Katya and Dani met in an ashram in South India. Both had a very similar vision and share the same values and practice yoga as a way of life. They enjoy being able to share their practice with everyone who comes to the house.
With much love and attention they make Casa Cuadrau a space where all are welcome.
Co-director of Casa Cuadrau, Dani is a yoga and meditation instructor and mountain guide, as well as an ecological builder. From a young age Dani felt deeply connected to the mountains and it was in the Pyrenees and the Himalayans where he discovered hiking to be a powerful meditation practice and a way of deepening his connection with nature. Having studied technical architecture in Barcelona, Dani worked in the construction and theatre industries, and also as a yoga instructor.
He was introduced to Butoh Dance, Body Weather and other movement- based practices under the guidance of Carme Torrent and Andrés Corchero, among other teachers. Following several consecutive trips to India, he completed his yoga teacher training with Bharat Shetty (RYT 500) and he continues deepening his yoga asana practice with Matthew Sweeney. Dani’s meditation practice is based on Buddhist teachings received fromThich Nhat Hanh (Zen) and S.N. Goenka (Vipassana). He has also developed his own open meditation practice with Open Dharma.
In 2009, Dani moved to Vió to realise the dream he had been harbouring since 2006 of rebuilding and restoring a traditional Pyrenean building and turning it into a Yoga, Art and Nature retreat centre. A place where the practices he is passionate about can be shared.
Co-director of Casa Cuadrau, Katya found in Yoga a way of life, a system for self exploration providing her with constant support on her path. When she arrived in Vio she rediscovered her love and devotion for nature, as well as a path on which she can continuously learn from her and be in tune with her.
Katya was born in Mexico City. She has a background in business management and marketing and has worked in advertising and marketing in Mexico, France and Argentina. When she was in Buenos Aires she immersed herself in the practice of Yoga and meditation which completely changed her interests. In January 2009 she got her teachers’ training certificate from the International Sivananda Vedanta Organization and later, after having spent 3 years working in the yoga centers and ashrams of same organization in Buenos Aires, Toronto and Quebec, she attended an advanced teacher training course in India (500 RYT). In early 2014 Katya underwent further asana training with Bharath Shetty and got a 500 RYT teaching certification (Hatha-Yoga, Vinyasa and Therapeutic Yoga).
Katya enjoys teaching beginners and seniors, offering classes for all levels, in which each of them can feel comfortable practicing at their rhythm and condition. She also designs and offers special Yoga sessions one to one to pregnant women, to people with injuries, diseases or specific health conditions.
Katya also loves teaching Yoga to kids in a holistic way (yoga asanas, telling stories, games, handicrafts, basics of yoga philosophy and universal values.) She was the director assistant and activities facilitator for Yoga Kid’s Camp in Val-Morin, Canada.
Certified by the Anahata Center of Yoga Therapy and Massage in Canada, Katya gives applied yoga therapy sessions and thai yoga massages with much love and mindfulness.
In 2020 she got certified as instructor L1 of ANIMAL FLOW.
She continues deepening in yoga asanas with Matthew Sweeney, Boris Georgiev and Simon Borg Olivier (Synergy Yoga – Online). She also studies philosophy with James Boag, meditation, zen and mindfulness from Thich Nhat Hanh teachings, Wu De, Open Dharma, Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach. Currently she is studying in the Universidad de Barcelona a Wake Up Schools’ Program to bring mindfulness to children and teens.
Our greatest source of inspiration is probably mother nature. Everday she teaches us through the smallest and greatest experiences. We recognize in her a great master who guides life and leads us on our individual paths.
The beings that have had an impact on our spiritual journeys are many and to name them all seems impossible to do. As our practice progresses we continue to meet people who teach and move us, all in their own unique ways.
Here’s some of the ones that inspired us most along the path: Patanjali, Buddha, Jesus, Rumi, Tagore, Swami Sivananda, Ramana Maharshi, Ananda Mayi, Swami Vivekananda, Krishnamurti, Shunryu Suzuki, Swami Vishnudevananda, Thich Nhat Hanh, Amritananda Mayi, Abuela Margarita, Eckhart Tolle, Leunig…
Lean was born in 1987 in Argentina, in Comodoro Rivadavia, Patagonia, and when he was five, he moved to Spain with his family and spent his childhood in Burgos.
