Our Instructors
Antonette Bailey
Antonette is an educator with nineteen years of experience and a deep commitment to lifelong learning. Her interest in emotional, physical, and psycho-spiritual well-being led her to study meditation and yoga.
She completed her 200-hour certification in 2014 and has continued her training in helping students find calm, clarity, and connection on and off the mat.
Edwin Henriquez
Life is a practice (literally) and life whispers and nudges. Through stillness, we can attune to the whispers. After realizing the depth of an asana practice and discipline, he took his practice and made it his lifestyle. With this new found clarity and strength, Edwin feels called to keep learning and give back in so many ways.
With over a decade of consistent practice, he also completed a 200-hour certification in Vinyasa, a 100-hour certification in sound healing and too many workshops to list.
He continues to practice through his crafts, his words, his cooking, his bicycle riding, etc. It is all to share and to keep on giving.
Grace MacDonald
Certified 300-hr yoga teacher with a strong foundation in 26&2. She’s passionate about helping students connect to themselves through their yoga practice. Her goal is to create a grounded, supportive space where people fee comfortable showing up as they are while also being gently challenged to grow.
Grace completed an immersive full-time 26&2 training including posture clinics, dialogue delivery, yoga anatomy and daily practice in March 2026. She has been regularly practicing 26&2, yin, vinyasa and ashtanga at Long Beach Yoga in Long Beach, New York since 2023.
Grace is looking forward to gaining teaching experience and growing as a teacher.
A few years ago, a student came up to Heatherly after class and asked if she could pose a personal question.
"You teach X number of classes a week, right? And each time, you also take class, right?" Heatherly answered yes, totally unprepared for what she was about to say.
"So if you’re working that hard, shouldn’t you be skinny?"
"Excuse me?"
"As a yoga instructor, shouldn’t you be a better example to your students?"
“Actually, I like to eat and don’t feel like I have to deprive myself of anything. I eat what I want."
"What? Do you like, set an alarm to eat cheeseburgers?"
Heatherly: “People tend to assume that yoga teachers are skinny and vegan, [but] some of them like to have curves and enjoy all the great food and desserts that life has to offer.”
Our favorite drill sergeant is not just a yoga instructor, flight attendant, marathoner, former Hooters girl, and foodie, but she’s also a loving mama and partner, a loyal friend through and through.
Heatherly Maltezo
Kammy started her first yoga class in her late twenties having never enjoyed any movement prior to yoga practice. Her first class was sweaty and challenging. She discovered for the first time that sweating is joyful, but that was just the beginning of her yoga journey. With yoga, she was able to let go of her asthma inhaler and this led her into a new lifestyle.
Kammy attended her first Bikram Teacher Training in 2012 to strengthen her own practice. This opportunity led her to ask "What is yoga?". She sought out the answers from some inspiring teachers such as Paul Grilley, Tom Myers, and Esak to name a few. The on-going studies with Paul Grilley and Esak Garcia helped her to learn and explore new information from science-based study.
Her teaching style is integrated with TCM, Anatomy Train, and Fascia theory with yoga asanas. Kammy is the founder of "Body Talk," which incorporates the Anatomy Train model and fascia theory with Bikram's 26 postures and 2 breathing exercises. This method is to find one's own body alignment using the resistance bands.
Kammy’s goal as a teacher is to empower all people by teaching them anatomy in easy to understand terms and the importance of taking care of themselves at home. Every student can (and should) find a practice that works for their own body, their own alignment and develop their own yoga. Kammy is more than happy to assist and witness the change of body and mind through practice yoga and lead a more fulfilling life.
Food, travel & photography are her passion. When she’s not on her mat or the book, she’s either cooking or searching for yummy food.
Kammy Fung
With 18 years of martial arts under his belt, Marcelo never thought yoga was that one thing that he had been looking for all along. He first encountered Bikram yoga in 2000 when he was living in NY and immediately fell in love. So in love, that he went 100 days straight after his 1st class. “Yoga completes me. It’s more than physical. It makes me happy.”
To improve his practice and his own self-growth, Marcelo took his Bikram Teacher Training in Hawaii in 2007. He lived a simple life in Bali close to the beach with his dogs for over a decade. He still teaches around the world, but these days, he calls NY his home.
Marcelo Alexander
Maria Cuoco
Since going to Bikram training in 2010, Maria has learned to navigate teaching this practice. For her, it has been a long journey and not an easy one.
Maria came to Bikram after looking for a practice that she could use to calm anxiety and panic. This practice, along with acupuncture saved her.
As you grow in your practice, you find other practices that complement it. In 2017, she went to Vinyasa training.
But Maria always comes back to Bikram to center herself and realign her body.
Maria’s wish is that others find this practice and find themselves along the way.
Nicole Varrone
Designer and dreamer, founder of Buddhas of Suburbia, Forever Student
500+ RYT hours, Hatha and Vinyasa Style, Restorative Yoga, Pilates and Thai body work practices based in the ANYA Method. You can learn more about the ANYA Method here.
AntiGravity Fitness ; Fundamentals, Restorative, AG Pilates, Aerial Yoga, &Suspension Fitness.
8 years as a line cook, 4 years studying Ayurvedic practices, holistic wellness, and a lifetime of exploring Nature’s ability to provide.
