Yoga Rocks!® is proud to feature professionally certified and registered yoga teachers (RYT's) with Yoga Alliance, the national association for creating the standards for teaching yoga.

For more information about Yoga Alliance visit, the Yoga Alliance website.

Jeannine K. Smolinsky, M.Ed., E-RYT
Founder of Yoga Rocks! and Yoga Rocks Kids.
Jeannine is currently creating new programs all over Long Island for adults and children with Amy LaCentra.



Amy LaCentra, B.S.Ed., E-RYT, C-YRKT, has been teaching a diversity of yoga, wellness, dance, and fitness to children and adults for over 20 years.  After graduating from NYU with a degree in Dance she continued to perform professionally as well as receive certifications in Dance,  various Fitness styles, and Personal Training.  Amy has had many unique teaching experiences throughout the course of her career including running the Fitness Program for the Yale Club of New York and teaching Dance and Physical Education at the prestigious Brearley School for Girls in New York City.

After getting married and having two children, Amy's first child was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder.  Yoga took on a profound presence in her life as well as her family.  Amy continued to expand her movement career to include more yoga certifications from YogaFit, YogaEd., Core Strength Vinyasa,and Yoga Rocks! Kids. Along her journey she began to experiment with yoga techniques as a way to help her son and others find valuable coping strategies.  With the help of many Special Education Professionals and her own innate desire to help, she began to create yoga strategies that were easily accessible to everyone for home practice as well as for the school setting.

She has taken her extensive knowledge and personal experience to create her own business, Take a Break Yoga & Fitness. Whether Amy is teaching Adults or children, her classes are an eclectic blend of all her training and experience but so much more. A life long student, Amy continues to study, grow and uncover her own unlimited potential.  Her compassionate and respectful style of teaching  helps her students gain a true understanding of acceptance of themselves and their own unique place in the world.


 

PIC COMING SOON

 

Diana Vargas-Singh, RYT, C-YRKT has been teaching with Yoga Rocks Kids! since 2008 and has been a student of yoga for over ten years. Diana first tried yoga when she started her career as a young attorney. Quickly realizing that she needed an outlet for the stress associated with work, Diana tried different yoga styles and studios. When expecting her first baby, pre-natal yoga and then post-natal yoga helped seal her love of how yoga made her feel inside and out. In 2007 Diana decided to take her love of yoga and children, and combine them under the wonderful Yoga Rocks! Kids training program. Diana has taught yoga to toddlers, children and teens. She has taught: Nassau County Girl Scout troops, Nassau BOCES, at The Portledge School in Locust Valley, Friends Academy, Theodore Roosevelt Elementary in Oyster Bay, private birthday parties, and currently at the Glen Cove YMCA. Diana will also be an adult yoga teacher as a graduate of the Yoga Works adult training program as of June 14, 2010. Diana is happily married with three wonderful little yogis who love to practice yoga with mommy!

 
 

Alison Klein, RYT, C-YRKT, earned her Master’s degree in Education specializing in School Counseling and has been a school counselor for the past 10 years. Alie was introduced to yoga by a good friend who suggested it would be a great stress reliever and was hooked from her first class! Looking for a studio closer to home, she found Yoga Rocks! in October 2006 and has been dedicated to her yoga practice ever since. Combining her passion for yoga and working with children, Alie earned her C-YRKT with Yoga Rocks! Kids  in 2008.  Alie recently earned her 200 hour adult certification with YogaWorks in NYC. Alie continues to teach the YogaRocks! Kids classes and  private clients in Queens and Long Island. She started a yoga program at the Danc’in Place in Carle Place and her yoga students were given the opportunity to perform in the year end recital, for the first time, in June 2009. Alie loves when her students use their imaginations and want to create their own yoga poses, “I learn as much from them, as they learn from me.”

 

PIC COMING SOON

 

Penny Silverman, C-YRKT, is an Early Childhood Educator at Community Synagogue in Port Washington, New York.  Penny completed the Yoga Rocks! Kids Certification Program in 2008 and continues to teach the Yoga Rocks! Kids program in her school and at various locations all over Long Island.

PIC COMING SOON

Danielle Caputo, C-YRKT is a Certified Elementary School Teacher who has been practicing yoga for over 10 years. Danielle’s love of yoga began as a natural healing tool for her own depression and anxiety. After Danielle’s first career in New York City’s world of advertising left her wanting, she decided to return to school to pursue a Masters in Childhood Education. As a past Home School Tutor to troubled teens in Group Homes and Psychiatric Hospitals she knew she had to return to teaching. Needing to align her career with her spiritual path…combining her love for children, teaching, and yoga was a natural solution.

One day while subbing in the Commack School District, Danielle met Jeannine when she asked her to assist with the relaxation portion of a National Health Day Demonstration and it was clear…the answer had revealed itself.

Miss Caputo has been a Certified York Rocks! Kids Instructor since 2008. She has taught kids, tweens, and teens. Danielle has infused her own creative spirit and imagination into a class called Yoga Arts & Crafts.  She has also taught Skaters & Dancers, Kids ages 4-7, and Yoga Rocks Summer Camp in Oyster Bay.

