Our Leadership and Teachers

USA YOGA Nationals 2017 Half-Spine Twisting Pose Ann C Profile
OHYA Approved Teacher Bikram Yoga Hot Yoga
Original Hot Yoga Association Level 3 Certified Bikram Yoga Teacher

Ann Chrapkiewicz

Founder and Owner, Senior Teacher

Ann started practicing the original hot yoga in 2003 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She completed her initial 9-week, 750-hour hatha yoga training and certification (Bikram Yoga Teacher Training) with Bikram and Rajashree Choudhury, Emmy Cleaves, and Craig Villani in Los Angeles in 2004.  Since that time she has taught over 10,000 hours (and over 7000 students). Before opening this yoga school in East Lansing in 2013, she taught at nearly all of the Bikram Yoga schools in Michigan.

She is a Level 3 Teacher (the highest available) and Continuing Education provider with the Original Hot Yoga Association.

Ann is known locally and internationally for her impeccable attention to detail, encouraging teaching style, her ability to give individual coaching to every student at their level, and ability to weave yoga principles and physiological education into the smooth flow of traditional Bikram Yoga dialogue instruction.  She regularly mentors yoga teachers around the country and the globe.

Prior to opening this yoga school, she completed degrees in Literature and Media Studies (B.A. 2000, Duke U.), Asian Studies (M.A. 2006, UM-Ann Arbor), and Medical Anthropology (M.A. 2010, MSU). She has studied exercise physiology at the graduate level (MSU) and supports Dr. Brian L. Tracy’s physiology research on Bikram method hot yoga at Colorado State University.

Her yoga practice background also includes:  Ghosh Yoga Practice week and workshops (2016-2019), Mary Jarvis’s Yoga Shapeshifting (since 2018), immersive initiation programs with Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev (2006 & 2018) and Shibendu Lahiri (2010), as well as the Isha Hatha Yogasanas beginning yoga program (2017). She practices the Isha Yoga kriyas daily.

Ann placed 3rd overall in the 2017 USA Yoga Midwest Asana Championships and was the Michigan representative to the 2017 USA Yoga National Championships at the State Games of America, where she placed 31st.

Ann regularly participates in continuing education with Gil Hedley via his 6-day and 10-day Integral Anatomy workshops.

Ann enjoys working with youth & elderly alike, coaches, athletes, pregnant women, and those with limited mobility, chronic pain, paralysis, or injuries.

In 2020 she completed a co-researched and authored a book project – with BYCA student Jennifer Lane – about the effects of Bikram Yoga on autoimmune diseases.  You can find the book Hope for Autoimmune Disease: 15 Personal Stories of Living Better with Bikram Yoga on Amazon here.

As a supplement to and extension of Bikram Yoga, she highly recommends Mary Jarvis’s Yoga Shapeshifting, and Sadhguru’s complete Inner Engineering Program.

Our Teachers and Experience

All instructors here are part of a direct and undiluted teaching lineage in the Calcutta tradition of Bishnu Ghosh and Bikram Choudhury. Our high teaching standards include a minimum of 500 practice hours before training, 500 hours of teacher training within the lineage, and a long-term apprenticeship with our school director.

Our standards for accepting trainees for apprenticeships are the highest in the state of Michigan, ensuring that all yoga students receive detailed attention on correct techniques and approaches. While each teacher has a unique approach and demeanor in the class, we encourage students to attend all teachers’ classes to get the most well-rounded experience and instruction.  Read more about our teacher training and standards here.

Carolyn Meitz – Raja Yoga Academy Graduate, 2018

BYCA Apprenticing Teacher

Carolyn is a retired public school elementary teacher and musician.  She began practicing Bikram Yoga in October 2014 to supplement strength training for triathlon training and found it to be much more therapeutic than she had ever imagined.  Truly experiencing how yoga practice extends far beyond a yoga mat, she is grateful to have learned so much about gratitude, compassion, and presence through her Bikram Yoga practice.  While a practitioner at Bikram Yoga Grand Rapids, Carolyn regularly attended Ann’s posture workshops here in East Lansing. She is truly a lifelong learner, and she is so grateful for the opportunity to share her love for this amazing yoga!

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Erica Wolf – BYCA Teacher Apprenticeship, 2018-2020

BYCA Apprenticing Teacher

Erica began practicing Bikram Yoga in the fall of 2013 after having practiced several other forms of yoga since high school.  Within a few months of practicing Bikram Yoga 3-4 times per week, her lifelong issues with blood sugar leveled off, and her pain from scoliosis went away.

In 2018, Erica practiced Rajashree’s Pregnancy Yoga in the hot room, throughout and following pregnancy with her second child.  She completed her yoga teaching apprenticeship immersions with Ann from 2018-2020.

Angela Sinclair – Bikram Yoga Teacher Training Graduate, 2003

Visiting and Livestream Teacher; Founder and former owner of Bikram Yoga Kansas City

Angela was born with hip dysplasia and developed arthritis as a teenager.  She struggled with pain, excess weight, and various forms of self-medication.  In 2000 she took her first Bikram Yoga class in Boulder, Colorado.  After completing Bikram Yoga Teacher Training in 2003, she taught in Lawrence, Kansas, and then went on to open Bikram’s Yoga College of India Kansas City in 2007.  Angela has practiced with Mary Jarvis since 2004 and credits Bikram Yoga and Yoga Shapeshifting with the fact that she still has both of her natural hips – they are the only practices that take the pain away!  Read Angela’s inspiring yoga story here!

