Women to Watch: Eli

ELI WALKER, DRUNK YOGA

Eli Walker grew up in rural Wisconsin and set flight for Manhattan to attend New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. She graduated with a passion for community-based theater and an infatuation for using interactive storytelling as a tool to challenge social norms and teach the art of joy through self-empowerment. It wasn’t long before this led her to the art of yoga.

She completed her yoga teacher training in NYC and furthered her studies in India during a 6-month solo-backpacking trip across the country. Upon her return, an injury led her to Katonah Yoga, an esoteric yoga practice that teaches students to refine their physical relationship with the universe using imagination, metaphor and teamwork to discover “center” through “circumference.” This practice was a game-changer for Eli, as it not only healed her back, but it also showed her that, with more progressive, practical and maternal teaching methods—(as opposed to more militaristic, patriarchal and dogmatic conventions)—yoga can be made joyful, fun and communal through performance.

Drawing from all of these experiences, Eli developed techniques to weave together her knack for community-building storytelling techniques with her expanse of yogic knowledge to empower her students and audiences to be the hero of their life's own epic journey, giving birth to her signature Divine Your Story™ teaching method in 2017.

Later that year, Eli took her mission to teach kindness and connectivity as vehicles for joy one step further when she created her internationally acclaimed (albeit subversive) company, Drunk Yoga®. In doing so, she pioneered a new genre of “yoga entertainment” in an otherwise individualist tradition, re-introducing yoga to the masses as an accessible, uplifting social experience.

Follow more of Eli’s journey at @eliwalkerstories and @drunkyoga on Instagram.

Fondly,

Yansi