Teachers
Greg Marzullo
Greg was first introduced to yoga while attending a theater summer camp as an adolescent. Struck by the way sun salutations made him feel focused yet mentally expansive, he continued to come back to asana practice throughout his teens and early twenties. After the rigors of a dance and movement theater career, during which he helped to found the Helen Hayes award-winning Synetic Theater, he rededicated himself to yoga as a way to begin bringing his body back into balance. Developing a regular practice quickly evolved into asana becoming a spiritual gateway to walking a more peaceful, compassionate, and loving road – something he hopes to share with everyone he meets in all situations. Greg completed his 200-hour yoga teacher training at Flow Yoga Center and views his role as one of deep service to yogis of all backgrounds. Spellbound by the power of the body to unlock spiritual awakenings, Greg also studies bellydancing and has taken workshops in ecstatic dance traditions of Northern African and Southern Italy.
Greg’s Teaching Style: Focusing on the journey of the practitioner, Greg uses dynamic music and open-herated guidance to lead people on their own yogic trip. Students can expect to enjoy flowing sequences, mythological storytelling, heartwarming laughter, and the chance to open the rivers of the body and the spirit.
Teacher Spotlight
How do you find your flow?
Through acts of devotion: meditation, solo dance parties in my living room, kissing trees, talking to birds, and sprinkling lavender blossoms in rivers.
Why yoga?
Yoga has had a profound influence on my life, transforming it in ways that continue to delight and astound me. When I first started practicing on my own, I was a broke actor who couldn't afford any classes, so I bought Iyengar's Light on Yoga and began working my way through the programs in the back of the book. I eventually took a few classes at Flow, landing in Jessica Lazar's Tuesday night Flow 2, and I was hooked.
Yoga's rich history of ecstatic embodiment resonates deeply with my own beliefs about the necessity of sacred movement in our lives. Peoples throughout history and around the world have seen the value of intentional movement as a way of transcending the self and hooking up with the Self, the Maha-Mystery. Whenever I practice, I feel that I'm able to connect to that unfolding, and it fills me with wonder.
What is your favorite Yoga Pose?
I'm a sucker for the heart openers. I can't get enough of them. Urdhva Dhanurasana, Ustrasana, Natarajasana. Bring it!
Why Flow Yoga Center?
Practicing and now teaching at Flow has made me fall in love with the city. I'd lived here for seven years before finding Flow, and I always longed to go somewhere else. I never felt rooted in this place and saw it just as a jumping off point for somewhere better (and that leap to some far-flung locale wasn't manifesting at all). Once I discovered the studio, I found my tribe, and D.C. became a home for me. I see yogis on streets all over the city, and these amazing people always have a moment to stop, give a kiss on the cheek or a hug, laugh, and enjoy the moment.
Although someday I plan on moving to Hawaii, until that time comes, I am deeply content and happy here, and I'll always be grateful to Flow's fostering of community for opening my heart to this glorious city and its yogis.
Aside from teaching yoga, what other activities fill your life?
During the summer months, I belong to a Community Supported Agriculture program, where I buy a share of a farm and get a big box of produce every week of whatever has been harvested. From the first week of May to the last week of November, I'm usually in my kitchen at all hours of the day and night experimenting, whisking, roasting, piping, glazing and eating. This is usually accompanied by any combination of laughter, dharana-like concentration, swearing and/or the occasional kitchen meltdown.
Bellydance is another passion of mine, and I've been taking one-to-two classes per week for three years at Mamasita on the Takoma Park-D.C. line. It's incredibly liberating and full of some of the greatest joy I've ever experienced.
If I'm not doing those things or yoga, I'm listening to opera. I've been a major opera queen since I was 15, and my husband always says that it's like my gay version of football. I can often be heard yelling at the radio, "You call that a trill? How about singing that on pitch, sweetheart?"
What are you most proud of?
I try to cut the whole pride thing out altogether. That is one slippery slope.
Tell us something about yourself that your students may not know.
When I was about three or four, I have clear memories of being madly in love with the cartoon prince from Disney's Sleeping Beauty. Prince Philip was the hottest thing ever, I thought, and now I've got my very own. My hubby is tall, a total hero and is named Philip. I love how that worked out!
What is your personal mantra/motto?
This shifts and changes, depending on what's going on in my life. For a little bit now, though, I've been really into "Do It or Don't." It reminds me of Yoda's, "There is no try. Only Do." For the longest time, that irritated me, but I think I've begun to understand how important it is to step up to the mat and engage without excuses, without self-centered drama, without the focus on "me, me, me". Or don't step up to the mat and go out for a cocktail. Either way, commit and be there.
What do you most admire in others?
Authenticity.
What is your idea of earthly happiness?
Bare feet on the earth. Kissed by the sun. Breath. Movement. Prana. Shakti. Love.
