Rodney Yee

Rodney first discovered yoga in 1978 while dancing with the Oakland Ballet. As a professional dancer who was also studying physical therapy at the University of California at Davis, he had long been on a quest to improve his body’s flexibility. Rodney remembers struggling to overcome his body’s rigidity as early as 10 years old, when he was taking gymnastics. Although dancing benefited him, Rodney’s search continued until he and a fellow dancer decided to try yoga.

"When I took my first class, it was an enormous physical and emotional relief," Rodney recalls. He had finally found the key to flexibility " ... and more. "Of all the physical disciplines, yoga changed my body the fastest. It also cleanses me emotionally and mentally. Each time I practice I feel as if I'm waking with a clean slate out of a deep sleep."

Rodney left the Oakland Ballet in 1981 and spent two years in Japan dancing with the Matsuyama Ballet Company of Tokyo. He continued taking yoga classes in Japan, and by the time he returned to the U.S. in 1983, Rodney was committed to sharing his knowledge. He began teaching at The Yoga Room in Berkeley, where his classes doubled and tripled in size during the two years he taught there.

In 1987, Rodney, with two partners, opened his own teaching center, Piedmont Yoga Studio in Oakland, California. Over the years, class enrollment soared; and in 1993, Rodney inaugurated a teacher training class, which culminated in the Advanced Studies Program, a one-year program that has trained hundreds of yoga teachers.

With the growing popularity of yoga and widespread demand for his teaching services, Rodney began exploring the medium of home video as a means of bringing the benefits of yoga to a larger audience. In 1993.

Rodney has studied yoga in India with B.K.S. Iyengar, thought to be the father of one of the most popular forms of yoga, and he studied philosophy at the University of California at Berkeley.