JENNIFER GRAY

FOuNDER | TANTRA, JAI PRENATAL

Jennifer Gray opened The Yoga Center of Minneapolis in September 2000 with the mission to help people find yoga and rediscover who they are truly meant to be. Her passion and drive to create a space where a community can gather and learn the tools and ancient teachings of yoga with uniquely qualified teachers and staff was realized again with the opening of The Yoga Center Retreat in 2018. 

A wife, mother of three, yoga instructor, and business woman, Jennifer feels truly blessed to be living a full and meaningful life, teaching students and training teachers. Jennifer has studied with many great yoga teachers and scholars of our time, including David Swenson, Doug Swenson, Larry Schultz, Janice Clarfield, Richard Freeman, Seane Corn, Gurmukh, Sri K. Pattabhi Jois, Dena Kingsberg and many others that she feels have each influenced her teaching style.

She has written curriculum and designed programs for both the yoga community and her community at large. She created a system for breaking down and teaching the Ashtanga Primary Series for beginners so that anyone who wanted to try this challenging form of yoga could come into a non-threatening environment and begin building confidence and understanding within each pose.

In 2001 after having her third baby, Jennifer created a sequence of Yogic Meditation and Pranayama (breath work) for labor and delivery along with a prenatal yoga practice during pregnancy. She enjoys hearing all of the birth stories and sometimes even gets to attend one! 

In the fall of 2002, the Yoga Center of Minneapolis launched its first Yoga Study program with the vision of offering a year-long program for those who were interested in making the study of yoga a part of their lives. This program gave each student a taste of different types of yoga and different instructors who had different philosophies and backgrounds. Over the years this program has developed into the 230-hour Yoga Teacher Training to help people find the guru inside of themselves.

Jen aims to continue creating and fostering innovative programming. She knows that none of this would be possible without the wonderful Yoga Center Retreat family.

» View Jen’s Workshops/Specialty Series