Rosetta Magdalen is a life-long dancer, and, for the past seven years, a full-time teacher and performer of flamenco dance. Her Flamenco Chicago studio is the premier location for flamenco dance classes in Chicago offering many levels of classes and several student performance opportunities each year.

Rosetta has practiced hatha yoga, at varying levels of commitment, since childhood, when she discovered the yoga program "Lilias, Yoga and You" on PBS. Over the years, she explored Sivananda, Iyengar, and Bikram styles of yoga. Each one appealed to her in a different way during a specific time of her life. As her work as a flamenco dance teacher expanded, Rosetta found yoga to be an essential complement to coping well with the stresses of life in the arts and healing her body from the physical demands of flamenco. Since that time, yoga has become even more to her: a system of knowledge that provides guidance and illumination in every area of life.

Some of the teachers who have influenced Rosetta's work are Global Yoga director Rhonda Kantor, who continually grounds teachers in being humble and mindful of the physical limitations of sedentary adults; wonderful Anusara-style yoga teacher Rita Knorr; and Paul and Suzee Grilley, with whom Rosetta recently completed Yin Yoga teacher training.

Spiritual influences are guru Mata Amritanandamayi and spiritual teacher Ram Dass, as well as the writings of TKV Desikachar and Gary Kraftsow (viniyoga therapy).

Rosetta is registered with Yoga Alliance at the RYT-200 level. Her unique classes are small in size (never more than six students per class) and are taught in prepaid sessions, often focusing on a specific theme, such as balancing poses, hip openers, and twisting poses. This format allows students to work consistently on a specific area within their yoga practice, and allows Rosetta to come to know each student individually. She also teaches one-on-one private yoga sessions, creating individual home practice plans for each student.

Here's Rosetta's blog.

And, if you think you might like a little 1970s soul with your sun salutations,

"So what do I do? I do my best, but I give up the fruit of the action. If I don't know what's supposed to happen, it's probably better if I don't get too attached to one particular outcome. I listen to hear what my next step should be. I do my acts in the best way I can. And how it comes out . . . well, that's just how it comes out. Interesting, nothing more. It's a matter of letting go of expectations." -- Ram Dass, Paths to God