about us

Our Vision

The Practice Place was created as a space in Vancouver for you to develop and grow through the practice of Ashtanga Yoga.  Our vision is to provide a warm and friendly place for your yoga to start to really matter to you, to really mean something beyond words or postures.  Yoga should serve your life in the everyday world, and it is our aim to help facilitate the stages of awakening in your yoga. As caretakers of a space where you can fully trust and relax, we would like you to leave feeling refreshed and with a deeper feeling of centre.

We are not about what postures you can do what clothes you wear (though clothes are nice and advanced asanas can be fun).   All are welcome.  We offer to share the benefits that yoga has given us in all aspects of our life.

Adam Keen

Adam has had a daily Ashtanga practice for over 10 years and is one of only a few Ashtanga practitioners anywhere to have completed the third series of postures while studying with KPJAYI Certified teachers.

He started yoga at university wanting to do something “kinda physical yet spiritual”,  his first choice was actually Tai Chi, but it clashed with his schedule.  That said, after his first yoga class, even though it was gentle Hatha yoga, he immediately felt that this was the thing that had been missing from his life.  Soon afterwards Adam began Iyengar Yoga and, with its focus on alignment, it still informs his teaching today.

It was, however, when Adam discovered the system of Ashtanga Vinyasa, that  he knew he had found ‘his’ yoga.   He has had the extreme fortune to study in Mysore, India with both the late Sri K. Pattabhi Jois 'Guruji' and his grandson, Sharath Rangaswamy and it is Adam’s wish to pay his respects and study at their institute (www.KPJAYI.org) on a yearly basis.

During his time as Manager at Purple Valley Yoga Retreat in Goa, India, Adam was fortunate to learn from world renowned Ashtanga teachers including Tim Miller, Rolf and Marcy Naujokat, Chuck Miller and Maty Ezraty.  He also counts as important inspirations for his teaching John Scott with whom he participated in his first teacher training and Richard Freeman – an essential must-see for everybody serious about yoga in general.

Much thanks and love are given to Mark Freeth, Adam's first Ashtanga teacher, and Radha Warrel and Pierre Seghir of “YogaPlus” in Crete, formerly known as “The Practice Place” where Adam worked for two seasons as the cook.  They have, perhaps, most influenced the attitude and feeling with which he teaches and the studio is dedicated, in name, to them.

Adam has taught many students over the past six years in London, Europe and Canada and is known for his sense of humour and compassionate teaching style.  He now feels that he has enough knowledge, and more importantly experience, to share and establish his own studio with Theresa here in Vancouver.

Theresa Appleby

Theresa discovered Ashtanga yoga in 1999, while living in London, England. Right from the start she was hooked and soon found a teacher, Gingi Lee.

Following on from a couple of fortuitous meetings at yoga retreats, Theresa became Director of the Purple Valley Yoga Retreat in Goa, India from 2005 to 2008.

During her time at Purple Valley, Theresa solidified the Ashtanga program and had the opportunity to host and learn from the world’s most renowned teachers, including Sharath Rangaswamy (Director of the KPJAYI in Mysore), Chuck Miller & Maty Ezraty, Nancy Gilgoff, David Swenson, Tim Miller, Mark and Joanne Darby, Rolf & Marci Naujokat, Kino MacGregor & Tim Feldmann, Petri Raisanen and more.

More importantly, it was at Purple Valley that Theresa met Adam, who now, as her life partner, is her daily living inspiration for the practice and lifestyle and for whom she is eternally grateful.

For the past 5 years Theresa has had daily Ashtanga practice and is working her way into the second series of postures.  She is thankful everyday for the changes that the practice has brought to her life, on a physical, emotional, spiritual and community level.

Theresa and Adam have relocated to her native Canada to set up a home and yoga studio in Vancouver and share their experiences and knowledge with the local community here.