Petri Räisänen, Nina Tomas and Alexia Galleron
Nina Tomas founded Aṣṭāṅga Yoga Anderlecht in 2024 and is now joined by Laura and Ola.
Thanks to my Aṣṭāṅga path, which started in 2014, life has gained in consistency and found a much deeper purpose.
Through the practice of āsanas, entailing the daily use and movement of our physical body, I have been experiencing states of clearness and self-awareness, as well as a connection to my natural surroundings. This, in turn, has allowed me to explore Aṣṭāṅga as an entire way of approaching life.
In addition to providing me mental balance and a better understanding of energy flows, the practice of Aṣṭāṅga Yoga has also helped me broaden the ways in which I find creativity, directly influencing my work as a contemporary artist.
Nina
Nina’s CV
| Year | Milestone | |
|---|---|---|
| 2014 | Started Aṣṭāṅga Yoga with Alexia Galleron in Marseille. | |
| 2014 | Discovered Aṣṭāṅga Yoga thanks to Alexia Galleron in Marseille. | |
| 2016 | Moved to Brussels and started practicing Aṣṭāṅga Yoga under the guidance of Francesca di Rosso. | |
| 2018 | Began travelling to learn from various well-known Aṣṭāṅga Yoga teachers such as Manju Jois, Peter Sanson, David Swenson, Sharmila Desai, Luke Jordan. | |
| 2019 | Trip to Mysore to practice with Saraswathi Jois and study Yoga Sutras with Arvind Pare. | |
| 2019 | Met Vijaya Kumar in Marseille and keeps practicing under his guidance each time he comes to Europe. | |
| 2019 | Met Petri Räisänen and started following his teachings across many different countries. | |
| 2020 | Started assisting Francesca di Rosso at The Ashtanga Space Brussels and teaching beginner and Mysore classes. | |
| 2022 | Completed a 15-hour Anatomy Teacher Training Course with Melanie Cooper at The Shala, London. | |
| 2023 | Started hosting the yearly workshop with Petri Räisänen in Brussels. | |
| 2023 | Began assisting Petri Räisänen in various workshops in Europe (Luxembourg, Marseille, Tenerife, Odeceixe, Fuerteventura) and in his yearly retreat in Koh Mak, Thailand. | |
| 2024 | Assisted David Swenson during his workshop in Brussels and completed the 40-hour Teacher Training Course on the Aṣṭāṅga Primary Series with him. | |
| 2024 | Started studying Vedic chanting with Shantala Sriramaiah, Veda Studies. | |
| 2026 | Completed the Indica Veda Studies Chanting Teacher Training Level 1 with Shantala Sriramaiah. |
Laura started practicing Aṣṭāṅga yoga in 2023 in Liège under the guidance of Mélanie Caillo. That is also where she met Nina.
Just a few months later she started travelling around Europe, Africa and Asia, following an itinerant Aṣṭāṅga lifestyle, guided by wonderful teachers such as Petri Räisänen, Vijay Kumar, Eva Ugolini or Prem B Shah.
During her regular stops in Brussels she has always been practicing with Nina - Mysore sessions that kept her inspired and motivated to keep deepening the discipline. A retreat on the Croatian island of Ilovik in 2024 further strengthened her bond with Nina and with the practice.
Between September 2025 and June 2026, she settled in Forlì, Italy, where she met Ivan Zattini. It was the first time she had stayed at the same school for several months, allowing her to go deeper into the spiritual and historical sides of yoga. She attended weekly meditation classes and continued studying the Bhagavad Gita, which she had already started in 2025 with Arvind Pare in Mysore, India.
During those 10 months, she also started assisting Ivan Zattini in his Mysore classes.
Now that she has moved to Brussels, she is creating her own teaching style by combining adjustments she learned from Ivan with what she is learning while assisting Nina at Aṣṭāṅga Yoga Anderlecht. She started teaching Mysore classes at our śālā in September 2026. Her curiosity and open-mindedness represent an excellent foundation for building relationships of trust with students.
Ola first encountered Yoga as a child in the late 90s during a Winter Yoga Camp in the Polish mountains. It took her about ten years to come back to the practice, and since 2010 she has been exploring this path and benefiting from its holistic healing potential.
She has practiced and studied Yoga in various parts of the world, including England, India, Nepal, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Poland and the Netherlands, meeting teachers from across the world. Aṣṭāṅga became her chosen path - she appreciates its rhythm, independence, high energy, and the immediate impact it has on her mental-space, helping to navigate some of the most stressful moments in her life.
Over the years, she also explored the world of meditation, with Vipassana becoming the practice she has worked with the most. In 2023 she completed a Somatic Approach to Yoga Teacher Training with Liliana Nuño and in early 2025 she spent a month in Mysore, India practicing with Vijaya Kumar in Ashtanga Saadhana Yoga Shaala. In that period she also followed an intensive prāṇayāma course with Prahlad and a philosophy course with Arvind Pare.
She has been teaching in Brussels since 2023 in different studios and as part of Yoga Communautaire, offering inclusive yoga classes accessible to people with low incomes or in precarious situations.
Ola started assisting Nina at Aṣṭāṅga Yoga Anderlecht in 2025 and is now teaching regular Mysore classes at the śālā.
© Mateusz Malcharek