ABOUT PEAK YOGA
Peak Yoga, located in Stowe, VT, is part of The Swimming Hole, a local non-profit dedicated to supporting the community’s health and well-being. The studio offers a variety of classes five days a week, welcoming all levels and styles of practice. Led by Studio Director Katie Shanley, Peak Yoga provides a supportive and inclusive space for everyone, from beginners to seasoned practitioners. In March 2025, the studio will launch its first 200-hour yoga teacher training program, led by Katie, as part of its status as a Yoga Alliance registered yoga school.
MEET OUR TEAM
Katie Shanley
(she/her)
Peak Yoga Director/Instructor
Katie is an E-RYT 500 Trauma-Informed Yoga Teacher. She has been teaching for 8 years and practicing for 15 years. Katie did her 200-hour Vinyasa teacher training at Sanctuary Power Yoga in CT and her 300-hour Hatha/Ashtanga teacher training in Rishikesh, India. She has furthered her yoga and movement studies with yin, trauma-informed yoga, Buti Yoga, specialized workshops, and she's a certified barre teacher as well. Katie loves being a forever student. Her signature style is an eclectic blend - a strength and philosophy-driven flow class that is approachable to all levels.
Katie previously owned a studio in Millerton, NY for 4.5 years, with the pandemic bringing it to an abrupt close. Through her studio, she led two 200-hour yoga teacher trainings - one of which was entirely online during the pandemic. She has certified just under 20 teachers - all of whom gave her program 5 stars. Additionally, Katie is a certified health coach, aromatherapist, and vintage clothing lover - she even used to have a shop in Stowe!
Katie is thrilled to bring her knowledge, passion, experience, and huge heart to the Stowe Community. A UVM graduate, Katie always hoped she would return to Vermont and is extremely grateful that the time was finally right and she was able to move here with her husband (also a wonderful yoga teacher - whom she trained!) and their two rescue pups!
Lindsey LaFrance
(she/her) Peak Yoga Instructor
Lindsey completed her 200 hour Yoga Teacher in addition to The Roll Model Method certification at River Rock Yoga in 2015. She continued to teach along side and study under the compassionate guidance of Sandy Byrne until she moved to Stowe in 2019.
Lindsey’s classes take into consideration her students’ everyday, physical needs as well as their more subtle spiritual needs. She teaches now in hopes of paying it forward, helping guide others to find ease in their bodies and in their hearts, just like it happened for her.
Practice with Lindsey
Monday Vinyasa 9:30-10:45AM
Wednesday All-Levels Hatha 5:15-6:30PM
Friday All-Levels Yoga 9:30-10:45AM
Tracy Bechtel
(she/her) Peak Yoga Instructor
Tracy has been teaching yoga since completing her teacher training with world-renowned yogi master, Sri Dharma Mittra, in New York City in 2015. She found yoga in 2010 and discovered the practice to be a powerful set of tools for achieving physical health and wellness, emotional healing and mental clarity as well as Self-discovery. She initially practiced for many years at Sharon Gannon & David Life’s Jivamukti Yoga School in NYC. Her yoga classes follow the Dharma lineage of Hatha Raja yoga with some ashtanga-based Jivamukti influence.
Practice with Tracy
Tuesday & Thursday Dharma Yoga
8:30-9:45AM
Marina Turco
(she/her) Peak Yoga Instructor
Yoga found Marina unexpectedly as she never intended to become a teacher but always loved the practice. Studying Holistic Medicine at Johnson State, where she met and practiced with other Dharma Yogis, and then Sri Dharma Mittra himself, where she found her way into her Sangha. Marina has been practicing Dharma Yoga since 2016 and teaching since 2019. She is a 200 & 500 hour teacher through the Dharma Yoga Center. Marina has taught in other studios such as Dharma Yoga Vermont in Johnson, VT and at the Sana Recovery Center in Stowe, VT. Marina is passionate about sharing traditional Yoga for householders through a compassionate, humorous, and enthusiastic manner. Join Marina for class to help each other realize the goal of Yoga-self realization. Om Shanti!
Practice with Marina
Sunday Dharma Yoga
1o-11:15AM
Faye Tolar
(she/her) Peak Yoga Instructor
Faye has been practicing yoga for over 30 years and completed her 200-hour yin yoga teacher training with Josh Summers in 2021 and completed 500-hours in 2024. With a background in respiratory therapy specializing in the education of respiratory therapists, Faye shares a blend of education and medical knowledge with yoga practice. Faye enjoys teaching those who strive for a healthy balance between aerobic exercise and the ‘yin’ of coming into stillness, awareness of breath and allowing sensation. Faye has greatly benefited from the transformation and healing power that yoga has to offer and wants to share her passion with her community. Faye welcomes students at all levels of yoga to her classes.
Practice with Faye
Sunday Yin Yoga
8:30-9:45AM
Mary Taussig
(she/her) Peak Yoga Instructor
Mary is a New York native and forever lover of Vermont. Yoga has weaved in and out of her life- primarily as a counter to various physical sports she participated in and now as a tool that helps her connect to herself and cultivate openness in the unknown. After receiving a degree in counseling, Mary hoped to teach yoga and mindfulness to children- to support emotion regulation and to serve as a foundation to self and social awareness. To her, yoga means finding a place to land and to play. Mary loves the potential yoga offers to experience familiarity and newness at the same time. To experience depth in familiar poses and to build peace with the mind. In a busy world, with a busy mind, yoga reminds her to pause and take a moment. Mary aims to guide students to find a place to land, to take up space, and to have fun.
Practice with Mary
Wednesday Vinyasa
9:30-10:45AM
Tuesday Vinyasa (starting 7/30)
5:15-6:30PM