Danielle has integrated her passion for aromatherapy and reflexology into her signature Hand and Foot Massages. The children absolutely love them! They look forward to being pampered after a positive and peaceful yoga practice.

One year to the day Jeannine asked her to assist Danielle headed the National Health Day Awareness Demonstration in the same Commack School, coming full circle. Danielle continues to grow, focusing her gifts into working with Special Needs children as well as ESL learners.

 

 

Leah Urrutia, RYT, C-YRKT is a Certified Yoga Rocks Kids Teacher and adult yoga teacher with YogaWorks. She teaches the Yoga Rocks! Kids Program at Westbury Friends School and is a full-time guidance counselor at Carle Place Middle and High School.

 

Danielle Bonfanti, RYT, C-YRKT   Danielle discovered yoga while pregnant with her first child in 1999. It was after she had her second child that her deep passion for yoga was born and became an instrumental part of her life. Yoga empowered her to overcome the pressures of adjusting to being a full time at home mom and caring for her elderly father. Also through yoga, Danielle embarked on her journey to pursue and spread her love for children, yoga and good will.
Throughout Danielle’s years as an at home mom her house has always been filled with children. She became a volunteer Brownie Leader. Danielle felt strong about educating the children about health and wellness and teaching the children the importance of getting involved in their community, and giving back. After becoming involved in the Pajama Program with her Brownies, Danielle felt she needed to do more and became the Volunteer Coordinator for a Long Island Chapter of the Pajama Program in 2010. As Volunteer Coordinator, Danielle helps organize drives to raise pajamas and books for children in need. Inspired to do even more for children in need, Danielle began volunteering in a preschool for underprivileged children. Initially, her job was simply to love and spend time with these kids. Still, Danielle knew she had to do more and after seeing the children practice a yoga video, Danielle was inspired to commit her life to bringing yoga to children, enabling her to share something she is passionate about with the world in a very special way.

Danielle received her 200 hour Adult Yoga Certification and then went on to become a Certified Yoga Rocks Kids Teacher (C-YRKT). Her children’s certification consisted of an additional 100 hour Adaptive Yoga for Every Child Program. Her training has taught her to integrate adaptive strategies, principles and yoga techniques to counteract the various stress factors that interfere with optimal learning and success in school and in life for children of all abilities. Her training coupled with her love for yoga and children makes Danielle uniquely qualified to work with children of all needs. Danielle strongly believes there is no greater gift to give a child than yoga.

 

Marcella Burney, C-YRKT former International Banker, mother of 2 teenage daughters, has been practicing yoga for the past 15 years. First introduced to yoga at the Integral Yoga Institute in Manhattan, she was delighted to find Yoga Rocks! after moving to Long Island. Marcella now combines her love of yoga with her love of children in her new occupation as a Certified Yoga Rocks Kids Teacher and teaches classes, privates and parties.

 

 

Julie Raimondo, C-YRKT is a Certified Yoga Rocks Kids Teacher.  She began practicing yoga while working as a preschool teacher and realized that her students would benefit greatly from yoga. Julie embraced the opportunity to study under Jeannine and began the process during the summer of 2008. She became certified just before the birth of her daughter, Ava. She now offers the Yoga Rocks! Kids Program at after school programs in Brooklyn, New York. She loves seeing kids get just as excited about yoga as she does and wishes that more children would be introduced to yoga at a young age!

 

 

 

Christine Cherpak, C-YRKT embarked on her yoga path a number of years ago while discovering the power of the mind-body connection. Integrating her passion for biology, yoga, children, and the human spirit, Christine journeyed to become a Certified Yoga Rocks Kids Teacher in 2007. She finds her work with children of all ages and abilities inspiring and fulfilling. Additionally, Christine finds her teaching encounters with special needs children an invaluable extension of her senior thesis work on Disability Studies, and she values the ongoing learning occurrences each child offers her. As Christine continues to teach yoga to children, she is pursuing her PhD in Psychology, and she expresses much gratitude for how her experiences have influenced her career aspirations.

 

 

 

Susan Burke, C-YRKT is a Certified Yoga Rocks Kids Teacher as well as a Speech and Language teachers in the Jericho School district where she leads a Yoga Club for kids. She is a mom of 6 children and a fun and exciting kids yoga teacher.


 

Jessica Domow, RYT, C-YRKT began her yoga practice in 2002 while attending the University of Massachusetts. She loved what it did for her body-mind connection and decided to pursue the study of Yoga. In 2005 she became a 200 hour Certified Yoga Teacher. Jessica's joy of working with children inspired her to concentrate her studies in children's yoga and become a Certified Yoga Rocks Kids Teacher in 2007. Jessica is also a graduate from NY College of Health Professions, and is now a Licensed Massage Therapist. Health and wellness continue to be an important part of Jessica's life. Currently, Jessica lives in Western Massachusetts bringing the Yoga Rocks! Kids program into studios and schools.