontaneity and serendipity. When I’m playing acro, I love exploring the uniqueness between each partnership and how that changes what direction a particular flow will go or how it will feel. I like to be rooted in the present moment to be better able to adapt on the fly instead of having a preconceived idea of where I’m trying to go. I’ve been doing acroyoga for eight years, massage therapy for nine years, juggling\prop manipulation for fifteen years, graduated as an osteopath at the end of last year and became a dad at the spring equinox this year.

Sarah is fascinated by the amazing diversity of practices that acroyoga offers. She loves the unique character of each acrobatic encounter, whether it brings a new movement, or underlines the strength and power of women, or inspires a creative flow. Sarah is a 200hr certified yoga teacher through Yandara Yoga in 2017, and has her Acroyoga certification from VanCityAcro in 2019. She loves sharing her passion at festivals in Montreal and around the world. 

I am a playful kid who likes to goof around, explore, create and use acroyoga to connect on a way deeper level than words can. I love to geek on body textures (I know I’m weird hehe, and I actually think this is one of my strengths) I love when participants can create something new and bring a part of their fully accomplished weirdness in the practice. Coming from the world of Vinyasa, I LOVE flows and when all the postures that we teach create a dance at the end.

Nathan was educated at the Louisville Youth Performing Arts School, Circus Smirkus, the University of Dance and Circus of Stockholm, and the Ecole de Cirque de Québec. He began creating works in 2014 starting with a three person juggling show that toured the US. In 2019 he worked with Acting for Climate as co-director and artist and in 2020 he returned to Montréal to co create Acting for Climate Montréal and co direct their first production “Branché”. As an artist he has toured with Cirque Eloize, “Paysage Dynamiques” by Erika et Jimmy, and performed his juggling act around the world. 

Ali is a movement artist based in Flagstaff, Arizona. Her background as a yoga teacher set the foundation for the rest of her movement practice. Ali is most inspired by movement as a connected dance and is especially drawn to adagio partner acrobatics. She was first was introduced to acroyoga in 2011 and it became her favorite way to interact with and build community. She is also an aerialist, specializing in aerial hoop. Ali has been co-teaching acroyoga with Glenn Farley for five years in Northern Arizona.

Abdul and Lea met in an AcroYoga class in their hometown of Beirut, Lebanon. They’ve been passionate about AcroYoga since then. They completed their Level 1 AcroYoga International TTC towards the end of 2019, and they try to get involved/join any AcroYoga related event we can! They recently moved to Montreal and cannot wait to meet the community.