Laura Cropper, @NapaYogaGirl on Instagram, decided to become a yoga instructor based on her desire to bring others the emotional and physical benefits of the practice she had found. She realized that it was not the yoga poses alone that brought her an inner and outer “glow” after a class, but the teacher. Her goal was to become that kind of instructor, offering restorative, stress-reducing yoga in a supportive and inclusive environment.
After an intensive month of yoga teacher training in Maui, Hawaii, Laura received her 200RYT (200-hour Registered Yoga Teacher) certification and soon after began providing multiple styles of yoga in Napa Valley through Donovan’s Wellness Solutions (DWS contracts instructors to many of the exclusive Valley resorts). Two years later, Laura returned to the lovely Hawaiian island of Kauai to complete her RYT300 certification for the Advanced Yoga Instructor certification RYT500 (Registered Yoga Teacher with 500+ hours of training). She also added Mat & Reformer Pilates to her offerings.
When she’s not teaching yoga, Laura is a wine educator. She first came to Napa Valley in 2011 to visit friends. But like many who visit, she fell in love with Napa and never left. With a background in hospitality, she quickly found work at a sparkling winery, Domaine Carneros. Laura dove into learning about wine, holds WSET (Wine Spirit Education Trust) level 2 certification, and is a Certified Specialist of Wine (CSW). Today Laura works as an Estate Ambassador at Sullivan Rutherford Estate in Rutherford, guiding private educational winery experiences.
Inspired by her love of yoga and wine, Laura decided to offer an accelerated yoga teacher training program in Napa that combines both. In partnership with Cloud Nine Yoga School, a Yoga Alliance-approved program since 2002, and founder Erika Faith Calig, Laura will offer an immersive fourteen-day training program for 200YTT teacher certification. The program will include yoga instruction and wine-focused fun, such as practicing yoga amongst a vineyard’s vines, wine tasting, and educational wine tours as part of the two-week experience.
The philosophy of Cloud Nine Yoga is to offer a curriculum that blends academics, intuition, playfulness, and methodology with heartfelt encouragement. The focus is on yoga for mental health and uses ‘permission-based’ yoga that initiates practitioners into movement with invitational language.
As an instructor, Laura strives to provide an inclusive and welcoming environment for all levels of students pursuing instructor certification, “I want to create a training where students gain knowledge while deepening their yoga practice in a supportive atmosphere and enhance their ability to share both with others. This will be the first immersive yoga teacher training program of its kind in the Valley.”
Laura Cropper will begin offering the Cloud Nine Yoga program in early 2024.
