Nicki Doane has distinguished herself as one of the top yoga instructors in the world, earning the respect of the yoga community and a loyal student following. In addition to creating Gaiam Ashtanga yoga DVDs, she and her husband, Eddie Modestini, teach hatha yoga classes based in the Ashtanga tradition at their yoga studio in Maui, Hawaii.

Nicki began studying yoga at the age of 18, while studying at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. She experimented with both hatha yoga and Kundalini yoga before finding Ashtanga yoga at the age of 21. From 1991 to 1997, Nicki embarked on numerous trips to enhance her study of Ashtanga yoga - traveling to Mysore, India, to study with renowned Ashtanga master Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, completing the primary through advanced series, and to Florence, Italy, to work with Gabriella Giubilaro.

In 1993, Nicki and Eddie moved to the San Francisco Bay area, where Nicki began teaching her first general Ashtanga yoga classes. She and Eddie created the Ashtanga program at the Piedmont Yoga Studio in Oakland, California, which is owned by yogi Rodney Yee. Then, they relocated to Maui, where they opened Maya Yoga, a yoga studio that overlooks the Pacific Ocean.

Nicki believes that one must strengthen the body and nervous system before addressing other systems in the body. She sees Ashtanga yoga as a meditation in movement, in which the breath is used to focus the mind.

"People are looking for a way to connect deeply to themselves and to those around them - and Ashtanga yoga is all about connecting,” Nicki says. “It teaches us to be fully present in each moment and to love life and appreciate the Earth.

“The real yoga is how we react to the rest of our life, when we walk out of the door, off our yoga mat.”