“What I love about the yoga the most is the structure, the discipline, and the fact that I can handle my hardships and feel forgiveness and love from the depths of my heart and soul.  That I walk without pain and with little limp.  That I can be active without needing to take pain medications.  That I can now tolerate all levels of temperatures…and I love that I sleep well.  I love empowering people to find their fullest potential!”

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Jennifer Schoon

Class Leader & Leadership Team

Jen’s Bio Coming Soon!

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Lindsay Lake-Hefner

Leadership Team, Intermediate Class Leader

Lindsay’s Bio coming soon

Kathy Fehrenbach

Leadership Team, Yoga Buddy Support, Class Leader

Kathy’s Bio coming soon

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Sandi Jones

Leadership Team, Yoga Buddy Support

Sandi’s Bio Coming Soon

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Kavita Chowdhary – Bikram Yoga Teacher Training Graduate, 2013

Visiting Teacher

Kavita was raised in north India but has lived and raised her family in Hyderabad, India, for the past 20 years.  She started practicing yoga in 2004 after complications from a cesarean section led to intense and chronic pain.

Several years later she was introduced to Bikram Yoga and has never looked back.  Kavita attended Bikram Yoga Teacher Training in Phuket, Thailand in 2013.  In 2016, she founded and directed Bikram Yoga Telangana in Hyderabad, India.

Kavita is a longtime friend of our yoga school and comes to learn, teach, and practice yoga in East Lansing whenever she can!

Her commitment to posture technique, intelligent teaching, and lifelong learning are just a few of the amazing qualities she brings to her classes.

Becoming an Original Hot Yoga (Bikram Yoga) Teacher

Teacher Training

One of our missions at BYCA is to raise the bar for yoga teaching, in order to retain and transmit the principles of 20th century therapeutic hatha yoga to the interested public, and in order to provide the maximum benefit to every level of yoga student.  

While most yoga classes and studios in North America have shifted to a mix-and-match fitness class model, we retain and educate our students in the elements of a single lineage of therapeutic hatha yoga.  This requires significant dedication and investment of practice and study on the part of every teacher.  

Most yoga studios in the United States hold teacher trainings as a necessary part of their bottom line, and accept any and all interested students.  Many teacher trainers at these programs are relatively new teachers themselves, often having less than 5 years of practice or teaching experience.  These programs allow you to pay for use of the RYT designation with Yoga Alliance.

We do not participate in this business or affiliation model, as it quickly dilutes and weakens traditional practices and creates a competitive, unsustainable situation.

Instead we endeavor to selectively invite seasoned practitioners, leaders, and disciplined practitioners to carry on the lineage to the next generations.  All of our teachers exceed the minimum training standards of the Original Hot Yoga Association, which themselves far exceed those set by Yoga Alliance.

For students who want to deepen their practice, we regularly hold continuing education programs, intermediate classes, Yoga Studies Immersions, and visiting teacher workshops.

Before being invited or recommended to train and apprentice as a teacher, we require the following:

  • A minimum of 2 years of consistent, mindful practice at BYCA
  • Exemplary discipline and positive leadership inside and outside of the yoga room: in practice, word, care of facilities, actions, and encouragement of others
  • Commitment to maintain the integrity of the Ghosh-Bikram lineage and approaches
  • Commitment to support and contribute positively to the BYCA community, in word and action
  • Commitment to a long-term mentorship relationship with Ann and other senior lineage teachers, for the benefit of yoga students and integrity of the practice
  • If desiring to expand the community of practitioners to another school, agreement to take it to an area no less than 25 miles from BYCA, in order to bring the yoga to those who do not yet have access

Training Programs

Once accepted as a trainee, there are several components of training, including class observations, mentorship discussions, residential/immersive training, student-teaching at BYCA, and ongoing teacher mentorship courses.

We support the following training programs as part of the complete BYCA Training and Student-Teaching process:

Bikram Yoga Teacher Training

The original Bikram Yoga teacher training run by Bikram Choudhury and senior mentoring teachers from around the world.  Held at various international locations once or twice per year for 9 consecutive weeks.  500+ hours, residential.

BYCA Long-Term Apprenticeship

500 hours, local and away.  BYCA Owner Ann Chrapkiewicz is approved as a Level 3 teacher with the Original Hot Yoga Association and qualified to lead teacher trainings and continuing education in the lineage.  Short-term immersions with Ann and other senior teachers in the lineage are also required as part of this program.  Once initial prerequisites have been met, please contact Ann for more details.

Ghosh’s Yoga College Therapeutic Yoga Training

For those wishing to work with students one-on-one to prescribe therapeutic exercises in the Ghosh lineage, this 3-week study is directed by Muktamala Mitra, granddaughter of Bishnu Ghosh.  Held at Ghosh’s Yoga College in Calcutta, India.  Residential.  This course does not prepare you to lead a group class but does deepen your knowledge and understanding of therapeutic indications.  Detailed program information can be found here.

Ready to get started with Bikram Yoga?