Co-founder · Director
Ray Kane
Ray arrived as a member, took the 21-day intro and never expected to end up helping lead the studio.
Read Ray’s story →
Three years of shared leadership
Our leaders.
Phoenix was shaped by people who brought different experience, judgement and care to the community. These are their stories, in their own words.
Leadership at Phoenix
Leadership here has always been shared.
Our leaders are people who began as students, teachers and community organisers. You’ll also find them teaching, listening and helping shape what happens next. Their role is not to stand above the community, but to look after what it has built.
What this means for you.
The people making decisions about Phoenix also teach, practise and spend time in the studio. If something is not working, there are real people here who will listen.
Meet our teachers →
Leader · Yoga teacher
Kylie Roberts
Kylie brings breath-led vinyasa, movement science, strength, recovery and myofascial release together.
Meet Kylie →
Leader · Yoga teacher
Zara Karimi
Zara found yoga through youth work and has spent years making the practice more accessible across local communities.
Meet Zara →
Leader · Yoga teacher
Juliet
Juliet found yoga when exhaustion and dissatisfaction had left her feeling as though she had lost herself.
Meet Juliet →
Leader · Yoga teacher
Sumaya
Sumaya combines movement, breathing and meditation in slower, quieter classes.
Meet Sumaya →
Ray’s story
From member to co-founder.
He found yoga by accident, bought the 21-day intro and never planned to run a studio.
In Ray’s own words
How it all started.
I was on gardening leave after selling my business in 2018 and needed a hobby that didn’t involve drinking, Lycra or hitting little balls. My son’s best friend’s mum, Ozlem, suggested yoga at The House of Yoga in Putney. That was where it started.
I bought the 21-day intro pass and used it as a mini-bootcamp — trying as many different teachers and class styles as I could, often attending two classes a day. I was grateful for the range: the different types of yoga, the myriad styles of the teachers, and above all the feeling of community.
Not to mention the positive effect yoga had on how I thought, moved and felt. Needless to say, I was hooked — and bought an annual membership at the end of the intro offer.
“I never dreamt that I’d be running a yoga studio — but it’s funny what life puts in front of you, and sometimes you’ve just got to follow your path.”
Ray — Director, Phoenix Yoga Putney
From student to teacher trainee
The turn no one predicted.
Within 18 months of becoming a member, I embarked on my yoga teacher training — after what I can only describe as extensive encouragement (and some good-natured nagging) from Zara and Sumaya.
I didn’t go to become a teacher. I went to learn more about yoga and the eight limbs. It turned out to be one of the best investments of time and money I have ever made. I’ve integrated what I learned into my daily life in ways I never anticipated.
Then came Phoenix. I never dreamt of running a yoga studio — but sometimes life puts something in front of you and you have to respond. It has taken a village to get Phoenix to where we are now. I started as a member of this community, and it is my privilege to be a leader within it.
Ray’s story at a glance
- 2018Discovered yoga at The House of Yoga via a friend’s recommendation
- 2018Bought the 21-day intro pass — attended up to two classes a day
- 2019Purchased an annual membership at the end of the intro offer
- 2020Completed yoga teacher training (to deepen practice, not to teach)
- 2023Co-founded Phoenix Yoga Putney — and the rest is history
- NowExecutive producer on programmes for mi-soul radio, UK’s home of soul, jazz & R&B
Accessibility in practice
Why Phoenix uses sliding-scale pricing.
“We didn’t want to run a studio that talked about accessibility while charging for it. The sliding scale is how we live that out. Use whatever end of it serves you.”
Ray — Co-Founder, Phoenix Yoga Putney
Every pricing band gives access to the same teaching and the same welcome. Choose the amount that works for you.
See packages & pricing →
Beyond the mat
Before yoga, there was always music.
I’ve been obsessed with music for as long as I can remember. I cannot play a note, but I listen constantly and collect far too much of it. The right track at the right moment can change the feel of a class.
I’ve had the privilege of being regularly invited to executive produce programmes for mi-soul radio — the UK’s home of soul, jazz and R&B. It’s a very different world to a yoga studio in SW15. But the spirit isn’t so different: people who care deeply about something, gathered around it.
The connection between music and yoga made sense to me almost immediately. Both demand that you actually listen. Both ask you to be present — to let something move through you without overthinking it. When I’m on the mat and a teacher chooses the right song at the right moment, I feel it in the same way I feel a great record. That’s not a coincidence.
“Music and yoga aren’t as far apart as you’d think. Both are about presence — about letting something move through you and not overthinking it.”
Ray — Director, Phoenix Yoga Putney
mi-soul radio
Ray is regularly invited to executive produce programmes for mi-soul — the UK’s dedicated home of soul, jazz and R&B. mi-soul.com ↗
Kylie’s profile
Meet Kylie Roberts.
