Your Team
What we look for in our teachers hasn’t changed in over a decade: authentic, passionate, and open-minded people who believe in the transformational power of movement and desire to share their offering with a wider audience. Our teachers are creative, inspiring, and bring a unique approach to their discipline of movement. We are deeply committed to working with our teachers to develop programs that are true to their personality and vision while fulfilling the signature NM brand. At this time, program pitches are received by invitation only.
The way we operate as a team, as individuals, and as a brand is something we hold to a high standard. We bring a can-do attitude and a humble confidence to every project we take on. Every member of our team has a passion for the mission; a drive to help people embrace movement in their daily lives and live healthier and happier. We bring unique gifts, a diverse range of experience, hard work, and a love for people to everything we create. And it’s our hope that this spills into the products we make and the stories we share, as well as our office and daily lives. Learn more about the team who works to bring NM into your life.
KatePotter
Kate is passionate about all forms of movement, but Yoga is the form that she has spent her life exploring in depth. Having studied with luminary teachers in India, Canada, and the United States, her rich understanding has become its own powerful voice in her decades of international teaching. Kate choreographs phrases of yoga poses that embody the grace of the natural world, while emphasizing breath as the key to moving with clarity. Kate views each practice as a journey for all ages and levels of understanding. She wants her students to find grace within their limitations and sees yoga and movement as a creative expression and physical therapy. She aims to create an active calm through movement, breath, and attention to detail.
DomTermansen
Dom is a professional football player with the Montreal Alouettes and a lifelong elite athlete and mover. Proudly hailing from North Vancouver, Canada, he believes in multi-sport participation and grew up playing lacrosse, basketball, and football. Dom is passionate about promoting a lifestyle rooted in health and fitness that extends to an enhanced performance in all areas of life. He has worked in personal training and as a teacher for several fitness studios, teaching the foundations for HIIT with a twist of fundamental movement skills, footwork, and high-intensity plyometrics. His work with the non-profit Launch Academy aims to fuel a sports community in British Columbia that is inclusive, empowering, and creative, working with young students and fellow elite athletes. Dom represents a new generation of athletes who strive to be role models for the community and look to excel in all areas of their lives. Beyond football, Dom finds satisfaction and drive when playing basketball, in slowing down to stretch out his mind and body, and in just moving to music.
FarinazLari
Farinaz is a dedicated athlete, motivational coach, and influential leader. Her competitive spirit and tireless passion became the foundation for a lifelong kickboxing career, fueling her to become the first Iranian and Canadian woman to win the WAKO world kickboxing championship, teach kickboxing internationally, and become a BCRPA Personal Trainer. From her first class at the age of 18 she set her sights on greatness, and has pushed boundaries in every aspect of her personal performance and professional aspirations. With an elite national K-1 title under her belt and current division ranking of 5th in the world, Farinaz continues to channel her love for movement and teaching into leading and training at District Warrior, the Muay Thai studio she co-founded with her husband, Ali Khanjari. She challenges herself mentally and physically with running, hiking, yoga, public speaking, running a business, and staying engaged in her community. Beyond personal goals and excellence in kickboxing, Farinaz leads the charge as a motivational speaker and mentor for women in sport, embracing a strong yet humble voice and inspirational movement journey to empower every individual to start where they are and discover their inner champion.
KeightyGallagher
Keighty is an influential mover, teacher, and leader in every community she sets her mind on, driven by her love for making movement happen, however it looks. Her movement journey is diverse, much like her creative expressions: Weight-lifting, HIIT, TRX, metabolic conditioning, track & field. An accomplished hepthathlete, Keighty is a former captain of Canada’s Junior National Athletics Team and NCAA Div. 1 track and field athlete. She is the founder and Head Coach of Tight Club Athletics, a community fitness club for everyone: from former athletes looking to get their kicks back to those who’ve never seen themselves as an athlete, and everyone else who’s just looking for room to be themselves. The list goes on, but excellence alone isn’t Keighty’s fuel for exercise. For her, movement is about self-expression, about connecting to a grander whole, about creating positive experiences, and about moving for yourself in season. Now, she is constantly exploring new programs and teaching diligently with Tight Club Athletics as her home base. Her motto? Move like how you should, stay curious, and be kind.
