tampa bay teachers

Summer Crawford

Summer, director of evolation yoga Tampa and evolation yoga Carrollwood, has been practicing, exploring, and loving yoga and meditation since the age of 14 or 15. She was born and raised in Atlanta, where she met her first teachers, who continue to provide inspiration. Summer attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she studied history and religion, and she received her J.D. from Emory University. After practicing law in Atlanta for several years, Summer moved to Tampa to be with her now-husband Don. Inspired by the exciting changes in her life, she decided to attend Bikram’s 9-week intensive teacher training program, and she became a Certified Bikram Yoga Instructor in the Fall of 2008. She has been teaching yoga with whole-hearted passion ever since. With evolation, Summer has found a seamless way to combine her belief in a disciplined, effective hatha yoga practice with her own spiritual journey towards Oneness and Self-Realization. Summer considers teaching yoga a calling and a privilege, and she loves nothing more than witnessing people opening themselves up to transformation on their mats.  Her practice and teaching have been even more inspired since the birth of her daughter, Rayanne in July 2011.  Practicing yoga throughout her pregnancy revealed depths in the practice and power in the body that Summer takes great joy in sharing with her students every day.

Karen Ledesma

A Tampa native, Karen began exploring yoga and meditation nearly fifteen years ago at the University of California, Santa Cruz where she earned a degree in Psychology. Six years ago she began a regular hot yoga practice, inspired to cultivate strength within stillness, grace in motion, and a fully embodied life.  As a teacher, Karen hopes to pass on her love for the hot yoga series as a conduit of deeper presence and vitality, awakened within each individual and amplified through the magic of a shared practice. Karen holds a Master’s Degree in Spiritual Formation and Leadership, emphasizing the intersections between contemplative spirituality and creativity.  Karen completed evolation’s Primary Teacher Training in 2010, and in addition to teaching, she now works to develop workshops and retreats that combine her passions for yoga, meditation, writing, and nature.  Karen lives in Dunedin with her two dogs and her husband and studio co-director, Aaron.

Aaron Ledesma

Aaron enjoyed a twelve-year career in professional baseball as an infielder for the Mets, Orioles, Angels, Rockies and the Tampa Bay Rays. Shortly after having back surgery in 2003, Aaron took his first Bikram Yoga Class in San Francisco and knew instantly that the Bikram series was exactly what his body needed after years of rigorous play. Instead of going to spring training that year, Aaron decided to retire from baseball and attend Bikram’s yoga teacher training in Los Angeles.  He has been teaching yoga ever since, and he enjoys teaching just as much as he does practicing.  Aaron’s focus remains on athletes, teaching them the benefits of better health and flexibility, increased range of motion, and a greater edge of mental focus and concentration.  He believes passionately that evolation’s core offerings can help keep athletes on the field longer and bring them greater peace and well-being off the field as well.

Stephen Kaleda

Stephen took his first yoga class in May 1999 with the intention of finding a method of exercise that was enjoyable to him. What he got was a lesson, not only in physical exercise, but also in intention, self inspection and what it’s like to be in the absolute moment. The lesson has never ended. In 2001 by recommendation of a friend in massage school, he took a Bikram yoga class in San Francisco. The effect was almost immediate, and so was the desire to maintain a regular practice and learn about the yoga. In fall 2003, Stephen completed the Bikram yoga teacher training. He went to Palm Desert CA and started to teach. Shortly thereafter he started practicing vinyasa flow in the ashtanga and Iyengar traditions. Stephen developed a flair for inversions and arm balances and began to see the pure joy in his yoga practice. In winter 2005 he completed a teaching intensive with Erich Schiffmann thru Sacred Movement (currently Exhale Spa) and started to teach flow. A couple years later Stephen completed a more comprehensive flow training with Fred Bush at Miami Yogashala. All of Stephen’s classes are taught from the heart. He believes all students have talent and can find a yoga home in either the Hot/Warm series or Flow (or ideally both).  His classes can be challenging, humorous, and always filled with a not so subtle hint of gratitude.  His students have become his greatest teacher.  Stephen is registered with the yoga alliance, is a certified massage therapist and currently teaches in Tampa, FL.

