Founders
Born from a love of daily practice, the desire to create an environment as transformational as it was energetic and a community where they could live their best lives, co-founders Bex and Chai Deva have always had a strong, shared vision. To create more than just a space where people could do yoga or dance, create a strong, vibrant community where people could learn and discuss the physical and spiritual aspects of healthy living, mindfulness and living a life of possibility. It’s this unique approach that makes kindred so special. Kindred is for everyone.
Bex and Chaitanya Deva had owned and operated the Studio space in Nelson since 2014 when fellow yogi Tim Maples decided to move on from his running the yoga studio (then known as Inspire Yoga). For six years, they ran it as Studio Evolve before relaunching in November 2019 as Kindred.
Bex Deva
Kindred Studio Co-Founder
Evolve Festival Co-Director
White Belt Nia teacher, RYT 200.
Rebecca ('Bex') Deva was born to dance. "It fills me with loads of energy and helps me feel connected to the source," she explains.
Born in the cathedral city of Exeter in southwest England in 1980, Bex’s life had revolved around personal growth since she was a teenager when she also discovered African drumming and dance at the age of 15 – and she has been passionate about music and movement ever since.
Since 19, Bex has managed to integrate her passions – for exploration and discovery, nutrition, permaculture and natural parenting – with business savvy. For the past two decades, she has made her livelihood doing things she loves.
Bex went along to her first Nia class in Christchurch in 2006 and fell in love with the sensory-based movement practice that draws from the martial, dance and healing arts. She completed the inaugural New Zealand White Belt Nia teacher-training program in 2008 and has since gone on to train as a Green and Blue Belt and recently completed the 52 Moves training.
In 2017, Bex completed her 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training at Kindred.
Chaitanya Deva
Kindred Studio Co-Founder
Evolve Festival Co-Director
E RYT 500, YACEP, Dip Therapeutic Massage
Chaitanya vividly remembers the first full moon of 1995. He was mid-way through a six-month pilgrimage in Poona, India. Chai was already dedicated to a daily practice, meditating up to 10 hours a day, but it wasn’t until that night, as the moonlight dripped through the banyan trees, that something switched inside, and life was never the same again. Pilgrimages to India from the UK continued for the next six years. This included driving from India to the UK.
In 2000, he moved back to New Zealand to help his father and teacher set up the Maitreya Meditation Centre in the Marlborough Sounds. His initial physical yoga experience was one of the most painful experiences of his life due to his extremely tight and stiff body. By no means did he have an instant falling in love with the yoga experience. That was until he discovered Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga. He loved the combination of strength work which he was naturally good at, with his martial arts background and the challenge of stretching.
In 2001 he moved back to Auckland, working as a Reiki Master while completing a Diploma in Therapeutic Massage. He then set up three Massage clinics in Christchurch 2003-06, before moving back to the Maitreya Meditation Centre as the co-manager with his wife, Bex. They later moved to Nelson, where they also run the annual Evolve Festival.
Chai undertook a 200 hour yoga teacher training at Hot Yoga Nelson in 2008. He completed an additional 300 hour of teacher training at Purna Yoga Byron Bay in 2015 and various shorter specialist courses.
Chaitanya is a special guest teacher on many Yoga Teacher Training around NZ. He specialises in applied anatomy (the anatomy of movement). The thousands of yoga teaching and study hours, alongside the 16+ years as a therapeutic/sports massage therapist, have built a broad and experiential knowledge base, which Chai loves to share. The main styles he teaches are Vinyasa Flow, Yin, Hatha and Meditation.
Our Teachers
Rose Middleton
NZRN, MN, E-RYT 200, REP
“Yoga weaves its magic into every part of life - it’s not just about what happens on the mat, in the studio.”
Rose leads Hatha, Yin and Restorative yoga classes at Kindred Studio, focusing on connecting to a conscious awareness of breath, movement, strength, flexibility, and an understanding of the transformation that yoga can bring to people’s lives. She is passionate about inspiring people to discover how yoga can build resilience and joy in their daily life.
Rose brings a wealth of wisdom and anatomical knowledge to her classes by working as a Registered Nurse and exploring a lifetime journey of yoga.
Alongside teaching, Rose is also a member of the Yoga Teacher Training team at Kindred Studio, nurturing the development of future yoga teachers and those discovering new depths to their practice.
Since completing the IYTA (NZ), Introduction to Yoga Certificate, and subsequent Yoga Alliance International 200hr Certificate Courses, Rose’s constantly curious mind has led her to complete Yin Yoga training courses with Joe Barnett along with numerous workshop training including Yoga as Medicine (Dr Timothy McCall), Pelvic Stability (Donna Farhi), and Trauma Aware Yoga (TCTSY – Australia).
Memberships:
Yoga Alliance
Yoga New Zealand
REP (Registered Exercise Profession)
ANTON BENTLEY
RYT 200
Anton has been regularly practising yoga since 2018 and completed his teacher training with Kindred in 2019.
