Franny Diaz-Gilligan (she/her)

I began practicing yoga asana in high school and never stopped. My love for the practice was instant. It was never hard for me to get onto my mat. Instead, always a delightful electric pull. 

After a 200 hour training in 2018, I moved from Minneapolis to Boston, where I’ve spent the last six years at Down Under School of Yoga as a lead teacher. It was there that I met my teachers, Masaaki Okamura, Marina Traub, and Fez Aswat. I continued my studies with a 300 hour, learning from some of the most knowledgeable teachers around the Boston area whom I’m lucky enough to call my colleagues, facilitated the Art of Assisting program alongside Masaaki, and I began practicing Insight Meditation and sitting silent retreats.

Brooklyn is my new home as of August 2024! My love for asana, student-ship, teaching, hands on assists, meditation, dharma, compassion, community, mental optimization, breath, and backbends, have all come with me! 

My dedication to the practice of yoga is palpable and infectious. I show students by example that with commitment to practice and an open hearted attitude, taking on challenges can become an exercise in deepening awareness, deepening pleasure, & deepening connection to self. What was once viewed as frustrating and difficult can now become enlivening.

My teaching is a play of paradox: when leading a class I embody fun & play, as well as depth & focus. While my guidance is friendly and inviting, the flows are also challenging and creative. I cue students into intricate shapes they didn’t know they were capable of, while encouraging them to breathe into sensation and enjoy the process. 

Students come to me & learn to be both full and open; deeply feeling as well as receptive; at once wise & knowing and surrendered to flow. 

Students will leave class cleansed by the rigor of the sequence, yet brimming with warmth and a renewed awareness of their own capacity to meet themselves where they are and mindfully push limits—to take a class with me is to leave your mat feeling simultaneously juiced and juicy. 

Focused and flowing, powerful and poetic, my classes are a beautiful opportunity to step into my world and explore the unexpected interplay of strength and bliss.