Schools and teachers

After doing more than ten years of African and contemporary dance, Rossana Galanzi started practicing Ashtanga yoga with Lino Miele in September of 1994 during a retreat in Greece.

Upon returning to Rome, she continued her practice with Lino Miele and Tina Pizzimenti, while following Lino to many of his workshops abroad (Finland, Sweden, and India). In 1999, she began her apprenticeship as Lino's assistant, continuing to attend his workshops around the world.

Lino, Tina, and Rossana, along with a few other dedicated students, founded "La Scuola di Astanga Yoga di Roma" in 2000. Rossana met Sri K. Pattabhi Jois for the first time in Helsinki during his 2001 European tour. She went to Mysore with Lino four years later to practice with Pattabhi Jois at the Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute.

In November 2005, Rossana accompanied Lino on his trips to Canada and the United States as his assistant. From 2002 to 2008, she substituted a few months per year for the main teacher at the Ashtanga Yoga School of Copenhagen, also founded by Lino. Rossana currently teaches full-time at the school in Rome.

In December 2009, Lino honored Rossana with a certificate verifying her more than 12 years of apprenticeship with him.

In the beginning of 1999, Pinuccia Buscaglia decided to sign up for an Ashtanga yoga course to regain balance in her hectic life as a manager. Six months later, she met Lino Miele in one of his workshops, and little by little, her life started to change. During 2001, she began assisting in Ashtanga classes. In September the same year, she met Sri K. Pattabhi Jois and his family in Helsinki and had the privilege of spending some unforgettable afternoons with them after the workshop. By the end of 2002, Pinuccia quit her job and dedicated her entire time to the study of Ashtanga yoga. She assisted Lino in Kovalam during his workshop and went with him to Mysore to experience self-practice with Sri K. Pattabhi Jois in 2004. After a number of years under Lino's apprenticeship and assisting him in Italy and abroad, Pinuccia felt prepared to teach and started conducting her own Ashtanga classes in Milano. In 2008 Lino sent her to teach in the Astanga Yoga School of Helsinki. In association with some of Lino's long-term assistants, she is one of the founders of the Astanga Yoga School in Milano, where she teaches daily. She is presently studying the advanced A series with Lino.

When Sandra Mazzucchelli was introduced to Ashtanga yoga in 1998, she was already at a mature age. Meeting her teacher, Lino Miele, was of significant importance. She embraced without hesitation the discipline of Ashtanga yoga and felt a strong sensation of energy and well-being emerging from doing the Ashtanga practice. This was a turning point in her life. After a few years, she began her apprenticeship under Lino, participating and assisting him in workshops in Europe and India. Encouraged by her maestro, she started teaching in Milano with Pinuccia Buscaglia in 2004. A year later, she traveled with Lino to Mysore to practice with his guru, Sri K. Pattabhi Jois. In 2009, her dream finally came true: in association with three other long-term students of Lino, she founded the Ashtanga Yoga School in Milano. Sandra teaches in the school daily, but also finds time to study with her maestro Lino Miele in retreats and workshops in and outside of Italy. She is currently learning the intermediate series.

Andrea Martinez made her acquaintance with hatha yoga at the age of fifteen and stayed on that path for several years more. However, it was meeting her teacher, Lino Miele, on her first trip to India in 1998, that her life and style of teaching took a dramatic turn. With her experience and knowledge from hatha yoga, she immediately committed herself completely to the study of Ashtanga yoga.Passionate about the Ashtanga yoga system from the start, she went back to study with Lino Miele in Kovalam three other seasons, and upon each return to Buenos Aires she worked hard to build up the Ashtanga yoga community there. Furthermore, she attended workshops with Eddie Stern (New York City) and Matthew Vollmer (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil).In 2008, Andrea hosted Lino Miele's first workshop in Buenos Aires. A year later, she opened the Ashtanga Yoga School of Buenos Aires under Lino's directorship. Andrea continues her apprenticeship under Lino Miele, assisting him during his second tour in South America, and then at retreats in Ca' le Suore (Italy) and in Kovalam (India).

Adele Petrossi, a graduate in nursing, came to Ashtanga yoga in 1994. She began practising in Rome with Lino Miele and Tina Pizzimenti.

The practice took hold, and wanting to go further she began attending the workshops of Lino Miele, who had trained at the school of Sri K. Pattabhi Jois and became the teacher she chose to follow.

For five years running she spent several months in Kovalam, in Kerala, taking part in intensive Ashtanga work to improve her teaching. She attended an In-Depth Study course with Lino Miele, president of the Ashtanga Yoga Research Institute in Via Annia 54, Rome, and on completing it received the diploma recognised by the institute.

She has been teaching Ashtanga Yoga for about four years.

A few words can change the course of our lives. I was with my calligraphy teacher and friend, who, sadly, was terminally ill with cancer. She was undergoing an examination by an American doctor, Ray Rosenthal. After the examination, he turned to me and said, "You should practice Ashtanga Yoga; it keeps you healthy and strong." Dr. Rosenthal spoke highly of the lead teacher of Lino Miele's Ashtanga Yoga school in Copenhagen, Gwendoline Hunt, and of her fantastic guided Ashtanga and "Mysore-style" classes.

In the fall of 2001, partly thanks to Dr. Rosenthal's generous donation of a three-month Ashtanga class pass, and partly out of curiosity, I approached the Ashtanga Yoga school in Copenhagen and asked to take a beginner's course. I was fortunate enough to practice daily under the guidance of Gwendoline Hunt and, shortly thereafter, Susanna Finocchi of the Lino Miele School in Rome, filling in for Gwendoline in Copenhagen while she left for Dublin. Encouraged by Susanna Finocchi, I attended my first workshop with Lino Miele in Copenhagen in April 2002.

In 2003, I was asked to begin an Ashtanga Yoga apprenticeship, assisting in classes in Mysore and, shortly thereafter, leading Ashtanga classes at the Copenhagen School. I continued to participate in Lino Miele's workshops at his schools in Copenhagen, Helsinki, and Rome. I was invited to assist Lino on his retreats in Holbaek (Denmark), Houtskar (Finland), and Ca le Suore (Italy).

In 2005, Sri K. Pattabhi Jois taught in London, and I attended his guided Primary Series with hundreds of other students from around the world. A year later, thanks to Lino Miele's persistent invitation, Sri K. Pattabhi Jois came to Copenhagen to give guided classes and question-and-answer sessions. There, I had the opportunity to spend memorable post-practice moments with Lino Miele, Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, and his family (Saraswati and Sharath Rangaswamy) during the week-long workshop.

I had long wanted to experience the teachings of Sri K. Pattabhi Jois at his shala in Mysore. When Lino Miele asked me to join him on his trip to Mysore in August 2007, I was thrilled and grateful. Since the fall of 2007, I have traveled with Lino Miele around the world and taught with him at his numerous workshops and retreats in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, Estonia, Lithuania, Kazakhstan, Russia, the United States, India, and Italy.

Today, Lino and I travel and teach together regularly, but during quieter periods, you might find me teaching daily classes at the Astanga Yoga Institute in Rome.