carla

Carla Aleili

I was a tomboy type climbing tress, hiking, swimming, horseback riding, dancing and starting college in 1968, as a P.E. major at San Diego State. In 1971 I cast off from shore, literally, at Marina del Rey, aboard a thirty-four foot sailboat with two other men. There was no GPS or automatic steering back then. I gripped a tiller, completely exposed in a tiny cockpit, most of the time alone. Especially through the dark of night. Swells rose up 40-50 feet.  I developed more physical and internal strength and balanced those rough and tumble thirty-one days at sea before landing in Lahaina, 1971.

I, too, have been involved in the business of fitness since 1972. My first paid classes were at Rustic Canyon Recreation center and then at a fitness gym in Pacific Palisades on Via de la Paz. When I moved to Ojai I founded the “Ojai School of Creativity”, and taught up to twelve classes a week (for very minimal pay back then) for ten years at the Oaks in Ojai Hotel/spa up until 1985. I was also deeply involved with “Yaleil” a belly dancing company and had my own “Dance-OH!-Gram” business where I performed all over Los Angeles with wonderful Arabic bands, and got involved with our mutual friend Bob Yerkes and his “Dancing With the Stars” activities.

I divorced my first husband of 17 years and moved to Summerland where I met my second husband, had a baby and spent six years starting a commercial fishing business until my husband was “lost at sea”.

One of the men who helped recover some fishing gear off my wrecked boat stuck upon a reef at Santa Rosa Island, ended becoming my third husband after we moved to the Pacific Northwest. I taught up to 18 classes of Yoga, Dance and other fitness, plus weekend workshops and performances and running a dance company for 18 years before moving to Hawi in 2011.(I divorced that one too).

I have been performing and teaching here and at other retreats on and off island and am not done yet! I’ll be 75 this year and I continue to live up to my professional name of “ALEILI” which translates  to “a gathering place to a high peak of INSPIRATION”. (I married again and found that the  “4th one is a charm”)

May I bring my inspirational life experience essence to your Yoga studio in Hawi Sequoia. On-going classes, workshops, or whatever the tides bring.

PS may some of my stories bring you awareness, understanding or comfort knowing that others have had some challenges too.