He loves travelling, meeting people, climbing mountains and being in nature… and he had been climbing and hiking for long time, until one day he realised that all he wanted was to live in nature and follow his passion, sharing his love for the mountains with others, so he decided to leave Burgos and came to live in the Pyrenees. He has a training as a mountain guide. He is also a kid’s counsellor for holiday camps and he continues to learn and train…
Lean is one of the mountain guides on the meditative walks and hikes at Casa Cuadrau and he shares with great passion his knowledge of the flora and fauna, the environment, the traditions of the Pyrenean villages…
Besides enjoying the mountains, Lean likes to capture special places, and to share his view of nature with people, he has created this project: Largos KMS
Author and teacher Wu De is a true Chajin (tea person). He has been a practitioner of Cha Dao (The Way of Tea) for over 20 years, and he has reached over 100,000 people through his writings, classes, workshops, seminars and interviews.
Born Aaron Daniel Fisher in rural Ohio, Wu De knew from an early age that his interests lay to the East. His martial arts practice began at an early age, and led him to discover the wisdom locked inside tea leaves when he was a teenager.
Upon graduating from university with a degree in anthropology and philosophy, he moved to India, where he lived and worked in a meditation center for some years. During this time, he prepared tea daily as fuel for his intensive meditation practice, and he laid the groundwork for his later work with tea as a spiritual vehicle.
Wu De then left India to study meditation in Burma, Thailand and eventually Japan. Working closely with a Zen teacher who often used tea ceremonies as a way of conveying Zen wisdom, his insights into The Way of Tea and the ability of tea to convey deep peace were strengthened.
After being ordained in the Soto Zen tradition, he began studying gongfu tea under Master Lin Ping Xiang in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Master Lin taught Wu De about how to serve tea with more skill and focus.
For the last decade, Wu De has been teaching the ancient practice of serving tea from a Zen and tea center in Taiwan, known as Tea Sage Hut. In the last three years, the center’s monthly magazine and organic tea mailing, Global Tea Hut has swelled to connect hundreds of tea lovers and spiritual seekers in over 30 countries.
Since mid 2019, Tea Sage Hut has had to close its doors. Wu De and his students are organising tea workshops and seminars all over the world to raise funds for Light Meets Life, his upcoming free tea retreat centre in Taiwan, which will host hundreds of guests every year, sharing the Way of Tea and a more connected way of living and being with each and every person who joins a tea session there.
Webs: globalteahut.org and lightmeetslife.org/about
Physiotherapist (E.U. Gimbernat , 2013) and Cook (self-taught).
Trained in physiotherapy and specialized in Urogynaecology, She combines her work with cooking. She has always been passionate about cooking and and good food. Presently she lives in a house in Baix Empordà, that has a large kitchen where she can experiment with and investigate food. She shares her knowledge in the form of workshops, in Verges , Barcelona and Vió. Her culinary research is premised on the use of local, organic and fresh products, easy to find and that everyone can easily have in their kitchen. She is interested in simple preparations and practical in the making, that are tasty and have a creative touch. Seeks to make everyday acts, moments of pleasure.
She studied and worked in the field of architecture.
With relation to movement and dance, a big part of her experiencecomes from the Body Weather Laboratory, a dance practice developed by the Japanese dancer Min Tanaka, with whom she studied in Japan during several years and with whom she collaborated in various occasions.
At the same time, she has developed the exploration and deep listening in body tactility through the regular practice of seitai (katsugen-undo and yuki), education in shiatsu and movement, as well as through regular meet-ups with Akinobu Kishi (seiki).
Touched by Cachemira’s Yoga, she immersed herself in this practice which originated in Tantric Shivaism, with Eric Baret.
Juan Carlos Escanciano is the creator of Navetierra, a project of communicating and spreading science, with a focus on astronomy and space exploration, and its potential impact on the human mind and in society.
His passion for the mountains, science and spiritual traditions impulsed him from the beginning to search for something that is aligned with his true vocation.
He studied to become a Shiatsu therapist and psychologist. He was particularly interested in humanist psychology, mind-body connection (bioenergy), meditation and transpersonal psychology.
During the last few years he completed his Postgraduate in Asthrophysics at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. His passion for discovering the Universe that surrounds us was solidified and became rigorous at this point. In any case, his interest in science didn’t stop here and he continue learning and self-teaching himself on biology, Earth history, evolution theory and anthropology, among other disciplines.
