Bridgett Piacenti

About Bridgett Piacenti

Over 15 years ago, Bridgett signed she and her best friend up for a Hatha Yoga class at her Chicago neighborhood park district so they could hang once a week. She also yearned to fill a void that had filled her entire young life of dance and movement education and training. Attending class once a week within a year evolved into two classes a day! She was “hooked”, not only physically, but more importantly mentally as well. At the risk of sounding cliche….a professed “type A” personality she had stumbled onto a yoga mat and into something much richer and deeper. Recognizing her passion coupled with reading an article on Ashtanga yoga, she asked her Hatha teacher for the name of an Ashtanga studio and was given the name, Suddha Weixler, founder of Chicago Yoga Center (at the time N.U. Yoga Center). Around 2000, yoga studios and gyms were not ubiquitous even in urban settings. She attended his led Ashtanga class one Saturday morning and stayed for the next several years. Quickly developing a Mysore practice under the guidance of Suddha and teachers Cara Jepsen and Mary Klonowski, she completed his Teacher Training Course in 2002 and began teaching Ashtanga. Eventually, Bridgett and her husband, Neil, made the move “up north” which brought her to Sharyn Galindo and North Shore Yoga. Shortly thereafter, she became pregnant and gave birth to her son, Rocco. She continued her daily Ashtanga practice of Primary and Intermediate Series under the loving guidance of Bill Shapleigh and Sharyn (who had journeyed this twice before her) up until the day she delivered! She then delivered a baby girl, Prima, 3.5 years later. Bridgett has been practicing for almost 20 years and teaching for over 15. She has attended workshops with Sharath Jois, Manju Jois, Dena Kingsburg, Richard Freeman, Tim Miller, David Keil, Petri Raisanen, Kino McGregor and has studied with Lino Miele, Paul Dallaghan, and Tim Feldmann. She currently is co-director of the yogaview Mysore program with Alexia Bauer. In addition, she runs the Evanston Mysore program at North Shore Yoga with Sharyn Galindo. She honors anyone who makes the time to step on his/her Manduka to take practice. Her spirit and teaching are colored with a sense of humor, discipline and patience. She is forever a student of this practice.