Heidi Ellison Childress

Heidi Ellison Childress is a native Chicagoan. From a musical family, she danced with the San Francisco Ballet and Basel Ballet in Switzerland. Returning to Chicago, she taught aerobics briefly while becoming manager and buyer for Giorgio Armani.

She became a once a week student of yoga in 1996, increasingly interested by 2000. At first, a physical form for her, with attention and commitment, she has found yoga to be a many layered system of self exploration. A source of great inspiration and energy as well as solace, it continually supports all aspects of her life, helping to bring it into balance.

Teaching since 2003, Heidi’s classes blend aspects of Hatha, Vinyasa and Yin yoga to create a moving meditation. She believes that through a thoughtful practice, yoga enables us to experience the letting go of tension, to feel the energy we are made of and, ultimately to feel comfortable in our skin. 

Heidi practices primarily under the guidance of Suddha Weixler at Chicago Yoga Center. Having taken many teacher trainings and intensives, she considers the most profound to be those of Erich Schiffmann and is influenced by Sarah Powers and Paul Grilley, whom she assisted at the 2009 Midwest Yoga Conference. 
She currently teaches privately as well as in group settings.

Above all, she thanks her husband Marvin for bringing her to her first class, for his constant support and for the often spirited discussions they share on the subject.