Leader, yoga teacher and a student of how bodies move, adapt and recover.
Teaching since 2011
Breath, movement and the body’s intelligence.
My classes weave breath and movement with vinyasa at their core, enriched by conditioning, strength, resilience and recovery. Drawing on physiology, psychology and lived experience, I encourage people to notice and question their patterns on and off the mat.
My approach is person-centred and compassionate. Storytelling, myofascial release and respect for the body’s own intelligence run through my teaching.
Teaching style
Breath-led vinyasa with strength, conditioning and myofascial release.
Favourite pose
Supine twist — a place to move slowly and feel tension begin to unravel.
Training
RYT 200-hour; RYT 500-hour in progress; Yoga Medicine therapeutic specialist training.
“I teach yoga as an evolving inquiry into being human, where body, mind, spirit and environment are not separate but in constant dialogue. My mat is where I centre and ground, building strength, resilience and recovery for life outside the studio.”
Kylie Roberts — Leader and Yoga Teacher
Zara’s story
Meet Zara Karimi.
Leader, yoga teacher and a committed advocate for accessible community practice.
From youth work to yoga
Making practice available beyond the studio.
While working as a youth worker with young people at risk, I discovered yoga. The practice changed me personally and professionally, encouraging more mindful ways of supporting the people around me.
I completed teacher training in 2014, initially so I could bring yoga into more youth groups and local communities. After seeing the impact of those projects, I developed outreach programmes with local studios to make yoga more accessible.
That work brought Eva Thomson and me together to create Live Karma Yoga. We use yoga and wellbeing practices to break down social, physical and emotional barriers, bringing together people from many different walks of life.
Community work
Free or contribution-based classes across South West London, with programmes in schools, hospitals, prisons, safe houses and the London Ambulance Service.
At Phoenix
Zara teaches music-led Yin and Yin-Yang Flow and hosts Flow to the Beat fundraising sessions.
Teaching since
Teacher training completed in 2014.
“Yoga for me is a gateway to realising that everything we need is within us. We are all teachers. Through learning from one another and supporting each other with care and compassion, the possibilities for change are infinite.”
Zara Karimi — Leader and Yoga Teacher
My favourite thing about teaching
“How much we can learn from differences.”
Advice I carry with me
“One thought, one kind word, one act of consideration can ripple further than we will ever realise. Recognise your power and use it wisely.”
A thought I return to
“When we do not know where we are going, any road can take us there.”
Juliet’s story
Meet Juliet.
Leader, yoga teacher, creative thinker and a firm believer in continuing to seek, grow and learn.
A practice that arrived when it was needed
From doing everything to finding another way of being.
My yoga journey began with an innate dissatisfaction with my life as it was. I was bringing up children, being a wife and working part-time—doing everything I thought I was supposed to do—and I was exhausted. Somewhere along the way, I felt I had lost myself.
At first, I was convinced yoga was for other people: people with time to lie down in the middle of the day, touch their toes and tie themselves into pretzel-like shapes. Then I stepped into a sweaty Bikram studio, was almost sick and almost never went back. Somehow, I did.
My practice began as something physical after a workout. Slowly, I felt better, explored different forms of yoga and found teachers who brought philosophy into their classes. When one of them asked whether I had considered teacher training, I chose to listen to the quiet instinct that said yes.
Yoga did not ask the world around me to change. It changed how I saw that world and gave me a roadmap for understanding who I am today.
“What I love most is the energy of human beings coming together to move and breathe. Teaching asks me to continue to seek, to grow and to keep learning.”
Juliet — Leader and Yoga Teacher
What calms me
Being still, meditation and allowing what is to be as it is—although that can be massively challenging sometimes.
Three words my friends might use
Creative, curious and genuine.
Something people may not know
I was born in the UK, grew up in Switzerland and lived in Paris, where I went to art school.
Somewhere else I could live
Barefoot in Ibiza.
What I am most proud of
My three girls and the extraordinary humans they are; and my husband, who is my best friend and biggest support.
My guilty pleasure
Friends who know me already know. I couldn’t possibly tell you!
Sumaya’s profile
Meet Sumaya.
Leader and yoga teacher bringing movement, breathing and meditation together.
Movement, breath and meditation
A quieter place to arrive.
I teach slower, quieter classes that bring movement, breathing and meditation together.
My classes give people time to slow down, pay attention and practise without rushing.
Teaching style
Slower, quieter classes combining movement, breath and meditation.
Still writing the story
“It truly has taken a village.”
I first came to Phoenix as a member. I now help lead the studio, which is both a privilege and a responsibility. Phoenix was built by the people who teach and practise here, and new members become part of that story.
Ray, Phoenix Yoga Director
