Rodney Yee is an American New Age yoga instructor who rose to national prominence in the early 1990s when he began starring in a series of Gaiam/Living Arts yoga instructional videos and DVDs.[1] More than thirty such programs now exist, selling in the millions worldwide.
Yee has also been featured on calendars, magazines and natural product advertisements; narrated meditation audios; written a book; and done extensive charitable work. He has made guest appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show, CNN, PBS, and elsewhere.
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Rodney Yee was born in 1957, the Chinese-American son of an Air Force Colonel, and spent his childhood on military bases in Altus, Oklahoma and Puerto Rico. He was a gymnast during his high school years and later became a ballet dancer, performing with the Oakland Ballet Company and the Matsuyama Ballet Company of Tokyo, Japan. He studied philosophy and physical therapy at the University of California, Berkeley. He dropped out in order to pursue ballet full-time.
Yee became a yoga enthusiast in the Iyengar school, but now teaches a blend of Iyengar Yoga and his own invented style. He began his Yoga teaching career at a studio called The Yoga Room in Berkeley; later, he co-founded the Piedmont Yoga Studio in Oakland.
Yee now teaches around the world at workshops, retreats and conferences.
He has three children from his first marriage to Donna Fone, which ended in divorce in 2002. Four years later, he married former model Colleen Saidman. They live in The Hamptons.
Yee became divorced from his first wife in 2002 and went on to marry Colleen Saidman, one of his students. Since dating students violates the precepts of yoga teacher conduct as defined by the Yoga Alliance, this conflict led to division in Yee-oriented communities.
Despite the controversy over the beginnings of their relationship, Rodney Yee and Saidman have now been married since December, 2006. Both yoga instructors continue to pursue their own careers (Yee with YeeYoga and Gaiam; Saidman with Yoga Shanti) and in May, 2008 opened an online yoga club / virtual yoga studio together called The Gaiam Yoga Club.
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