The Bar Method | Carolyn Loh

Carolyn Loh started her Bar Method journey in 2008 when she took her first class in Summit, New Jersey. Immediately hooked, she became determined to bring The Bar Method closer to her home in northern New Jersey. After 25 years as a graphic artist and children's book illustrator, she made a sharp career change in 2010, co-founding a Bar Method studio in Englewood, NJ. Two years later she opened The Bar Method Ridgewood, her current studio.

Carolyn is known for her fun, challenging classes, for healthy team-building, and for creating a studio atmosphere that is motivating, supportive, and encourages wellness habits that last a lifetime. She is constantly rewarded by seeing students make positive changes in their bodies and lives. "I teach the class I want to take," she says. "My goal is for my students to leave every class knowing they gave 100 percent, and I'll do whatever I can to get them there. I want them to be amazed by what their bodies are capable of."

Carolyn has 3 kids, ages 16, 12, and 9. When she's not in the studio, you can find her singing with her rock cover band, The Distractions.

Culinary Experiences at La Cocina Que Canta | Visiting Teacher Jill Nussinow

Jill Nussinow, aka The Veggie Queen™, is a culinary educator, Registered Dietitian, freelance writer and the author of "The Veggie Queen: Vegetables Get the Royal Treatment" cookbook, whose goal is to get people eating more plant foods, and her new book “The New Fast Food: The Veggie Queen Pressure Cooks.” Jill stars in the DVD Pressure Cooking: A Fresh Look, Delicious Dishes in Minutes. Her website is http://www.thevegggiequeen.com.

Jill is a fellow of The Leadership Institute for Ecology and the Economy and brings her knowledge about sustainability to all her endeavors. She has been teaching culinary and cooking students at Santa Rosa Junior College since 1990 and elsewhere across the country at cooking schools, corporations and other venues since 1985. She's happiest when shopping for, cooking and getting other people to eat vegetables.

Jill writes for print and online publications, as well as websites, including Vegan Culinary Experience and VegFamily. Find Jill online on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/theveggiequeen and on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/jill.nussinow.

offers three hands-on culinary experiences, 3.5 hours each, on Tuesday at 11 am and 4 pm and Thursday at 4 pm, during which you will enjoy preparing your own meal along with fellow cooks. Classes take place at La Cocina Que Canta, our new culinary center.

For more information and registration, please click here.

Swim Week | Dr. Jane Katz

Dr. Jane Katz, a renowned educator, physical fitness innovator and author, brings to the Ranch many years experience in water fitness. Jane will help you improve the way you swim, and show you how to have fun workouts in the water. As a member of the 1964 U.S. Synchronized Swimming Performance Team in Tokyo, she helped pioneer the acceptance of synchronized swimming as an Olympic event. In 1994, she won the FINA World Masters Solo Synchronized Swimming Championship, and the 400-meter Freestyle Championship in Montreal. In 1998, she won the U.S. Masters National Swimming Championship in the 100 and 200-yard backstroke, and in May 1999, Dr. Katz received the Outstanding Aquatic Achievement Award from the International Swimming Hall of Fame. A former professor of Physical Education at the City University of New York, she currently teaches fitness and swimming to New York City police and firefighters at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Dr. Katz developed the aquatic program W.E.T. (Water Exercise Techniques) to aid her rehabilitation after being injured in a car accident in 1979. On the Web: www.globalaquatics.com.

Make Your Portraits Come Alive -- Bring Your Camera | Connie Reider

Portrait photographer Connie Reider invites you to an entertaining evening "focusing" on how to make images of people and pets which are spontaneous, creative, and filled with emotional energy. Using her personal portfolio, as well as demonstrations with audience participation, you will be given easy take home tips to improve your photography. No matter what camera you own, or what experience you possess, this will be an evening of looking, learning, and laughing.

Photography Workshop: Photographing the Spirit of Rancho La Puerta

Join Connie for tips, demonstrations, and group participation. Photography can be a walking meditation. Leading from our hearts, we will photograph the spirit of Rancho la Puerta, using water and movement as tools to transform images to a more spiritual domain. Bring your camera but you are welcome even if you do not have one.

For more than 25 years, Connie Reider has specialized in portraiture and event photography in the Washington D.C. area. She has traveled the world extensively, creating fine art images which are ethereal, poetic and timeless. In her recent book, “In Shadow and Light...Looking for the Gifts of Cancer,” she used her camera to express the profound changes she experienced during her personal journey with breast cancer. Her images are in corporate and private collections, and her art has appeared in several one-woman and group shows. She lectures on a national level. In 2004, Connie co-founded The F. Holland Day Center for Healing and Creativity in Georgetown, Maine. Using photography as a tool to promote healing, Connie leads week-long retreats for people with cancer or other life challenging experiences. On the Web: www.conniereider.com

Love Cycles | Linda Carroll, M.S.