Finally, he created the Navetierra project, with the goal of sharing, in a light and inspiring way, the different knowledge and experiences that he has gathered during his life, from an integrative and holistic vision, exploring the connection between Science and Conscience, Mind and Cosmos, etc. He is convinced of the underlying Unity in all layers of Reality, only divided in appearanceby the limited analytical brain, in front of the complexity and diversity of phenomena.
Web: navetierra.es
James Boag is originally from Yorkshire, England, James teaches yoga and applied yoga philosophy globally.
James is known for his inspiring, inclusive and engaging teaching style and his holistic approach, which weaves together multiple mutually complementary elements. These include live storytelling, a principle-based, practical and inclusive style of asana/natural movement work, meditations and kirtan, all informed by years of practical exploration and dedicated study of Sanskrit and traditional yoga texts.
James has been teaching for over twenty years, teaching yoga since 2003 and leading integrated programs on applied yoga philosophy around the world since 2009. When he was still teaching English at university in Thailand, James began studying Sanskrit. Since then he has spent many seasons in Mysore, South India, where he completed his Sanskrit MA in 2012 and where he regularly leads courses on the Bhagavad Gita and Yoga Sutra-s, working from the original Sanskrit texts, and Indian Mythology.
Whether you are brand new to yoga or have been practising for decades, James’ classes, workshops and retreats are a great way to deepen your understanding of the bigger picture of yoga and how yoga principles can enhance our work with different yoga techniques and support us in all aspects of our lives.
Web: jamesboagyoga.com
They are both directors of the Yogacenter Ganesha in Vienna, since 2000. Boris has practiced yoga since he was a child and has taught for over 20 years. Renée has studied Indiology and Philosophy at the University of Vienne and considers that the Yoga practice is essential to understand Indian philosophy. Together they share a passion for singing Mantras and, together with their daughters, make the practice of Yoga and Kirtan a family one.
Boris, having practiced and studied yoga all his life, embodies the teachings that he has learn to love since he was a kid.
During his teenage years he practiced with Venzislav Eftimoff. Later, in Vienna, he continued with the integral Sivananda Yoga method. Then, in an ashram in India, he met Lino Miele, who inspired him to start his Ashtanga-Vinyasa practice. Since 1995, this method started to become more and more important in his practice andso he has continued to study with Michel Besnard and Andrea Morava.
In 2000, Boris founded the Yogacenter Ganesha, where he mainly teaches Ashtanga Yoga and Acroyoga.
Since 1999, Boris has studied Ashtanga with Pattabhi Jois and Sharath (India), V. Shashadri (India), Lino Miele (Italy), Nancy Gilgoff (Maui), Andrew Eppler (Oklahoma), Cliff Barber (Creta), Danny Paradise (Molokai) and others. A part from his personal years of practice, his teachings are also supported by the four years of studies around individual psychological conscience, Spiraldynamic® anatomy, AcroYoga® – a symbiosis of Yoga, Acrobacy and Nuad (Thai massage).
Web: ashtanga.at
Yogini, singer, composer and mother.
Renée Sunbird was introduced to yoga for the first time by her father. Several years later, she studied Indiology (Sanskrit) and Philosophy at the University of Vienna and started to practice Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga. She travelled to India several times to deepen her yog apractice and to study Indian music, singing Mantras and Bhajan. Mantras are the sounds of the Universe. Some say that they’ve always existed and that we can hear them when we begin to listen to the Silence. When we start to sing Mantras, we can enter a deep state of meditation and feel who we truly are. During many years, Renée and her husband Boris have led yoga retreats and kirtans in Europe.
Web: reneesunbird.com
She has been drawn to the sounds of nature all her life, as well as instruments that can create suspended sounds. In 2012 she attended the “Gong Ritual” Sound and Trance training by Dr. Peter Hess, where she was able to deepen and expand experiences through his receptive music therapy model.
She likes exploring the vibration that sound leaves in the body and the space where it is created, enjoying the expanded states of consciousness. Some of the instruments that she uses are the symphonic gong, monocordio, bowls, didgeridoo, drums, shruti, voice, etc.
In her experience as a human being, she would like to experience herself in balance in all the possible dimensions with this body. The sound and the silence are her great teachers in this trip, to improve and grow her perception, and to keep adding experiences to a more active intelligence.