Yoga teachers play a vital role in the field of Yoga. In India, Yoga is essentially a spiritual discipline based on an extremely subtle science that focuses on bringing harmony between mind and body. In the West, Yoga is more of a physical exercise.

In the yogic lore, Shiva is seen as the first yogi or Adiyogi and the first Guru or Adi Guru. Yoga gurus from India introduced yoga to the West following the success of Vivekananda’s adaptation of yoga without asanas in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. So, the first Hindu teacher to actively advocate and disseminate aspects of yoga, not including asanas, to a Western audience was Swami Vivekananda, who toured Europe and the United States in 1890.

At present, there are hundreds of Yoga teachers in the West and India who practice yoga and help society stay fit and healthy.

Here are the world’s most famous Yoga teachers, well known for their contribution to the practice of Yoga in the West.

1. BKS Iyengar – Born 1918 – Died 2014

Yoga School	Contribution	Books	Awards
Iyengar Yoga School   https://bksiyengar.com/	one of the foremost yoga teachers in the world	Light On Yoga	Padma Shri Padma Bhushan 100 most influential in World By Time Magazine

Iyengar Yoga has shown and taught how all the eight aspects of Astanga yoga are integrated. His style of teaching yoga, which certified teachers are now following, has been called “Iyengar Yoga”. All can practise Iyengar Yoga.

The emphasis is on precision and alignment in all postures. The use of self-designed props such as wooden gadgets, belts, and ropes helps the practitioner achieve perfection in all postures. The aspect of “sequencing” is also important. An “Iyengar Yoga” practitioner is aware of the sequence in which different groups of asanas must be performed.

Iyengar yoga helps anyone gain good health, mental peace, emotional equanimity, and intellectual clarity. The practitioner can learn to excel in his chosen career with a healthy body, a clear mind, and pure emotions.

2. Krishnamacharya – Born 1888 – Died 1989

Yoga School	Contribution	Books	Awards
Tirumalai Krishnamacharya Yoga School   https://www.kym.org/	Referred to as “the father of modern yoga” for his wide influence on the development of postural yoga. Revived Hatha Yoga.	Yoga Makaranda  Yogaasanagalu Yoga Rahasy Yogavalli	PM Award for the contribution of Yoga

He is widely considered the architect of Vinyāsa in the sense of combining breathing with movement; the style of yoga he created has come to be called Viniyoga or Vinyasa Krama Yoga. Underlying all of Krishnamacharya’s teachings was the principle “Teach what is appropriate for an individual.”

While he is revered in other parts of the world as a yogi, in India, Krishnamacharya is mainly known as a healer who drew from both ayurvedic and yogic traditions to restore health and well-being to those he treated.

The KYM offers several intensives focusing on specific aspects of Yoga, such as philosophy, asana, pranayama, meditation, and yoga therapeutics.

3. Dylan Werner – Born 1980

Yoga School	Contribution	Books	Awards
Dylan Werner Yoga School   https://www.dylanwerneryoga.com/	He has taught in over 60 countries and more than 400 workshops or events. He is passionate about spreading his love for yoga and helping others in their journey by sharing his journey.	The Illuminated Breath: Transform Your Physical Cognitive & Emotional Well-Being by Harnessing the Science of Ancient Yoga Illuminated Breath	None

He practices Vinyasa, Power, and Yin yoga. Dylan Werner focuses more on pranayama and meditation. He self-practices for about 30 minutes to 2 hours a day and takes group classes about 3 times a week.

4. Briohny Smyth – Born in Sydney

Yoga School	Contribution	Books	Awards
Briohny Yoga School   https://www.yogawithbriohny.com/	Signature classes, which blend an invigorating flow with eye-opening alignment instruction.	Inspired Partner Yoga	None

Briohny brings healing to others through online classes, retreats, and teacher training at Bryce Yoga School, the L.A. community she helped cultivate with fellow yogi Dice. Her main attraction is Vinyasa Yoga.

