Gerry Chambers has been a qualified Iyengar yoga teacher since 1980. Gerry is from Scotland and became interested in yoga in his mid 20’s when he lived in Canada. Following a period at a Roman Catholic seminary where he was training to be a priest, he went on to study at Edinburgh University. At York University in Toronto he completed a postgraduate degree with a thesis on Zen. Gerry moved to Bristol from London in 1999 to set up Yogawest with his partner Lynda. He travels to India regularly to learn from the Iyengar family.
Lynda Purvis has been a qualified Iyengar yoga teacher since 1990. Lynda is from New Zealand where she began yoga in the 80’s. She arrived in the UK after a few years travelling in Asia and started yoga classes in London where she trained as a teacher. Since then she has been to India to attend various intensive courses with the Iyengar family and also to attend general classes.

Tamara has been studying at Yogawest for more than 5 years. She has recently completed a two year Introductory Level Teacher Training Course with Gerry and Lynda and passed in October 2005. Tamara lives on the edge of the Cotswolds and loves the outdoor life. She is mother to three girls and when she is not teaching yoga she is a Project Manager for a small company in Bristol as well as managing a beautiful Victorian flower garden and organic vegetable plot.

Frances Brooke has been a student of Iyengar Yoga for about twenty years. She was first taught by Richard Agar Ward but has been a student of Gerry and Lynda since they moved to Bristol from London. She recently trained to be a teacher at Yogawest and qualified in 2005.
Frances is a specialist teacher for children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder and works in mainstream primary and secondary schools in Bristol. She holds a valid First Aid at work certificate. She is married to Yusuf Ahmad and has two school age children, Aliya and Leila. In her spare time Frances enjoys pottering around in the garden, long walks and playing with her children.

Originally from the Czech Republic, Jacob has lived in Bristol for more than 10 years. He has been practising Iyengar yoga at Yogawest for over 6 years. Last year he qualified as an introductory level teacher and teaches a regular beginners class at the Centre. Jacob has also trained with Iyengar teachers in India, including a stay at BKS Iyengar’s Institute in Pune. He works as a child care worker with Bristol City Council. Jacob enjoys archery (vegetarian), riding on a motorcycle somewhere out of town, camping and studying yoga texts.

Annette is from Germany and began Yoga in the 1980. She came to England in 1994 to follow her husband Ingolfur who had taken on a job in Leicester. In 1995, after they had moved to Bristol, Annette discovered the Iyengar Yoga Centre, since 1999 Yogawest, and has been a student there since then. She trained with Gerry and Lynda for her Introductory Teaching Certificate (2005) and obtained an Intermediate Junior Certificate (Level 1) in 2008; she is continuing with her training. Annette is a qualified German and Classics teacher, she wrote a PHD-thesis on German lyrics, and teaches German at the University of Bath. Annette has no kids but two very talkative budgies. She likes music, walking, cycling, reading and knitting socks.

Tara has been training in the Iyengar method since 2001 and qualified as a teacher in 2006. She most recently passed her Intermediate Junior 1 assessment and has also taken time to travel to India to train with some of Iyengar’s senior students. She lives and works in Bristol teaching 6 – 7 yoga classes a week, including a childrens class, as well as helping to run a beautiful day spa in the heart of Bristol. Her background is in the performance arts and up until 2008 Tara also worked in theatre, having helped set up her own cooperative theatre company in 2002. Now she focuses her time on her yoga practice and other methods of self discovery, including meditation, dance, voice and breathwork.

Janet has been practising Iyengar yoga for more than thirty years and teaching for the last 10 years. Like all the other teachers at Yogawest she has visited the Iyengar Yoga Institute in Pune where she took classes with Geeta Iyengar. She is also a maths lecturer, teaching mainly adult returners at a local college. She has two (almost) grown up children, two old cats and one very old VW campervan. In her spare time she likes walking, cycling and camping on remote beaches.