Get to Know Morgan VanWinkle, Newest Instructor at NLY!
By Gabbie Pepin
Northern Life Yoga Welcomes Morgan VanWinkle as its newest instructor and future studio manager. Behind the scenes, our NLY team has loved getting to know Morgan, and thought that you might like to learn a little bit about her before you meet her in the studio! Morgan will be teaching a Barre series April 20-May 25, and will eventually add yoga flow and restorative classes to her schedule. Over the summer, she will also be taking over as Northern Life’s new studio manager as Gabbie steps back to begin a new chapter in her life. She plans to be around the studio as much as she can: “more than just during classes [to allow] for more interaction with the community.”
Focused on fitness but driven by holistic wellness, Morgan hopes to bring an active, work-out-styled flow to Northern Life to “awaken energy and get your body moving.” Alongside her active flows, she enjoys bringing restorative poses and slower movements to the end of her classes, saying, “[Sometimes,] I need someone to tell me to chill out,” and “[with my] restorative training, I’ll still want to focus a class here and there on restoring our bodies after we’ve worked out, which is so important, too, with life.” Her classes will be accessible to all levels, but focused toward intermediate/advanced clients (Level 2) with modifications for beginners (Level 1).
Morgan has recently completed her 200-hour online yoga training, as well as a 25-hour training in restorative yoga, but she has done yoga all her life. She has always been active in gymnastics and coached dance all throughout college. In sports like these “you have to be very aware of your body,” and stretching is of the utmost importance.
Morgan shared a little more about her athletic background: “I started gymnastics at eight years old and competed competitively. [We had] five-hour practices, four days a week, which was pretty intense.” Later she began to coach younger kids in gymnastics, and when she came to the Soo for college, she reached out to Ashley Corbiere at Allure so she could keep working with kids. Morgan teaches Acro classes at Allure, taking them through their warm-ups, stretches, and dance routines. In Acro, they incorporate all different styles of dance, so she’s become familiar with Barre/Ballet terminology.
When asked what she’s looking forward to the most about teaching at NLY, Morgan shared, “I’m looking forward to meeting the clients, building that group of people that come to your classes, and getting to know them and see their progress—building that community. I’m a social person to an extent, but I worked at a desk for two years by myself in an office, so I look forward to talking to people.”
With the pandemic, and all the changes it has brought in the past year, Morgan finally felt the push “to do it, to get certified and do what ‘you’ want to do now, because nothing is ever guaranteed. It’s always been something that I’ve wanted to do, really dive into [yoga] and be an instructor, because I enjoy coaching so much.”
She shares her favorite quote by Rachel Brathen (Yoga Girl), hoping her students will better understand the attitude she brings to her classes and her yoga community: “The yoga pose is not the goal. Becoming flexible is not the goal. Standing on your hands is not the goal. The goal is serenity. Balance. Truly finding peace in your own skin.”
We at Northern Life whole-heartedly agree and are so thrilled to welcome Morgan onto our NLY team. Keep an eye out for her classes and offerings, and make sure to give her a warm welcome when you see her on Thrive or in person! Check out Morgan’s bio on our staff page to learn more, or get to know her at her first class. She can’t wait to meet you!