Instructors
Donnell Ritz, CYT500, RYT200
Donii has her CYT 500 through Yoga Alliance International and her RYT 200 through Yoga Alliance. She completed her first 200 hour Hatha yoga teacher training in 2016 locally at Shakti Yoga in Geneseo, NY and began teaching immediately. Her second 200 hour yoga teacher training was based in the Iyengar tradition with Francois Raoult of Open Sky Yoga in Rochester, NY in 2022. Donii is certified in Judith Hanson Lasater's Level 1 Relax and Renew® Restorative Yoga. She continues to attend various trainings and workshops as part of her ongoing CEU's. Donii is trained in trauma-informed yoga and mindfulness by James Fox through The Prison Yoga Project and has been teaching the incarcerated population voluntarily since July 2017. She has also co-designed and taught a yoga and mindfulness residency program for grades K-4. Her studies have been with Phoenix Rising Yoga Therapy, Dr. William Mahony, Barrie Risman, Ellen Saltonstahl, Sonam Targee, Christianne Asper-Contant, Dr. Edwin Bryant, Mirabai Mosca, Carla Anslem, Michael Amy, Meg Ruby and Josephine Vittoria. Donii understands the great healing and wisdom latent in ancient yoga philosophy and her passion is sharing with others how to apply it to our modern times. She founded Ritz Mountain Yoga in 2017, offering community classes and events in the Livonia, NY area on a weekly basis. Donii resides happily in the country setting of Conesus with her fiancé and 2 teenaged sons. She is currently pursuing a degree in Respiratory Therapy at Genesee Community College.
Carrie Ruffner, P.T., RYT200
Carrie is a physical therapist with over 25 years of experience in physical therapy, craniosacral therapy, and energy medicine. She is a graduate of the University of Buffalo with dual degrees in Physical Therapy and Exercise Science. She began studying Tai Chi in 1998 to learn how to improve her patients balance and quickly began to experience firsthand benefits of blending Western medicine with Eastern healing arts. Intrigued, Carrie went on to obtain a black-belt in White Crane Kung Fu, became a Reiki Master and a Yoga Alliance Certified 200 Hr. Yoga Instructor. She continued on to study Ayurveda - the ancient healing art of yoga - with Dr. Vasant Lad and Sonam Targee, and became a certified instructor in Vishoka Meditation through the Himalayan Institute.
Currently, she is a member of the International Alliance of Health Care Professional (IAHP) and trains with The Upledger and D’Ambrogio Institutes. She is the founder of Carrie Ruffner Body Balance LLC where she treats clients in the Gardeners Cottage of the Sweet Briar Estate in Geneseo, NY. Outside of that, you can find her paddle boarding on Conesus lake, hiking in nature with her daughters, or enjoying a good book.