10 years studying Permaculture, Horticulture, Ecotourism, Hospitality Management & Culinary Arts have helped her cultivate a sense of support and unity around food and fitness.
Olive Timothee
Olive fell in love with Hot Yoga when she was 16 years old and never turned back. Fresh out of high school, she pursued her 200-hour Vinyasa Yoga Teacher Training and began teaching in her community. She never looked back, continuing on to specialize in Hot Yoga.
Olive is a true advocate of how Hot Yoga can transform not just your body, but also the mind and spirit. Olive stresses that we are not only training our bodies, but that we are also training ourselves to be better humans! What we learn on our mat translates to every area of our lives.
IT IS NOT THAT YOGA MAKES LIFE BETTER, BUT THAT YOGA MAKES YOU BETTER AT LIFE!
Olive is constantly reminding students of the strength and resilience that is within them, whether they have discovered it or not. She will teach you heart first while supporting your wellness journey.
Ruby Rodriguez
Ruby always found solace in her frequent practice of yoga, however, it was not until she was introduced to a hot practice in 2008 that her capacity for fulfillment, determination, and compassion were ignited. She found her practice transformed by the heat into a holistic experience that garnered for her not only great physical gains, but a multitude of other health benefits. So great was the impact, that she has now turned her practice into a life journey of sharing the benefits of yoga with others through the art of teaching.
Ruby's passion for yoga is rooted in her conviction that the path to expanding her own practice is through sharing the gift of yoga with others. She believes that every student of yoga is his/her own best teacher; and through gentle guidance, hopes to awaken in her student their own potential for developing a concise and self-directed practice. She is currently a Barkan Method Hot Yoga Level I instructor, and is also Level II Barkan Method Hot Vinyasa certified.
Sammi Ahmed
Sammi’s yoga journey began right here at this studio in 2008, so coming back to teach in the same space where she first fell in love with the practice feels a little like coming full circle.
In 2022, she traveled to Bali to complete her 200-hour Hot Yoga Teacher Training, and continued her studies with two 150-hour e84 Intermediate Teacher Trainings in 2023 and 2024.
Outside the yoga room, Sammi is a bioethicist, educator, and global health professional. Yoga has been a constant through many chapters of her life, a place to grow, reconnect, be challenged, and keep learning.
As a teacher, she hopes to create that same space for her students: to show up as they are, challenge themselves, and maybe discover something new along the way.
Tomoko Vibulayacom
In Tomoko’s eyes, food is one of the most important parts of her life…and then she discovered yoga. Not just any yoga. Hot Yoga.
After practicing for over a decade, she recently discovered that she doesn’t have to give up what she loves as long as she maintains her balance. With food, work, relationships, life, herself, body and mind…everything is about balance. How does one achieve balance? By learning and practicing with the correct method. The key is to never stop learning and apply it to your everyday life. Practice with good actions. Tomoko thanks all of her teachers who have taught her to balance and she is still learning.
Although she doesn’t know much and is seen as carefree, she is serious in what she truly believes, which is to take good care of others including herself. She loves to share from her heart and cherishes the moments of transformation in her students.
Tomoko hopes for everyone to experience this thing called yoga so they can balance their body and mind.
Her message to her students:
Let’s do this! I will do my part, eating to my full potential and sharing with my full potential. So do your part! Let us balance together by learning from each other and teaching one another.
See you in the hot room!
Victoria Pappas
Victoria is a 300-hour certified hot yoga teacher, having completed her training in the Standard 26&2 method (also known as Bikram) at the Ivy Standard Yoga Institute in Salt Lake City in March 2026. With over 10 years of personal practice, yoga has been a consistent and grounding force in her life.
Victoria is especially drawn to the discipline and structure of the 26&2 practice—elements that have kept her returning to the mat time and time again. The consistency of the sequence has served as an anchor, offering both challenge and clarity, and shaping not only her physical practice but her mental resilience as well.
In addition to teaching yoga, Victoria is a mental health counselor, a role that deeply informs her approach in the studio. She values the profound connection between mind and body and is passionate about creating a space where students feel supported, present, and empowered. Through both her clinical background and her teaching, she aims to hold space with intention, helping students cultivate strength, awareness, and stability within themselves.
Victoria teaches with the hope of offering her students what yoga has given her: a steady foundation, a sense of discipline, and a space to return to—again and again.
Vivian Lee
Born in South Korea and moved to New York in 2007, Vivian was a track runner for 20 years and worked as a chef and food coordinator for a hotel.
As a result of spending long hours working on her feet, she developed severe knee and lower back pain including a herniated disc. Initially she thought yoga was only for people who were in shape, she was intimidated at first but was shortly surprised.
She was referred to a doctor to help manage knee pain and was introduced to Bikram yoga. She was immediately hooked with her first class noticing a ripple that changed not only her body, but also her mind and spirit overall.
Certified as a Bikram yoga teacher in 2008, Vivian loves teaching and sharing this great energy with all of her students. Yoga is not just a workout for the body, It is also connection made between the body and the mind. Bikram yoga becomes a lifestyle change that brings people one step closer to power of self healing.
Vivian is a mother of two and became certified to teach prenatal yoga in 2014. She has been practicing Yin since 2017 and is certified in Vinyasa and kids yoga.
Her passion for learning has lead her to explore the effects that sound and vibration have on the body and she is very active in her sound healing practice.