Graduating alongside Katie Manitsas as one of the first Certified Jivamukti Yoga Teachers in Australia, and the first to spread the word of Jivamukti Yoga in Australia in his classes for many years before that, Richard has studied with his teachers and the founders of the Jivamukti style, Sharon Gannon and David Life, for over twenty years, drawing inspiration from their teachings for his own Yoga practice, for his classes and for his creativity as choreographer, poet and filmmaker.  Richard was a mentor for Jivamukti’s international teacher training program at Omega Institute in upstage New York and has been a teacher since the beginning of Life Source Yoga’s year-long teacher training programme offered in Sydney under the directorship of Christina Brown.  An advanced Ashtanga practitioner, for many years Richard pursued a traditional pathway of learning the first four series of Ashtanga Yoga through workshops with Shri K. Pattabhi Jois and his grandson Sharat, and classes with their leading pupils such as Graeme and Leonie Northfield, Matthew Sweeney, Peter Sanson, Eileen Hall and others.  He also holds an Iyengar-based Sydney Yoga Centre Hatha Yoga Teaching Certificate (Eve Grzybowksi, Colin Rivers, Mardi Kendall) and owes a debt of gratitude for the foundation he received from his first Australian Yoga teachers, Rick Birrell and Caroline Harris.

Richard has been teaching Yoga for fifteen years and dance for over twenty-five years.  He was awarded the Chancellor’s Award at the University of Technology, Sydney, for a doctoral thesis that explores spiritual philosophy and shapeshifting creativity through the frame of the Jivamukti Yoga teachings. His multi-award-winning films, books and live performance works have been screened, broadcast, published and performed in over 30 countries around the world.  His natural flexibility in asana practice is featured in Christina Brown’s bestselling book, The Yoga Bible, now translated into over 10 languages, and in the short films Breathe by Nina Williams and Rubberman Accepts The Nobel Prize by Karen Pearlman.  Films he has directed, such as Thursday’s Fictions, Entanglement Theory, and Monk: Reloaded, and books he has written, such as The Kamikaze Mind and Thursday’s Fictions, explore spiritual themes in refreshing and entertaining ways.