Your Guide
Bobby Hoyt
Yoga teacher, retreat guide, and student of the land. Bobby has spent 25+ years teaching across the world — from the Big Island of Hawaii to Peru, San Francisco, Florence, and the Black Rock Desert of Nevada.
He chose Sedona not because it's beautiful — though it is — but because the landscape has a quality of presence that accelerates inner work. This retreat marks his first time bringing that vision to the red rocks, and he couldn't be more ready.
Background
Training & Experience
Bobby has been teaching yoga for more than 25 years, with classes in North Kohala and Waimea on the Big Island of Hawaii, Peru, Vermont, San Francisco, at the Burning Man event on the Black Rock Desert of Nevada, and in Florence, Italy. Originally trained in Sivananda yoga, he went on to complete more than 300 hours of Ashtanga Vinyasa training with Larry Schulze at It's Yoga in San Francisco.
Continuing to expand his practice, Bobby has taken multiple workshops and retreats in Tripscore and Universal Yoga. His classes incorporate all that he studies — allowing the practitioner to move with the breath while quieting the mind and strengthening the body. His use of music and light-hearted humor adds to a unique practice soaked in many traditions.
Over the past ten years, his biggest influence has been Andrey Lappa, creator of Universal Yoga. With this influence, Bobby's classes incorporate a 360-degree mandala-style practice that maximizes the complete movement of the major joints in the body.
Credentials
- Training
- Sivananda, 300+ hours Ashtanga Vinyasa with Larry Schulze / It's Yoga SF
- Yin Training
- 200-hour Yin with Joe Barnet and Jo Phee
- Lineage
- Ashtanga, Yin, Universal Yoga and Iyengar traditions
- Experience
- 25+ years teaching internationally
- Specialty
- All level asana and pranayama practice
- Videos
- Bobby's Videos
How Bobby Teaches
Teaching Philosophy
Yoga as a Living Practice
Bobby teaches yoga not as a set of postures to perfect, but as a living inquiry — a way of paying attention to the present moment with curiosity and care. Every class is an invitation to arrive more fully in your own body.
Meeting You Where You Are
There is no ideal student in Bobby's classes. Whether you're a seasoned practitioner or have never rolled out a mat, his teaching adapts to you — not the other way around. Accessibility and depth are not opposites.
The Land as Teacher
Bobby believes that place matters profoundly in practice. Sedona's red rock landscape — its silence, its scale, its ancient quality — creates conditions for transformation that no studio can replicate. The retreat is inseparable from its setting.
In His Own Words
"In this wild world, the only thing we get to control is our breath... give yourself the opportunity to simply observe rather than react."
Bobby's classes are known for their warmth, their precision, and their capacity to hold both challenge and ease at once. Students often describe leaving his sessions feeling more like themselves — clearer, quieter, more at home in their bodies.
A Student's Words
One day I fell into Bobby's class, and I have never looked back.
Of course his anatomical training is Iyengar-detailed and always safe, but he manages to communicate quickly, gently and fully, using imagery and humor. His running narration of class is constant, reassuring, and non-intrusive. Bobby doesn't repeat a script, but varies his descriptions on a whim — often with hilarious results — that reaches each student.
He is not a tough taskmaster drill sergeant, nor a fuzzy hippy. I have never felt pressured, unsafe, bored, guilty or judged by him. Instead, he sets a flowing tone with his words and excellent soundtracks, concentrating on the breath and what evolves from that. His corrections feel like gentle reminders of something we already know but have forgotten. As he says, "It is a Practice."
In short, his classes are just cool: Challenging, engaging, sweaty, with excellent tunes, in a fun, supportive environment that makes me feel the healing burning from the inside out.
Practice with Bobby in Sedona
There are few experiences quite like practicing yoga in the red rocks with someone who knows both the land and the practice deeply. We'd love to have you join us.