Yoga Teacher Profile

Donna Davidge has been a yoga instructor for nearly 25 years. She has a large and devoted following in New York City and across the U.S. Her unusual life has led her through several careers, including teaching yoga before it was fashionable. She teaches mainly Kundalini yoga but also Hatha, Vinyasa, and Ashtanga. She is certified by 3HO (Kundalini yoga) and Yoga Alliance. She has been featured on TV on Martha Stewart Living and was recently chosen to teach yoga on Tommy Hilfiger’s reality series The Cut. Her video The Challenge was named among the top 10 in 2000 by Yoga Journal magazine.

Donna grew up in Stamford, Connecticut. Her path to yoga began with a B.S. in Nutrition (graduating Summa Cum Laude) from University of New Hampshire. She became a Registered Dietitian (R.D.) and went on to obtain a Masters Degree (also in Nutrition) at Loma Linda University. She went into private practice following graduation. In 1982 a life-changing realization inspired her to move to Europe where she supported herself as a fashion model. In 1985 Donna returned to New York to embark on an acting career, where she enrolled in her first yoga class. Within three months her teacher told her she had the aura of a great teacher. Within a year she was teaching yoga. For the next 10 years Donna worked as an actress (credits include an appearance opposite Robert DeNiro in Goodfellas) and taught yoga simultaneously. By the mid 1990’s her passion for yoga outweighed her passion for acting. She shifted to teaching yoga full-time.

In 1997 Donna purchased Sewall House, a historic landmark in northern Maine. It was originally built by her great-grandfather, William Wingate Sewall, in 1865, and is listed in the National Registry of Historic Places. Bill Sewall was a well-known nature guide in the late 1800’s who enjoyed a lifelong friendship with Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt first came to the house as a Harvard freshman suffering from life-threatening asthma. His health was restored (as recorded in newspapers of the time) from his stays with Bill Sewall at the Sewall House. Donna and her husband, Kent Bonham, have lovingly restored the house to its original glory. Today they run Sewall House as a yoga retreat.

Donna divides her time between Maine and New York where she teaches at Golden Bridge Yoga Center. She teaches or has taught at Equinox, N.Y. Sports club, Waterside Swim and Health Club, H.B. Studio, Pura Vida Spa (Costa Rica), New Age Spa (N.Y.), and Kundalini Yoga East. She has an extensive base of private clients, conducts regular workshops and is a popular guest-instructor at Solstice (Annual Kundalini Yoga Conference). She has released the videos Strength and Serenity (1990), The Challenge (1996) (Top 10, Yoga Journal, 2000), the DVDs The Awakening (2004) and Flexibility and the Spine (2005).

Donna and the Sewall House have been featured in: InStyle, Travel & Leisure, USA Today, Glamour, Yoga Journal, GQ, Allure, Details, Healing Retreats and Spas, More magazine (November 2005), and New York Times (December2005). For Donna, Yoga is a way of life as well as a path by which she is helping others to realize their true potential.