A Shala La founder Nina Collins began practicing yoga at the age of 15 and has been fascinated with its myriad forms of expression ever since.

In 2005 she was offered the opportunity to live and teach in Shanghai, China, where she stayed for five years. It was there that she was introduced to Ashtanga yoga by Margaret Chiu.

Two decades later, Nina's teaching continues to be buoyed by her own daily Ashtanga practice and a firm belief in the teacher/student Mysore tradition. She has learned how profoundly yoga can resonate, how deeply it transcends mere asana, and loves to pass on this understanding to her students.

Nina acknowledges a debt of gratitude to her teachers and their wisdom, including Noah Williams, under whose guidance she spent more than a decade, and Dena Kingsberg, with whom she has been studying the method and seated breath work since 2013. Nina shares this fundamental tradition with all her Ashtanga students. Yoga is, after all, a breathing practice.