July News & Events - Great new workshops & FREE CLASS COUPON!

Born in Mexico City, Georgina and her family moved to NY when she was 7. She grew up on the upper west side of Manhattan. Her father was a well known Afro-Cuban jazz musician and her mother was a singer with his band. In Mexico City her parents had the Mexican version of Sonny and Cher show. Once established in the United States, her mother became an art therapist and her father continued his career.

Growing up in an artistic, bohemian family, Georgina was exposed to a variety of artistic outlets - dance, acting, and music to name a few. As she became a teenager she pursued her acting career more aggressively, but as a young Latina girl at the time, roles were limited and the characters were usually either prostitutes or nuns. After moving to Los Angeles when she was 32 she shifted her focus and began writing. Much to her delight, she soon sold a project to Fox Entertainment. While the production never was produced it was strong encouragement and she and her writing partner quickly sold another project to Dreamworks. It was a half hour sitcom that Georgina describes as a Latino version of the Bill Cosby show. Unfortunately, it was a bit ahead of the times and was also shelved.

Always very physically active, Georgina constantly pursued a variety of fitness activities. She ran marathons, lifted weights, did Billy Blanks workouts, etc. She was building a lot of strength and cardiovascular fitness. One day a friend invited her to an Introduction to Yoga class. She went thinking that she would easily excel at yoga as well, but was quickly astounded to realize that she was so tight in her shoulders that she was unable to even clasp her hands behind her back. She realized then and there that she had two choices - change her name to Vinny ... or start a yoga practice. Even with the difficulty she experienced in that first class, she felt SO good after that the choice was obvious. She chose Yoga. She convinced her husband (also a fitness enthusiast) to try it as well and they both soon became devoted to the practice.

It wasn't until Georgina had been practicing for about 5 years that she took her first teacher training. When her father passed away she found that yoga was such an amazing source of solace for her she wanted to delve deeper into her practice, teaching was not at the forefront of her mind at the time. She took her first training with Brenda Strong. Within two years of finishing her training Georgina began working at the Accelerated School in Los Angeles running and teaching their yoga program to grades K-12. The current standard for public school yoga education - Yoga Ed. evolved out of the work Georgina and her team were doing at the Accelerated School. She was there for 7 years.

During her time there she was also now teaching at Yoga Villa, Black Dog Yoga and Yoga for Every Body. It was then that she took her second teacher training at Yoga Works with Maty Ezraty and Lisa Walford. Her third was an Anusara teacher training with Sue Elkind, Noah Maze & Naime Jezzeny. She also assisted with Annie Carpenter for 6 months.

Georgina's relationship with Black Dog Yoga began the year they opened when she started teaching Pre-Natal Yoga at the studio. In 2008, when Peter Barnett became the owner of the studio, they began discussing incorporating a more family-focused element to the studio. When a space became available in the same building as Black Dog Yoga, the opportunity presented itself to create a family friendly studio to offer specialized family-focused classes that would complement the growing schedule at Black Dog Yoga. And Two Hearts Yoga was born.

Her philosophy was to create a studio that offered pre-natal classes 7 days a week during different times a day to support working and stay-at-home mom's alike. She wanted mothers of young babies to be able to continue their practice while still being able to care for their young children. She knew the benefits of yoga for children and brought that in as well as classes to support and understand the hormonal changes that women go through during different stages of their lives.

During all of this Georgina still teaches classes at Black Dog Yoga. She teaches both ends of the yoga spectrum with two Beginners classes a week as well as a Strong Flow class.

When asked what she wishes to impart to her students she replied, "I like to encourage students of any level to to create a space for themselves where they can get into their breath and their body even without instruction. The practice its self is the master teacher. I am here to facilitate and keep people safe, but you should always listen to the teacher within. In yoga you are working towards aligning the body, the mind and the breath to find stillness and silence to quiet the constant chatter of the mind."

"I can't imagine NOT doing yoga. I learn something new every time I come to the mat. I don't know what life would be like without that. Yoga is the complete experience. What a gift to have an this practice filled with compassion, patience and love."

Georgina lives in Sherman Oaks with her husband Mark, her daughter Isabel, a cat and a bunch of fish.

Thank you Georgina.

Please come take a class with Georgina during the month of July - ON US! See the coupon below.

Georgina's yoga classes are:
Tues & Thurs ..........11:00a - 12:30p........Yoga for Beginners
Sunday ...................4:00p - 5:30p ..........Strong Flow

"When you realize how perfect everything is, you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky."