About Our Teachers

Carolyn Conner, RYT is an intuitive woman who brings insight, compassion and levity to her yoga classes, bodywork sessions and to life. Since 1996, the core of her learning and teaching has evolved through practice, self-study, and grace. In 2005, she completed a 300-hour Anusara Yoga Teacher Training with Todd Norian, and has stepped wholeheartedly into the practice and study of Anusara Yoga. Carolyn is an Advanced Certified Thai Yoga Bodywork practitioner; she holds certification in Reiki. She is available for private consultations and specializes in creating programs for those with medical concerns, injury rehabilitation, and structural issues. Out of the studio, she dances the Tango with her beloved, Jared and savors the outdoors, whether swimming, hiking or strolling with Phoebe.

Rebeccah Jean Brinton, student of yoga, brings creativity and joy to her classes at Copper Crane. In her teaching, Rebeccah draws primarily from the Iyengar and Ashtanga traditions, formulating a unique Vinyasa practice that encourages the student to open to the full experience. Each asana is approached as an exploration of body, mind and emotion, with emphasis on proper alignment and the expression of one's individual self. Rebeccah's classes both challenge and inspire the student within a safe and mindful environment. Rebeccah is certified at the 200-hour level and continues her study of yoga, eclectically drawing from many different styles and teachers. In her own practice, both on and off the mat, Rebeccah cultivates a deep sense of gratitude, fully embracing life and the ability to share her joy with others.

Christina Caniyo: I started practicing yoga seven years ago after being injured in a small accident. Through my practice, I watched my mind and body transform. I wanted to enrich my knowledge and experience with yoga further by teaching. In November 2007 I completed my 200-hour teacher training at Shoshoni's Shambhava Yoga Center in Kona, Hawaii. Bringing a spiritual and playful element to my practice, I focus on bringing our awareness in and opening the heart with each asana. Recognizing the divine self in all of us and surrendering to that divinity. I like to bring love and joy to each class.

Janet Chill is a certified Kripalu Yoga teacher.   She has a strong background in the fitness industry with 20 years experience and has been practicing yoga for over 10 years.   Janet has been teaching yoga classes for the past three years in Lincoln, Bristol and Middlebury. She has lived in Lincoln for 21 years and enjoys exploring the woods with her husband and chocolate lab, cycling all over the world, painting, knitting, gardening and cooking vegetarian meals.

Deborah Felmeth. I have been practicing yoga since the 70's but it wasn't until moving to the Middle East in 1991 that the practice became ESSENTIAL to my life, my well being, my ability to balance in challenging situations. My first training had been with Satchidananda. Then in 1996 I did my first teacher training with Don & Amba Stapleton. Subsequently I trained with Donna Farhi. I also enjoy bringing my anatomy & kinesiology training and Qi Gong experience into yoga class. I now teach 6 months each year in Vermont and 6 months each year in Damascus, Syria and am happy to say that the practice there is reaching many people. I look forward to teaching at Copper Crane and sharing my experience.

Christopher Kiely, is an 18-year student of the internationally known Tai Ji teacher, Master Tung Kai-Ying, and hails from Bristol, VT where he founded both Cloud Hands Oriental Medicine and Green Mountain Tai Ji Quan 6 years ago.

Joan White-Hansen a certified Kripalu DansKinetics teacher, brings her love of movement, music and creating sacred space to her yoga dance classes. A longtime student of both yoga and dance, Joan approaches movement as a personal journey, inviting the elements of curiosity and discovery in the body, while creating a sense of safety in a communal setting. Her core interest is in encouraging the body’s own inherent wisdom to release the inner fire and noticing the moment when movement becomes mediation in motion. As an artist, teacher, storyteller, singer and dancer, Joan inspires her students to engage in a creative process within the body and with each other. Her love of skiing, biking and hiking in nature, as well as her family and living at Ten Stones Community in Charlotte, feed her desire of moving with grace in life.

Kelly Hickey.I have been a student of Hatha yoga since 1995. I am inspired by the many styles of yoga and find myself on what I believe to be a life long path of inquiry and reflection. I have completed the Anusara Immersion series with gifted instructors Sara Rose and Deb Neubauer and currently find great strength in the instruction of Carolyn Conner and Dawn Decker. Since 2004 I have enjoyed teaching both adults and children within the Addison County Community. I am humbled by the trust I put in yoga and the unions it consistently reveals. With my husband Miguel and our four children we enjoy traveling and coming home to Weybridge, VT.

John McConnell. John grew up in the True West of Wyoming, and certainly would have never imagined as a kid that someday he'd be a yoga teacher! Happily, whatever stars that needed to line up did for yoga to be part of his life. John loves the Anusara practice, and the fun and joy that practicing yoga brings, along with the instant bliss and transformation that's possible from the first inhale at the front of the mat. His intention is that through his teaching, that same open-hearted blissfulness can be passed along to his students. John is an expedition and 'Greenland-style' paddler who has been on numerous trips to Newfoundland, Lake Superior, Lake Champlain and along the Atlantic Coast. John has been practicing yoga for more than 5 years, and is thrilled to share his passion for yoga.

Jane Michaud. In September 2005 I began my yoga teacher training at Kripalu in Lenox, MA after starting my practice with a group of friends in my home in 1997. What a journey I was venturing forth on. To follow my heart and do something I’d been longing to do – to set out on that next phase of the path. Fast forward 2 years. I have been living my dream. For the past 2 years I have been teaching a variety of students. I began by bringing yoga to the women at the Dale Correctional Center in Waterbury as a volunteer. This remains an important part of my yoga experience. I also teach a seniors class, a gentle yoga class at a health club, at a Burlington retirement home, two privates at Wake Robin, and three friends in my home. This fall I will add to my teaching experience a Kripalu class at Copper Crane. I feel so blessed to be embraced by my local teachers. They have been an incredible inspiration. Many thanks go to Carolyn Conner, Kathy McNames, Emily Garrett, Sofi Dillof, and Piper Petrie. Their wisdom and generous spirit has been a beacon of light.

Sansea Sparling. Sansea was trained formally in Kripalu Yoga by Don and Amba Stapleton, Nosara Yoga Institute, after many years of practice with Deborah Felmeth. In this path of Self-Authenticating yoga, she employs color and nature images, especially as they relate to the Chakras. Using breath awareness and profound respect for the wonders of human anatomy, her class allows each participant to choose modifications and vary the degree of intensity.

Jane Taylor. 10 years ago I had a welding shop in the basement of the Chace Mill; Kathy McNames had a yoga shop upstairs, called Yoga Vermont. We met walking our dogs in the parking lot. She invited me up to practice time and again, but I refused out of fear. But things change and I have been loving yoga for 7 years now. What began as a whim in a basement has moved up to the living room and blossomed into a way of life. And now I’m on the quest for the perfect, open-hearted backbend.

Yoga informs all of my decisions now, I try to make my life off the mat as divine as possible. I am on the Anusara yoga path and have studied Anusara with Carolyn Conner, John Friend, Todd Norian, Ann Greene, Mitchel Bleier, Deb Neubauer, Robin Golt,  Desiree Rumbaugh, and Sara Rose.

The thing I love about Anusara is love: love your friends, love your teachers, love your world, love yourself, love the divine that resides in you as you. My teaching goal is to instill this bliss in others. My favorite word is Shakti. My favorite color is red. I love kayaking, my husband John, my son Emmett, and my dog Tommy. I want to be Darren Rhodes when I grow up (except, not a guy).

Copper Crane Yoga is a studio in Vermont's oldest city, Vergennes. All of the Copper Crane teachers appreciate the opportunity to bring their passion for Yoga to this community.