AdrianGaskin
Adrian Gaskin is an avid learner and teacher, striving for both excellence and simplicity in his movement practice. For him, movement is a constant search for improvement and rediscovery of the basics; finding how the body is meant to move. Adrian grew up in New Zealand, climbing trees, biking in his neighborhood, and playing basketball. Driven by a desire to travel, explore, and work with people, he first considered personal training as a way to combine these strengths in a practical and meaningful way. Adrian has pursued countless modalities of training internationally, received numerous accreditations in personal training, and currently teaches as an elite Tier 3+ Coach and Master Instructor with the Equinox Group. He is committed to ongoing education, practicing Animal Flow, Triggerpoint Therapy, Anatomy Trains for Movement Specialists, Kettlebell Athletics One, Progressive Bodyweight Training, and Pre & Post Natal Performance. In learning, practicing, and teaching, Adrian continues to not only seek out new ways to understand the body and its natural design, but to achieve the best way to move from there. Adrian moves to optimize human condition and function, to share his wealth of knowledge with others to improve quality of life, and to snowboard as much as possible.
RobCouzens
Rob is a Vancouver native and competitive boxer with more than 15 years of experience in the ring and over 120 fights under his belt. Since attending his first boxing class at age 12, Rob developed a lifelong love for the sport and has competed at both national and international events. A member of Team Canada, Rob is a four-time Gold Canadian Championship Champion, seven-time Provincial champion, and four-time Golden Gloves Champion among other notable tournaments. Aside from continually progressing in his personal skill and performance, his long term goals focus on coaching the next generation of boxers. He believes everybody can benefit from the discipline of the “sweet science” of boxing that transformed his own life. Rob makes this commitment to community evident through the time he spends supporting local youth and in his work with the Vancouver homeless population. Outside the ring, Rob uses movement to stay creative, find longevity and ease in all aspects of his lifestyle, and enjoy the things he loves: an avid sewing hobby, garage barbering, taking photographs, yoga, skipping, and of course, boxing.
SlavaGoloubov
Slava is dedicated to the exploration of the body. He has travelled the world exploring various disciplines of movement including: gymnastics, acroyoga, circus acrobatics, thai massage, Tai Chi, Wing Chun, yoga, and dance. He connects his studies in movement with a practice of stillness, Vipassana meditation, as he believes we cannot separate our physical state from our mental state. Slava is always willing and excited to be a beginner as he approaches all new movement disciplines with a sense of consistency and curiosity. His most recent movement studies include Capoeira and ballet. As a mover, he balances the concepts of fluidity and strength to create a sense of grace and ease that is both artistic and functional. As a teacher, he guides his students to understand their bodies through educated exploration and body integration, emphasizing the importance of movement in aging gracefully.
CamLee
Cam is an established yoga teacher and multidisciplinary trainer. She found her love of yoga after a rock climbing accident that forced her to shift her perspective on movement and health. Her curiosity and passion for teaching movement has led her to study a wide variety of practices, including rock-climbing, yoga, pilates, gymnastics, circus performance, cross-fit, boxing, and high-intensity-interval-training. Cam is known for being able to balance on her hands almost as well as her feet. When teaching, she loves finding creative ways to help students push their boundaries and loosen those tight, hard to reach areas of the body. Cam is a well-rounded trainer who likes to find new challenges for herself and sees no end to how movement can be incorporated into one’s life.
EricaBlitz
Erica believes in the power to move and be moved. A Canadian-born resident of California, Erica has studied and practiced yoga since 1996. She has taught classes, workshops, and teacher trainings around the world, including China, Nicaragua, and Dubai. She weaves a balance of intensity and grace into rhythmic, mindful movements. Together with a focus on alignment and breath awareness, she offers an inspiring moving meditation that is playful, challenging (yet accessible) and centering. Aspiring to Gandhi’s words of “Be the change you wish to see…”, Erica uses yoga as a tool to guide her students and her clients to become aware of the relationship between thoughts, actions, and experience.
AmandaJuneGiannakos
Amanda has a long history with sports and movement. As a young girl, she practiced gymnastics and figure skating before moving on to a career as an elite junior tennis player where she first developed a foundation in conditioned training. Amanda compliments that dynamic training with over 15 years of practice and 10 years experience as a yoga teacher with a strong focus on restorative yoga. She teaches people how to access movement from where they are now and at whatever stage they are in their life. Amanda will empower you to create a personalized daily movement practice even if you only have ten minutes. She believes that when we move our bodies, we move our lives forward, opening ourselves up to new opportunities for self-expression, connection, and lifelong health. Her classes balance effort with ease, making time for both high-level athletic training and a quality of rest in practice.
AmandaJuneGiannakos
Managing Director
With a strong background in law, marketing, and production, Amanda is uniquely suited to both the business and creative aspects of her role, and has been leading the brand and teaching with NM for over 10 years. On any given day, you’ll find her working behind the scenes with a camera in hand, supporting and developing ideas with her team as Creative and Managing Director, and finding new ways to move through every step of the process.