5. Meghan Currie – Born – 1997

Yoga School	Contribution	Books	Awards
Meghan Currie Yoga School   https://www.meghancurrieyoga.com/	Strong, fluid, creative, and playful Meghan’s signature Breath Flow Movement style is a slow, deep, liquid-like method that uses breath awareness to deepen one’s connections somatically.	NA	None

Meghan started practising Ashtanga when she was 19 and living in Costa Rica. After that, she practiced Yin and Vinyasa and studied Anusara. She then mashed all the styles together into her playful style, using Anusara’s alignment to be strong and safe within the play. She is a very experienced travelling yogi and teaches yoga worldwide in workshops, retreats, and teacher training.

6. Travis Eliot – Born in Texas

Yoga School	Contribution	Books	Awards
Travis Eliot Yoga School   https://traviseliot.com/	Travis is the CEO of Inner Dimension Media—a monthly yoga and meditation streaming service—and director of Holistic Yoga Flow teacher training. He has been featured in several media outlets including Yoga Journal, Mantra, Access Hollywood, and The Huffington Post.	Travis is the CEO of Inner Dimension Media—a monthly yoga and meditation streaming service—and director of Holistic Yoga Flow teacher training. He has been featured in several media outlets, including Yoga Journal, Mantra, Access Hollywood, and The Huffington Post.	None

Travis Eliot, E-RYT 500, is a world-renowned yoga instructor, meditation teacher, kirtan musician, and certified Ayurveda practitioner. He teaches his signature Holistic Yoga Flow classes in Los Angeles and workshops, festivals, and retreats around the world.

7. Seane Corn – Born 1966

Yoga School	Contribution	Books	Awards
Seane Corn Yoga School https://seanecorn.com/	Seane Corn is an internationally acclaimed yoga teacher and public speaker known for her social activism, impassioned style of teaching, and raw, honest, and inspired self-expression. Over her 25-year teaching career, Seane has created many instructional DVDs, including her groundbreaking series.	Revolution of the Soul: Awaken to Love Through Raw Truth Radical Healing Conscious Action Detox Flow Yoga	Honored with the “Conscious Humanitarian” award for her efforts in raising funds and awareness around the HIV/AIDS crisis. In 2013 she was honored with “Global Green Millennium Award” for her international outreach efforts and as an acknowledgment to OTM’s commitment in creating environmentally sustainable service projects worldwide.

Seane Corn, teacher and co-founder of Off the Mat Into the World, is more into Vinyasa Yoga. Seane is also co-founder of the Seva Challenge Humanitarian Tours, encouraging yoga teachers to get involved in fund and awareness-raising efforts across the globe.

8. Kathryn Budig – Born 1982

Yoga School	Contribution	Books	Awards
Kathryn Budig Yoga School   https://www.kathrynbudig.com/	Kathryn Budig is an internationally celebrated yoga teacher, author, and co-host of the podcast, Free Cookies. Kathryn is also a budding designer, creating a capsule collection for KiraGrace, Asha Patel Designs and Vapour Beauty.	She is the creator of the Aim True Yoga DVD, author of The Women’s Health Big Book of Yoga, and best-selling Aim True.	None

Kathryn Budig has been featured in Yoga Journal, Yogi Times, LA Metro, E! Entertainment, and other publications. She is the health expert for Quarterlife.com, a regular contributor to Shine from Yahoo!, writes the column Yogi Chic for Glam.com, and is a teacher writer for Gaiam’s Yogamates.com.

Her teacher training, grounded in Ashtanga, was at YogaWorks. She teaches creative sequences that make arm balances and inversions accessible to everyone. She co-founded Poses for Paws, which raises money for animal shelters.

9. Adriene Mishler – Born in 1984

Yoga School	Contribution	Books	Awards
Find What Feels  Good and Yoga With Adriene Yoga School   https://fwfg.com/ https://yogawithadriene.com/	Adriene Mishler is an international yoga teacher, actress, writer, and entrepreneur. On a mission to make tools for mental, emotional, and physical health accessible for all, she hosts the YouTube channel Yoga With Adriene, an online community of over 9 million subscribers.	YouTube Channels.	In 2016, she received the Streamy health and well-being prize.