After teaching drama both in high school and after school classes for many years, Anton enjoys the change of pace and direction at Kindred and sharing and guiding the yoga journey with his students.
He teaches bliss yoga at Kindred studio and facilitates an essential voice workshop for the level 1 yoga teacher training at Kindred, covering how to free your voice as you articulate clearly, enhance your vocal resonance and projection.
SANDRA Tietz
RYT 200
“I enjoy teaching and I’m grateful to see the class growing and to connect with the students. It is an honour seeing regulars return and new students joining. From my heart to yours. Thank you.”
Sandra started her yoga journey in Nelson in 2017, back when Kindred was known as Studio Evolve. She started her practice with Chaitanya in his Beginner courses.
Following that, she took on more challenging classes in Hatha yoga, which she found helped to further develop her strength and enjoyment of yoga practice. Originally from Germany, where she was - and still is - passionate about salsa dancing. This is where she first realised how much controlled and consistent movement can help to strengthen the body.
In 2020 the opportunity arose for Sandra to undertake the yoga teacher training course at Kindred. She embraced the challenge with the main intention of developing a deeper understanding of yoga and the asanas.
She developed her confidence and soon realised how much she enjoyed teaching yoga. Sandra teaches the Sunrise yoga class on Thursday mornings.
Jane Morrison
RYT 200, qualified Sivananda Hatha Yoga Instructor. Specialty in pregnancy and preschool yoga.
Jane started to practice yoga in 2002 in Toronto, Canada and fell in love with her practice while living in Bangalore, India, in 2008. She attended classes every day and decided to stay in India longer and experience a yogic lifestyle at an Ashram in Madurai, where she met Swami Govindananda.
Jane completed her TTC in Almora, Northern India, in 2011 with Swami Govindananda. Jane is a qualified Sivananda Hatha Yoga Instructor, but her specialty and passions lie in pregnancy and preschool yoga.
Jane taught Sivananda, Pregnancy and Yin yoga at the Life Centre for three years, where she first met Chai and Bex. She has also been teaching Preschool yoga for the last four years at Stoke Montessori School.
Jane joined the Kindred Studio team in 2016, where she teaches Hatha Flow in an enjoyable, playful, yet powerful way.
LISA (SHAUNE) HATTRICK
Nia White Belt Teacher
Lisa brings an enormous amount of experience, wisdom and personal inner exploration to her classes. Her most recent profession was in the Healing Arts for 25 years, counselling in self-development and transformational healing therapies, particularly the breath. She is also a professional Astrologer with 40 years of experience and an artist.
She intends to encourage, support and inspire others to free up and let go of body, mind and spirit through dance and movement. Lisa believes that ageing can be no barrier to experience positive growth and healing. She aims to help others let go through fun and spontaneity, thereby creating more health, wholeness and aliveness as we age. Nia Dance is a wonderful tool for all of the above and more.
Lisa is originally from Scotland but has travelled extensively and lived in Canada, Europe, and Australia. She is now settled in Cable Bay, Nelson.
ROSAMUND FEENY
RYT 200
“Yoga is for everyone. We all come to the practice as unique people, and all take something different from it. It might be calming the mind, relaxing the body or strengthening the muscles, but the result of feeling your best self is the same. The perfect practice, posture or class is the one that works for you.”
After first trying yoga in 2015 years ago, Rosamund fell in love with the practice for all of its physical and emotional benefits. Since then, she has completed her 200 hour Yoga International Certificate and has been sharing the practise through teaching restorative, Hatha and power yoga classes.
Jo Paine
RYT 200
Jo has practised yoga on and off for 30 years, experiencing many different styles around the world. Having a very physically active life in a diverse range of outdoor pursuits, she began training as a ballet dancer in Wales, UK and still dances today.
Over this time, yoga has helped her maintain a strong and flexible body and, combined with mindfulness, brought balance to both her body and mind.
Her professional qualification in the dental health industry as a hygienist brought her to New Zealand.
Here in Nelson, Jo completed the Kindred Yoga Teacher Training and is passionate about sharing the practice's benefits and her knowledge.
Jo invites her students to experience mindful movement-bringing stillness to the mind and releasing tension in the body to integrate mind-body connection and balance with awareness in each moment.
Kati Meader
RYT 200, Pre and Postnatal Yoga Teacher and a Certified Infant Massage Instructor with IAIM (International Association of Infant Massage).
Kati dedicated her teenage and early adult years dancing and travelled as part of a dance theatre production on Europes stages. After finishing university, she stopped performing and worked within the health sector. She first started practising yoga in Germany, where she was born.
Her real passion for yoga began in 2006, during her first pregnancy, as she experienced the amazing benefits of yoga. It was a great way for her to explore her body changes and get to know herself better.
After having three beautiful daughters living and working in two countries, she concentrated on her yoga path. She completed her yoga teacher training at Kindred.
Feeling ready to try a Yoga or Nia class?
Take advantage of our introductory offer today!
