Anandastar - About Us

PO Box 756
Whistler, BC V0N 1B0

About Us

Through the traditional practices of the hatha yoga system, the ancient philosophies of the tantras and the repeated recognition of the joyful experiences of play, movement and connection to oneself and others, anandastar yoga will reveal the timeless and infinite nectar of bliss and source.

“...enlightenment is just like a kid chasing a butterfly, and all he cares about is chasing the butterfly; the butterfly doesn't necessarily represent enlightenment but the actual chasing of the butterfly is enlightenment...simply because its fun, joyful, innocent and in the spirit of the moment.”

Our Faculty

Tanya Di Valentino BA, ERYT 200, RYT 500

Love for life and nature led Tanya to open her eyes and heart to a lifestyle guided by the ancient wisdom of yoga. She attained a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Geography and studied philosophy extensively within her field. She is an Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher at the 200 hour level (E-RYT 200) and an Advanced Registered Yoga Teacher at the 500 hour level (RYT 500).

Tanya is the co-founder and director of the Whistler Yoga Conference. With her spouse, she owns and operates Birkenhead Lake Lodge, a wilderness lodge and retreat centre in D'Arcy BC.

Tanya brings diversity to her classes through her training in Ashtanga, Akhanda, Sivananda, and Thai Yoga Massage. Over the years, she has met people from all over the world and has come to realize that a common thread that weaves through each person is a deep longing for lasting happiness, peace and love. It is Tanya’s intention with the many paths of yoga to inspire others to experience the happiness, peace and love that has never left them and has been ever present as the essence of their own being.

Rya Letham BEd, BHKin, RYT 500

Rya grew up in North Vancouver and moved to Whistler the day she graduated high school. Since then she has lived and travelled to many amazing places around the world, including her back yard.

Rya enjoyed her 200 hour yoga teacher training at Yandara Yoga Institute in Baja, Mexico. This transformational experience opened her eyes to the infinite and magical possibilities of yoga. Upon return she started teaching and observed with fascination the underlying healing powers of yoga. Curious about the roots of the yogic system, she went to India. There she learned much about the history and various lineages of yoga. With bliss-inspiring Yogi Vishvketu and The World Conscious Yoga Family in Rishikesh, she received certification to be a Registered Yoga Teacher at the 500 hour level.

She also holds a bachelors degree in Human Kinetics, program Exercise Science, from U.B.C. and a Bachelors of Education. Her understanding of the body and love for learning shines through in her practice. With both a science background and experience in the subtle wisdoms of yogic traditions, she is fascinated by the interconnection of it all. Presently she is studying MCEO Freedom Teachings, to deepen her knowledge of this and to expand her meditation practice.

Rya is inspired by the nature of infinity, infinite nature, my true nature, everyone in nature :D

Saskia Tait MA, BA (Honours), Ph.D.(student), RYT 500

Saskia is Co-Founder and Executive Director of the New Earth Institute. She is currently completing her Ph.D. in Contemplative Education at Simon Fraser University. Her interest in transformative learning that brings together eastern and western wisdom traditions started during a family trip to the Himalayan states of
northern India when she was 14-years old. Following an undeniable intuition that she had much to learn from India, she journeyed there many times to live, travel, study and volunteer. An always-deepening love and appreciation of India propelled her to focus her undergraduate and graduate studies on the region—its religious and cultural forms and history, its social and ecological development challenges, and especially its ancient wisdom traditions. Following an intensive period of study with a siddha from the Nath lineage, Saskia started a daily personal practice of yoga and has cherished her transformative relationship with the path of yoga ever since. One of the most important gifts Saskia has benefited from in her relationship with India is a deep fascination with integrated approaches to living and change. Inspired by the holistic view embedded in all traditions of yoga,
Saskia has sought ways to bridge the gap between the felt need for healthy and sustainable transformation in larger social structures with pathways of deep personal integration. Currently, this exploration is taking concrete shape in the form of a gap year program and school she is founding together with her husband, Shahar Rabi, and a small team of inspired educators and social change agents in Nova Scotia, Canada (www.newearthinstitute.com). How can "coming home to yourself" shift the way that you choose to act, live, work and play in the world?

Saskia has a Master’s degree in International Development and a B.A. (Honours) in International Development and South Asian Religion. She is a published author, applying integral models to a variety of topics including sustainable development, community development, ecology, consciousness studies and global issues. Saskia has lived and worked as a consultant for community-based and international development agencies in Canada, the US, the Netherlands, Bhutan and India. She has helped to teach the history and philosophy sections of World Conscious Yoga Family’s 500-hour Yoga Teacher Training courses in India.

Shahar Rabi MA, BEd, Ph.D.(Student), MA (Student), RYT 500

Shahar Rabi is Co-Founder and Director of Education for the New Earth Institute, a Vancouver based non-profit education and research organization. He is currently a Ph.D. student in Philosophy of Education at Simon Fraser. He is also pursuing a (second) MA in Counseling Psychology at the Vancouver campus of City University of Seattle. Over the past sixteen years, Shahar has led workshops in Canada, Israel, India and other countries about integral spiritual intelligence and wellbeing, taught philosophy in high schools and universities, and worked as a dance teacher and choreographer. He is a yoga and meditation teacher who lived in monasteries in India, Nepal and Thailand. He has studied with prominent non-dual teachers. Shahar has been a member of communities engaged in the search for a unifying vision and practice of being. He has a
Masters degree in education and a B.A. in Philosophy and Education. His Masters thesis focused on the sense of coherence amongst young people and the effects of meditation on wellbeing and health in everyday life. He won an award from the President of Israel for excellence in education and an award for social activity in his home city after founding a Second-Hand Center. He has a great deal of experience in teaching and bringing together Eastern and Western wisdom in a practical way.

Leigh Finck Wildfarmer

Leigh Finck has been an organic farmer for many years and is now taking organics to the next level, Wildfarming!

He is focusing on education and creative farming, working in harmony with nature and cultivating symbiotic relationships between plants, animals, and humans. He encourages you to work with what is already present in your local environment, and mother nature as your teacher.

A tip from Leigh:

Bears make great garden helpers! Their droppings make great manueur, helping to fertilize seeds."

Polek Rybczynski

Born in Wroclaw, Poland, Polek seeks and experiences life. By the age of 10, he and his family had lived the cultures of 3 countries. Come 1990, his roots began to set along the southern outskirts of Sydney, Australia.

Polek's desire for artistic, athletic and spiritual development provided foundation for the laying of a colourful and winding path. At the age of 14 choosing to develop soccer goalkeeping into a profession and an art gave him direct access to an accelerated learning of life's lessons and virtues. To give goalkeeping a balance, Poleks intuitive voice led him to hold regular communion with the ocean's waves, the practices of yoga, reading of Buddhist texts and Vipassana meditation. Environmental activism in his early twenties inspired Polek to ask himself deeper and more confronting questions on why we are here and what each of us are doing.

Reading the works of Khalil Gibran, Paulo Cohelo, Dan Millman, Hafiz, The Deli Lama, David Suzuki and John Pilger all gave Polek vital clues to his deep questions. When the time came to re-study and practice the ancient Maharata texts and Cloister-Dora-Teura Plates through the translations of the Melchizedek Cloister Emerald Order Freedom Teachings, his deep questions we're finally answered and life purposes revealed.

Currently residing in the Canadian West Coast Coastal mountains, Polek continues to experience life and fulfill his life purposes alongside his beloved wife and dog.

PO Box 756
Whistler, BC V0N 1B0