Originally from Toronto, Meghan Goodman is an interdisciplinary dance artist and Iyengar yoga and Pilates mat instructor. Graduating from Simon Fraser University with a BFA in dance, and minor in mathematics in 2003, Meghan has continued to actively perform, choreograph and teach in Vancouver for the past 20 years. Meghan has been a company dancer with Aeriosa Dance Society since 2009. Meghan loves applying her yoga and pilates practice to aerial dance, and can be seen flying around trees, buildings, and occasionally mountains. She is currently teaching Iyengar yoga, Core Connect and Vertical Dance while raising her two young sons.
Meghan began practicing yoga in 1998 and received her first teaching certification from Flow Yoga in 2006. At Flow Yoga she had had the pleasure of learning from such teachers as Kelly Colleen, Jason Hagemeister, Jesse Enright, Bernie Clark, Padma and Paul Grilley. Seeking more information on how to work with a wider range of students, Meghan began her studies of Iyengar yoga in 2008. With the guidance of Louie Ettling, and granting assistance from the Dancer Transition Resource Centre, Meghan completed the Iyengar Intro 2 teaching certification in 2013. Meghan completed the Iyengar yoga Intermediate Junior 1 certification in 2017, now called Level 2. In February of 2020, Meghan completed a Pilates Mat Intensive Plus Teacher Training at Full Circle Pilates under the instruction of Darcy McMurray.
For Meghan, yoga and pilates have become the steady path to finding stability and space in the body, the antidote to an physically demanding and busy lifestyle, and a method for moving with intelligence and care. Her classes aim to share the many benefits of yoga and pilates.
What are the classes like from the student’s perspective?
In the words of one of my students Faith Moonsang:
“When I first started my yoga practice in earnest three years ago, I wasn’t ready for Meghan Goodman and ironically, she teaches what is for me the most accessible style of yoga, Iyengar. I wasn’t up to the challenge of even standing properly!! Now I have incorporated her classes into my regular weekly yoga routine and seemingly cannot do without them or her. If you carry injury in your body, have a mind that is fascinated with the mechanics of the human form, want a hands-on and ‘attention to detail’ experience with your yoga practice I urge you to get to know Iyengar yoga. Meghan is a wonderful teacher. She has a lovely way with the practice – correcting postures, suggesting alternatives, being conscious of making sure that you work within your limits. It’s all very gentle and supportive and calm. The next day however, guaranteed, your muscles are on fire. How do these two things go together? That is the wonder of it. Before long, I will be walking this earth like a panther. I look forward to it. To my friends I call Meghan’s classes the ballet of yoga. The rigour, the correction of posture, the fluidity, the seriousness of intent, the lengthening, smoothing and tightening of muscle but without the gendered stuff. What’s not to love?”
Meghan Goodman 