Yoga With Adriene provides high-quality yoga and mindfulness practices at no cost to support and inspire people of all ages, ethnicities, and backgrounds worldwide. Google recognized YWA as the most searched workout of 2015, and it is practiced in homes, offices, and schools worldwide. 

Adriene is also the co-founder of Find What Feels Good, a subscription app dubbed the first “Netflix For Yoga” providing creative Yoga and yoga lifestyle content across all devices. Adriene helped create FWFG Kula, a free online social app for companies and their communities to unite in discussion and find support at no cost. 

10. Geeta Iyengar – Born 1944 – Died 2018

Yoga School	Contribution	Books	Awards
Iyengar Yoga School   https://iyengaryoga.org	Iyengar Yoga for Motherhood: Safe Practice for Expectant & New Mothers Striyansathi Yog: Yogatatva.Asane.Pranayam.Dhyandharana Yoga: A Gem For Women	Iyengar Yoga for Motherhood: Safe Practice for Expectant & New Mothers Striyansathi Yog: Yogatatva.Asane.Pranayam.Dhyandharana Yoga A Gem For Women	Prime Minister’s award for outstanding contribution to yoga.

Iyengar adapted her father’s method of yoga to the specific requirements of women. Specific asanas, pranayama, and sequences are given for different stages in a woman’s life, including menstruation, pregnancy, postpartum, and menopause.

Like her father, Iyengar explains how yoga unifies the body and mind and strengthens the respiratory, circulatory, nervous, muscles, epidermis, and mind.

11. Sharath Jois – Born 1971

Yoga School	Contribution	Books	Awards
Sharath Jois Yoga School   https://sharathyogacentre.com/	He is a teacher, practitioner, and lineage holder (param guru) of Ashtanga Yoga, in the tradition of his grandfather K. Pattabhi Jois. He is the director of the K. Pattabhi Jois Ashtanga Yoga Institute (KPJAYI) in Mysore, India. Sharath has communicated with schools and advocated for the inclusion of yoga into the curriculum. University of Virginia campus has a traditional Mysore program run by a KPJAYI authorized teacher.	Ashtanga Yoga Anusthana	He is a teacher, practitioner, and lineage holder (param guru) of Ashtanga Yoga, in the tradition of his grandfather, K. Pattabhi Jois. He is the director of the K. Pattabhi Jois Ashtanga Yoga Institute (KPJAYI) in Mysore, India. Sharath has communicated with schools and advocated for the inclusion of yoga into the curriculum. The University of Virginia campus has a traditional Mysore program run by a KPJAYI-authorized teacher.

In an attempt to continue the yoga lineage, he holds a summer teachers’ course for authorized and certified practitioners to ensure the Ashtanga method is being taught in the spirit of the tradition and with respect to the lineage of yoga gurus who have kept the practice alive—Rama Mohan Brahmachari, T. Krishnamacharya, and his grandfather.

12. Bernie Clark – Born 1953

Yoga School	Contribution	Books	Awards
Yin Yoga School   https://yinyoga.com/	Your Body Your Yoga The Complete Guide to Yin Yoga From the Gita to the Grail: Exploring Yoga Stories   Western Myths	Your Body Your yoga The Complete Guide to Yin Yoga From the Gita to the Grail: Exploring Yoga Stories   Western Myths	None

Bernie Clark is a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT) with Yoga Alliance, which acknowledges the completion of yoga teacher training with an approved and active Registered Yoga School (RYS).

