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Charles Terhune
Alice Riccardi
Ashley Bench
Charles Terhune
Owner, General Manager, Associate Baptiste Power Vinyasa Teacher
Charles Terhune is an Associate Baptiste Power Vinyasa Teacher, with both Level I and Level II Teacher Training with Baron Baptiste under his belt. He has also done a month long yoga teacher training with Ana Forrest. He completed the Assisting program in 2005 at the Baptiste Power Yoga Institute (BPYI) in Cambridge, MA. Before moving to Portland, Charles was assisting classes at the Cambridge studio. Charles had been part of the Volunteer Program at the Cambridge studio since September of 2001, when he was asked to interview for the position of manager. He was hired as the facilities manager in February of 2002. He spoke at a panel discussion entitled "The Business of Yoga" at the 2004 Yoga Journal Conference in Boston. Charles was known for his personable manner behind the desk and the ability to be diplomatic in business dealings.
Before yoga became his passion and livelihood, Charles worked in the 9 to 5 corporate world as a Graphics Associate for The Parthenon Group in Boston. Finding the corporate world to be unfulfilling, Charles decided to leave this job after three and a half years. He turned to his creative talents and entered the Web Designer program at Boston University's Corporate Education Center (B.U.C.E.C.) in September of 2000. Charles graduated from the B.U.C.E.C. program in January of 2001, in time to witness the collapse of the dot com industry. After nine months of looking for work in web design Charles took a different job than he'd expected when he graduated: working at Whole Foods driving a forklift as the early morning receiver. But it was during those nine months that Charles developed his yoga practice and slowly, the focus of his life began to shift.
" I can say with all honesty that my yoga practice saved my life and my marriage. The nine months I was looking for a web-design job was a very stressful time for my family and I. Both my wife and I were practicing 3 to 5 times a week and this kept us from making up sob- stories about the current status of our life at that time. My yoga practice began to speak to me and lead me to where I am today. When I first heard the voice that told me to step up and become a yoga teacher I didn't dare believe in myself enough to listen. However, the voice grew so insistent that I had to listen. The transformation for me has been enormous and certainly something that I could not have controlled or shaped. I never thought I would one day teach yoga, let alone open my own studio in Portland! I am so grateful and feel so blessed to have my practice. It is my spirit's intent to share my personal passion with everyone!"
Charles graduated from Emerson College in Boston, MA in 1993 with a BFA in Writing, Literature and Publishing and is in the midst of writing a novel. Charles is also a musician who has performed in New York City, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Boston. He was CEO of his own record label in Boston and was the producer and primary organizer of the Boston Not London concerts performed at MIT as well as producer and contributor of the compilation CD of the same name. He continues to compose and perform music when he's not busy practicing, teaching, managing the Portland Power Yoga studio, or hanging out with his wife and daughter, Sophia.
Charles and Alice have been together for twelve years, nine of them married. Their daughter Sophia is 7 years old and their black and white cat George Foreman is ageless.
Alice Riccardi
Owner,
Director of Teachers
Certified Baptiste Power Vinyasa Teacher
Alice Riccardi is a Certified Baptiste Power Vinyasa yoga teacher, a 200 hour Certified Yoga
Alliance teacher, and also a Certified Alexander Technique teacher as recognized by the American Society of Alexander Teachers. Alice was certified as an Alexander Teacher in 1998. She taught privately from her home when living in Mass. and also at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education. She graduated from Hampshire College with a Bachelor of Arts
in Dance. After college, Alice performed modern dance professionally first in New York City, then in Boston. She has performed with the Japanese Butoh dance company Sankai Juku at Jacob's Pillow in Mass. This performance was a premiere work and for the first time in the company's history included women.
In 2001, Alice began practicing yoga at the Baptiste Studio in Cambridge, Ma. Within
a year she became a class and workshop assistant, traveling with the Baptiste Institute both in the United States and in Mexico. She became a teacher at the Cambridge Studio in 2003. She has assisted workshops under the tutelage of Master Baptiste teachers Coeli Marsh and Gregor Singleton. She successfully completed the first-ever assistants' training held at the Baptiste Studio in Cambridge directed by Master Baptiste teacher Elizabeth Huntsman.
Alice has also participated in programs designed by the Concord Institute in London. Concord Institute is a organization dedicated to the transformation and elevation of thinking and action.
Alice has been a yoga teacher for 5 years. In regard to her yoga training, she acknowledges Baron Baptiste for giving her the opportunity to teach at the Baptiste studio in Cambridge and for the skills acquired while working as an assistant for bootcamps and teacher trainings. Alice acknowledges Coeli Marsh, who has been her teacher and guide in relation to the necessary skills and attention it takes to be a effective and successful classroom teacher. She gives thanks to Gregor Singleton for introducing her to the Concorde Institute and for his support through out her assisting and teaching experience.
She also would like to acknowledge her Alexander Teacher, Dr. Theadore Dimon. Her
knowledge of functional anatomy and the skill of her hands on Alexander training is
in direct relationship to his teaching.
Alice has been married for 10 years to Charles Terhune who is also a yoga teacher and writer. They have a daughter who is nine and never wrong.
Ashley Susanne Bench
Associate Baptiste Power Vinyasa Teacher
Ashley was born and raised in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York. Throughout her childhood, Ashley always had a love for both nature and art. After high school, Art College in Maine seemed perfect to pursue these passions. Graduating in 2004 with a BFA in ceramics, she was uncertain about what to do next. A Yoga class at the local YMCA was the spark that ignited into full on fire upon discovering the Baptiste flow at Portland Power Yoga.
"This practice has given me so much more than the physical work-out I went in seeking. It has allowed me to gain so much clarity about myself, and the support I need to continue to grow into my full potential!"
Although the fitness element is what drew Ashley into her yoga practice, the deeper understanding of her mind, body and spiritual connection with the universe keep her devoted to this practice.
"Devoting myself to this Yoga has been the most wonderful discovery of my life. It keeps me honest with myself, and my life intentions to be the best person I can be, always learning, growing, and sharing. I have always wanted to share my passions in hopes that they may help others the same wonderful ways they did me. I thought art teaching was going to be my thing, but it never really felt right. As my knowledge of yoga expanded, the voice calling me to teach got louder and louder, so I listened."
Within a year of discovering this style of yoga, Ashley attended teacher-training level one with Baron in Mexico. Ashley has on-going teacher trainings with Alice Riccardi, and is awaiting her opportunity to attend level two, the next step on her journey to becoming a certified Baptiste instructor!
Ashley is still very much involved with her art, creating pottery, sculpture, paintings, and other fancy things inspired by her many loves including, but not limited to waterfalls, her most excellent family, giraffes, yoga, the ocean, lakes, Frank Zappa, Modest Mouse, and the beautiful contrast of sadness and joy the world has to offer us, because without the former you can't recognize the latter.
