The urge to create is universal. In my yoga practice, I have been drawing from this mysterious well for more than thirty years and as an actor, since the tender age of five. When I started teaching yoga, I spent hours ‘preparing’ my classes, but as the years went by, I learned to trust my deepest creative instinct and these days, the classes take themselves. Most flow effortlessly. Others (particularly children’s dance classes during high winds) can be as challenging as extracting teeth, but all provide me – and the students I teach – with limitless wonder and surprises.

Elanor was one of Alison’s first and most talented teenagers. She started classes at Kumbada at the age of eight and returned to dance in the adult classes a few years ago after a career in teaching and three children of her own. Elanor has recently completed the Mangala teacher training and has taken over teaching the younger children at Kumbada since 2018. Elanor is regularly assisted by her talented sister, singer Alice Woodberry.