Photo credit: WHOA Travel
Location: Machu Picchu in the Andes Mountains of Peru. I want to acknowledge that Machu Picchu, and the surrounding Sacred Valley, exists on the ancestral and unceded lands of the Quechua people—Indigenous stewards of this land for thousands of years.
Location: Machu Picchu in the Andes Mountains of Peru. I want to acknowledge that Machu Picchu, and the surrounding Sacred Valley, exists on the ancestral and unceded lands of the Quechua people—Indigenous stewards of this land for thousands of years.
Andrea DiMaio (she/they) is a fat, queer, neurodivergent hiker, backpacker, traveler, cyclist, camper, yoga teacher, and speaker. Andrea leads inclusive hikes and other outdoor adventures in western New York with Ample Movement, a group she began in 2017. In 2019 Andrea climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Africa with the Curvy Kili Crew, participating in a long-held dream and deepening that desire to go on outdoor adventures with like-bodied folks. That trip led to being employed by adventure travel company, Whoa Travel and leading multiple hikes for Whoa Plus on the Salkantay trail in the Andes Mountains of Peru and Iceland. They will be leading their first trip to the Galapagos in April of 2024.
Andrea also has their 500-hour yoga teacher certification and offers accessible yoga classes in western NY and online. She completed her 200-hour teacher training through the Himalayan Institute in 2019. That same year, she completed continuing education and became a Yoga For All(™) certified teacher as well as completing her 30 hours of Accessible Yoga(™) training. She earned her 300-hour teacher training in The Path to Yoga, Justice and Equity offered by Dianne Bondy Yoga, in April of 2022. Andrea began her teaching career at Samsara Yoga Center in Jamestown NY and taught there from early 2019 until the studio closed because of the pandemic. Andrea has continued to teach several weekly virtual and in-person group and private classes since March of 2020.
Andrea does her best to make her classes welcome to all and is thoughtful of the way she teaches. She uses gender-neutral and trauma-sensitive language and works to make the classes inviting and a welcoming space for folks to explore the expanse of their practice. She always gives several versions of each asana (pose) so that folks can find the one that works best for them. She knows that each person is their own best teacher and sets them up to build their practice by providing a space of true acceptance. Andrea believes that the only thing a person needs to do yoga is their breath. She teaches that yoga is for everybody and that you don’t need a flexible body, an able body, or a thin body to do yoga.
Andrea believes in truly living in the bodies we have right now and in finding freedom knowing we all have intrinsic worth no matter our body type or identity.