From Sharon the Professional Dancer to Chaya the Contemplative Healer

Born and raised in New York, Sharon studied dance at Brockport State University and then graduated from Queen’s College with a degree in Home Economics, specializing in dietetics and food science. After years of working in various unfulfilling jobs, she returned to her true passion: dance. As a tap dancer she flourished, she danced in Broadway shows and even traveled around the world. During this time, she was a tiny person living out of her huge bag in the city or wherever she found herself. Those around her did not understand her reasons for leaving behind a culturally acceptable career in favor of one as an artist, but she knew she was on the right path to finding freedom and living purpose.

For the next decade this was her life: living out of her dance bag and performing with all her heart and soul and with some of the worlds most loved artists and legends. But something was still missing and through the passage of time and injury, she happened upon yoga. These first yoga classes were therapeutic to work through the toll dance had taken on her body as well as her heart and mind, but soon enough she fell in love with the practice. Within one year she visited Kripalu Center and the next year immersed herself in the same Integrative Yoga Therapy Teacher Training that she now teaches.

In this time, through actualizing lessons of peace and mindfulness, Sharon became Chaya. In her journey towards healing herself she merged her natural gift for teaching with her desire to share her lessons of healing with the world. She had already been teaching dance as well as various types of aerobic and fitness classes for years, so teaching yoga, Ayurveda and massage was the next step of the natural progression. She embraced the spontaneity of this period and actually moved to the Kripalu Center where she spent almost a decade healing and teaching. 

Finally she settled in Florida where she is dedicated to spreading the lessons of yoga, Ayurveda, and massage, that nourished and awakened her when she needed it, to others.