13. T. K. V. Desikachar – Born 1938 – Died 2016

Yoga School	Contribution	Books	Awards
KYM Yoga School   https://www.kym.org/	In 1976 Desikachar and A. G. Mohan founded the Krishnamacharya Yoga Mandiram (KYM), a yoga therapy clinic and yoga center in Madras, India, as a non-profit public charitable trust.   Under Desikachar’s leadership, it offered teacher training and individual instruction in asana, pranayama, meditation, yoga philosophy, and Vedic chanting. It conducted research into the impact of yoga on people suffering from schizophrenia, diabetes, asthma, and depression.	The heart of yoga	None

Desikachar developed Viniyoga, a term from Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras. This approach is claimed to be holistic and aligned with the Yoga Sutras.

14. Carrie Owerko – Born NA

Yoga School	Contribution	Books	Awards
Carrie Yoga School   http://www.carrieowerko.com/	She holds a Senior Intermediate Iyengar teaching credential, is a certified Yoga Therapist (C-IAYT) and Functional Range Conditioning Mobility Specialist (FRCms), and continues her studies with the Iyengar family by travelling to India regularly, as well as with continuous and in-depth studies with her yoga teacher, Patricia Walden.	Yoga Point plus Process	None

Curiosity, openness, and affection are of the utmost importance in her approach to Iyengar Yoga, as is the integration of science, yoga philosophy, and poetic imagination in the yoga practice.

15. Vanda Scaravelli – Born 1908 – Died 1999

Yoga School	Contribution	Books	Awards
Scaravelli Inspired Yoga  School   https://www.catherineannisyoga.co.uk/	Her contribution to the practice of yoga in the West. She learned yoga as an early student of two of Tirumalai Krishnamacharya’s pupils, B. K. S. Iyengar who taught her the asanas, and T. K. V. Desikachar who taught her pranayama (yoga breathing).	Awakening the spine	Her contribution to the practice of yoga in the West. She learned yoga as an early student of two of Tirumalai Krishnamacharya’s pupils, B. K. S. Iyengar, who taught her the asanas, and T. K. V. Desikachar, who taught her pranayama (yoga breathing).

Her style of yoga was developed with the help of her long-term student, the yoga teacher Diane Long.

16. Maty Ezraty – Born 1963 – Died 2019

Yoga School	Contribution	Books	Awards
Yoga Works Yoga School   https://www.yogaworks.com/	Yoga Works Yoga  School   https://www.yogaworks.com/	NA	None

Ms Ezraty practised Ashtanga yoga, a slow, intense system of choreographed sequences in which each movement is linked to an inhale or an exhale. A colleague, Lisa Walford, introduced her to Iyengar school, which is equally intense but focused on precision and alignment.

17. Chelsey Korus – Born 1984

Yoga School	Contribution	Books	Awards
Chelsey Yoga  School   https://www.chelseykorus.com/	Chelsey Korus is one of the wellness world’s foremost teachers and philosophers. She’s been featured in PopSugar, Prevention Magazine, Yoga Journal, Women’s Fitness, Mantra Magazine, Fitness Magazine, Shape, is an Adidas athlete, Wanderlust headliner, and leading teacher on Yoga International.	NA	None

She’s been teaching yoga since the age of 15. She has been an avid lifelong learner in numerous movement practices, including Anusara, Power Vinyasa, Ashtanga, and Acro, as well as martial arts, free-form dance, and ballet.

18. Esther Ekhart – Born 1972

Yoga School	Contribution	Books	Awards
Ekhart Yoga  School   https://www.ekhartyoga.com/	Esther, the founder of EkhartYoga, has been teaching Hatha, Vinyasa, and Yin yoga for over 20 years. Her knowledge and practical down-to-earth teaching has inspired thousands of yogis all over the world.	NA	None

Esther loves teaching dynamic styles of yoga- like Hatha or Vinyasa Flow, focusing on strength, stability, and fitness – as well as slower practices such as Yin yoga and Meditation that allow one to get to know oneself better.

All the teachers have significantly contributed to yoga and yoga practices. There is a never-ending process, as learning is always new. This gives all aspiring yoga teachers and students a motivational sense to practice Yoga and make this world a healthier place to live.