How does Amanda move?
Amanda lives in movement, whether or on a shoot with the team, while her coffee brews, getting groceries, or walking around the city. She is constantly learning new movements while developing and testing Strong by NM programs, moving through her pregnancy, and coming back to restorative yoga practices. You’ll also find Amanda moving in the Movement Foundations, Yoga Foundations, and Namaste Yoga classes!
GabrielaSchonbach
Executive Producer
Gabriela is a Partner and Executive Producer at Omnifilm Entertainment, where she oversees factual development and production, and co-manages drama and distribution. Gabriela is also Executive Producer for NM and is the biggest champion of the brand, sharing the benefits movement brings to life, both in the physiological and emotional aspects everywhere she goes.
How does Gab move?
When she’s not out riding horses, you can often find Gabriela working out with her personal trainer to continually challenge her body and mind in a multitude of ways. You can also sometimes catch her featured in Amanda’s move while the coffee brews Instagram Stories.
JoyQuillinan
Producer
As a producer and advocate for the brand, Joy is always spreading the message of NM. Her focus is on creating meaningful content which works on multi-platform levels. She has a great eye for finding talented movers and artists to collaborate with and is always down to meet with creatives for coffee or at the Gastown office. Her background in law, with over 12 years of experience in the legal world, serves in working with a creative team to deliver high-quality content that truly represents NM.
How does Joy move?
On evenings, you can find Joy swimming laps in the Pacific Ocean. She also spends time taking dance classes. She is an avid mover, taking to the beach to practice movement and yoga at her own pace. She also bikes year-round; rain, shine, snow, and (despite our concerns) wind storms.
JanaNixonGiannakos
Marketing Director
Jana brings an understanding for the core principles of marketing combined with a flare for style to her role as the Marketing Director. She loves seeing a campaign come to life and community first is her mantra. Jana is always finding ways to make our community inclusive and engaging. She works to bring the vision of NM to life through visual and written communication across all platforms — with the hope to get more people living in movement.
How does Jana move?
Jana, a former elite wrestler, loves a good cardio workout. Whether it’s a long distance run in the evening or hitting the stairs – you’ll find her blasting music along the way. You’ll also find her practicing intentional moves from one of Adrian’s classes or just getting sweaty with Keighty’s Strength Foundations program.
BrendenMersey
Website Developer
Brenden builds beautiful websites. He has a great understanding and appreciation of both the complications and intricacies of building something out of nothing. Brenden took on the challenge of developing the NM website, and we think he did a pretty wonderful job.
How does Brenden move?
Brenden enjoys circuit training, spring skiing and long walks down the gluten free section of Whole Foods.
ChantalMacCuaig
Creative Communications Lead
Chantal works on branding, copywriting, and graphic design, among other things. Her role is rooted in marketing and publicity and she recently helped to create and define the NM brand identity. Chantal loves a good colour palette.
How does Chantal move?
Chantal primarily moves outdoors –– walking around the city listening to a favourite album or podcast, biking in the warmer months, hiking forest trails, and swimming in lakes. When it comes to fitness classes, she practices from home. Her go-to practices are Keighty’s Strength Foundations and morning yoga.
JohannaAlderliesten
Production Coordinator
Johanna moves within the NM team to support in various ways in production, communications, and marketing. She works closely with the Managing Director to coordinate systems and company operations, building relationships in and outside the office and picking up new skills on every set.
How does Johanna move?
Joh loves a good stretch or rolling session, playing volleyball, and other random sports such as bowling and table tennis. She enjoys walking anywhere with a good view and a good playlist.
KinLo
Website and Print Designer
Having both a design and computer science background, Kin has specialized himself into a designer / coder hybrid. He loves creating pixel-perfect, minimal designs that are impactful and have purpose. Kin has played a vital role in the evolution of the NM brand, designing print collateral and spearheading the website redesign.
How does Kin move?
Kin’s preferred form of exercise is any activity that goes downhill. You can find him mountain biking in the warmer months and snowboarding the rest of the year.
JoshRichardson
Editor
Josh collaborates with the NM team to create the ideal visual style for videos and portraying movement in a cinematic way. He then seamlessly cuts the footage together to make the images flow in a beautiful cohesive whole. His passion for film and his work as a music video director and producer contribute to the unique style of the NM videos.
How does Josh move?
Josh has a love for sports, including volleyball, basketball, tennis and running and is excited to work in the active NM environment and to bring more movement into his life on set.
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