Gary Davis

Gary started his yoga practice in 2000 after sustaining a serious injury.  He was 48 years old at the time, and, after a lifetime of abusing his body through team sports and running, he decided it was time to pursue a more realistic exercise program.  For the first year and a half, Gary cultivated a home practice, faithfully doing the Bikram series in various heated bathrooms, garages and attics.  Once he found a studio, he jumped into a regular practice, which he continues to this day.  Gary became a certified Bikram Yoga teacher at the teacher training in Palm Desert, CA in 2009, and he has taught yoga in Sarasota, the Northeast, and now at all of the evolation studios in the Tampa Bay area.  Gary recently turned 60, and is in the best shape of his life — physically, mentally, and spiritually.  He is inspired by the students that make up the evolation community and loves guiding them along their own yoga journeys toward happiness and wellness.

Deanna Lomax

Deanna Lomax is a southern girl transplanted to Tampa from North Carolina.  She received her undergraduate degree in Biology from Davidson College and her Masters in Physiology from North Carolina State University.  After graduate school, her first job offer was in the clinical lab at Tampa General Hospital, so she relocated to see where the opportunity would take her. Deanna began practicing yoga at age 19 as a physical exercise. A lifetime of cheerleading left her with injuries that only yoga could seem to heal. She maintained her practice, however, for reasons that went far deeper. As an over achiever and type-A personality, yoga helped manage stress and allowed her to let go of that which did not serve her. She went through teacher training while in graduate school at NCSU, and, eager to expand her teaching, completed evolation’s Flow training in 2011.  Whether teaching Flow 75 or the Hot/Warm series, Deanna believes that she was called to teaching by a greater purpose.  Her interests include avocados, running, crossword puzzles, Wikipedia, the color yellow, coupons and sunflowers. Her dislikes include cucumbers, closed-mindedness, cold weather, and Styrofoam. She loves talking about yoga and science and is always open to questions!

Chi-Chi Schickel

After being an avid athlete and runner for many years, Chi-Chi found yoga to be a welcome and refreshing change.  Yoga gave her a new, almost childlike way to explore and play within the body while also stretching the mind.  Throughout the years, her practice has facilitated tremendous personal growth and transformation, and she is grateful to every teacher along the way who has helped her to discover the “magic.”  Chi-Chi’s background is in the vinyasa tradition, and she is working toward completing evolation’s Primary Training as well in order to share her passion for yoga through all of evolation’s core offerings.

Eric Wheeler

Eric believes that a yoga practice provides a path to make connections. The most important part of the class for him consists of focusing on the breath, moving between postures, staying calm, opening the body to energy (prana) and finding space to dive into stillness (Dhyana). Most recently, Eric completed his 200 hr. Prana Flow™ (with Micheline Berry) training that includes new and free ways of moving the body with rhythmic, body and pulsations vinyasas within the asanas. The sequences are woven to help open the body, and challenge physical and emotional boundaries that occur throughout the practice. With his art of teaching, Eric presents the dynamic form of teaching includes combining themes, words, essence, solar/lunar cycles and music to design a specific mood (Bhava). Eric’s deep dedication to the tradition of Ashtanga yoga is felt in his class. Eric has had some wonderful teachers, most of them studied directly with the late Pattabhi Jois and currently with R. Sharath in Mysore, India. He has spent many hours with David Keil, David Swenson Manju Jois, Kino McGregor, and Tim Feldman. Whether it is through sutra, song, or science, Eric leads his students through any practice with love and kindness. He hopes to inspire his students and bring the best elements of his teachings to your mat soon.

Erin Wheeler

Erin Wheeler has been practicing yoga since having weight reduction surgery in 2003.  Initially using yoga to recover from surgery, she found that it healed her in more ways than she ever expected — bringing stillness and peace to a seemingly un-still and depressed mind.  With extensive training in the vinyasa and ashtanga traditions, Erin teaches Flow 75, with a particular emphasis on the breath.  She also enjoys working with pregnant women and children.  Her teaching is inspired by her belief that we are all students and teachers, both on and off the mat, and she is continually seeking opportunities to learn more.  She considers yoga a gift, and she is honored to have the opportunity to give that gift back through her teaching.

Tina Tidwell

Tina Tidwell graduated from the University of South Florida with a degree in Dance and a secondary emphasis in Psychology, focusing on Body Image Disturbance in dancers. During her time at USF, she had the privilege to study abroad and perform in Paris, France. She fell in love with yoga, through dance, after studying with Michelle Jacobi at the Centre de Yoga du Marais in Paris. Tina continued to come back to yoga to balance her body from rigorous rehearsals and bring peace to her mind while maintaining a hectic schedule. Since then, she has performed and her choreography has been seen both nationally and internationally on the stages of France, Florida, Ohio, Los Angeles, and New York City.   In 2009, Tina relocated to Columbus, OH and became certified as a yoga teacher in the Ashtanga tradition at Yoga on High. During her teacher training, she had the honor to study with Tim Miller and Maty Ezraty.  In her Flow classes at evolation, she strives to challenge the body physically in strength and movement while using the breath as one’s own musical cue.

Marc Cote

Marc completed Bikram’s Teacher Training in Fall 2008 in Acapulco, Mexico.  Since then, he has taught yoga all over the world.  He attended Bikram’s advanced seminar in 2009 to deepen his understanding of the advanced series and expand the limits of his own personal practice.  He began competing in March 2011, and placed 1st for Eastern Canada and 16th at the International Bishnu Ghosh Yoga Asana Championships.  A native of Montreal, Canada, Marc has a passion for traveling and sunny weather, and he is a frequent visiting teacher at evolation’s Florida studios.  Marc is dedicated to the study of yoga as both a practitioner and a teacher, and he is continually inspired by evolation’s community of students and teachers.

Dina Samuelsohn

Dina is the mother of 3 boys, and she has worked with children at different levels all her life.  She is a regular practitioner at evolation, and she loves serving the community by teaching the popular Saturday-morning Kids’ Class.  Dina knows how much yoga has enhanced her own life, and she hopes to share that gift with our youngest yogis!

Mark Drost

Mark, the founder of evolation yoga, has been studying the philosophy of yoga for his entire adult life and practicing Bikram Yoga for 12 years. He has been teaching Bikram Yoga since 2001, and he has taught in over 50 studios in the U.S. and around the world. He has founded or co-founded 11 studios and personally mentored several hundred teachers. His inspiration for evolation is to create union in the lineage of Paramhansa Yogananda. Mark brings his 25 years of experience in this tradition to his teaching. He applies this principle of inclusion to all his classes, in which he enriches the heated hatha yoga espoused by Bikram Choudhury with a deeper focus on meditation and breathing.

Zefea Samson

Zefea had her first experience with yoga at the age of 4 when her parents practiced with renowned teacher Angela Farmer in the Iyengar tradition. She forgot all about yoga during her teens and twenties and trained in different physical exercises such as boxing and the combat system Krav Maga. Zefea rediscovered the benefits of yoga when she started practicing Bikram Yoga in her home town Amsterdam, Netherlands. She graduated from Bikram’s Teacher Training in Spring 2005 and taught in Amsterdam for two years before joining her now-husband, evolation founder Mark Drost, in the U.S.  In 2006, 2007 and 2008, Zefea represented the Netherlands as the Dutch gold medalist in the International Yoga Asana Championships, all those years finishing in the world’s top 10.  Now, having added Flow classes to her journey as a practitioner and teacher, Zefea’s focus and determination is enriched with a new grace and joy.  Pregnancy also brought greater depth and gratitude to her practice, as she continued to practice even up until the day she gave birth to her amazing yoga baby girl, Indira.  Now, in addition to teaching and putting evolation on the worldwide yoga map with her husband Mark, Zefea enjoys her most challenging and fulfilling practice yet — being a mom.