Love Cycles with author and therapist Linda Carroll.

SESSION ONE. Relationships are explored as a series of stages through which we travel – from romantic bliss to rude awakening to disillusionment and sometimes despair until, finally and ideally, a resting place where love has grown deeper, richer and more settled. Each of the journeys described is based on a synthesis of the current literature on marriage, intimacy, biology, and poetry through the ages. This very popular short talk invites people in all stages of relationship, from single to those in a long-time commitment, to enjoy a witty, informative and fascinating exploration of love's path.

SESSION TWO. The Stages Defined. Decoding Love's Potion; Wisdom and Folly; How to Select an Appropriate Partner. The Inevitable Power Struggle; The Never Ending Loop; Learning the Counter-Instinctive Move; Finding Wholeness in a Difficult Relationship, on your Own or with Another.

SESSION THREE: Linda Carroll offers a surprise session which will sizzle with interest describing sexuality through the stages, covering issues of intimacy, passion and lagging libidos, as well as differences in desire. Linda will use anonymous questions and choose topics from her many years of experience as a "Hot Monogamy" therapist to create a lively and informative dialogue

Linda Carroll has been a practicing therapist for 30 years, specializing in couples. In the nineties, she and her veterinarian husband, Tim Barraud, began to teach a couples' course based on the Imago process of Harville Hendrix, the PAIRS training of Dr. Lori Gordon, and their own insights, study and practices. They continue to offer retreats and seminars all over the world, and Linda is currently at work on a book project, Love's Cycles, based on this work. In 2006, her memoir, "Her Mother's Daughter," was published by Doubleday, and in 2008 Conari Press published "Remember Who You Are."

Healing Power of Sound | Susana Moore

Journey to expanses of deep relaxation and calm as the tones of the crystal bowls open gateways of awareness and wholeness within you. The tones of these harmonically tuned instruments help to align your physical, emotional and spiritual bodies, balancing and rejuvenating your vital life energies. Join us as we explore the power of vocal toning, mantra chant, the sound of the crystal and Tibetan bowls, gongs and tuning forks.

Susana Moore is a Soul Coach, Past Life Regression Therapist, Tarot Reader and is the Contemplative Programs Coordinator at Rancho La Puerta spa, where she teaches Sound Healing, Nia, yoga and meditation. Susana's background includes meditation training with Deepak Chopra and Jon Kabat-Zinn, Soul Coaching certification with Denise Linn, movement with Gabrielle Roth and Vinn Marti (5 Rhythms and Soul Motion) and aquatic bodywork (WATSU®®) with its creator, Harold Dull. She is a member of the International Sound Healers Association.

Concert | Martha Aarons, flute, and Lev Polyakin, violin, Dana Burnett, piano,

After 25 years with the Cleveland Orchestra, Martha Aarons embarked on a freelance career that has taken her to several major orchestras around the country. Most notably, she is a regular guest with the Philadelphia Orchestra and performs and teaches every summer at Aspen Music Festival. Other guest appearances have included the Metropolitan Opera, Minnesota Orchestra and Baltimore Symphony. Her CD, History of the Tango, is a collaboration with pianist Frances Renzi and guitarist Jason Vieaux.

Lev Polyakin, who at 21 became co-concertmaster of the prestigious Moscow Chamber Orchestra, is currently assistant concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra. He has won prizes in international violin competitions, including Carl Flesch in London. In addition to jazz recordings, he is also prominently featured in a CD recorded by Decca entitled Café Music, chamber music by Paul Schoenfield, which was nominated for a Grammy.

Solo pianist and collaborative artist Dana Burnett has been featured with the Eastern Philharmonic, North Carolina, Virginia and Nashville Symphony Orchestra and Chamber Orchestras. Dana Burnett has been on the faculty of UNC-Chapel-Hill, the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University and the University of Wisconsin-Parkside. For thirteen seasons she was on the faculty of the Eastern Music Festival in North Carolina, and chair of their piano department. Ms. Burnett was awarded the Alban Berg Fellowship to study at the Franz Schubert Institute in Austria, and received an Artist Diploma and accompanying prize from that institution.

As a chamber musician Dana Burnett has performed in many venues. She presented her Carnegie Hall debut in Weill Recital Hall with oboist Lisa Kozenko. Together they were members of the award winning Hancock Chamber Players of Philadelphia. Ms. Burnett has been featured several times on the Dame Myra Hess Series in Chicago, Music From the Loft in Chicago, and at the Frick Collection in Pittsburgh,PA. Dana Burnett has premiered many chamber works including those by Jean-Michel Damase, Richard Wernick, Maurice Wright, Judith Zaimont, Gunther Shuller and the last chamber work of Stephen Albert.

Ms. Burnett has been an artist in residence at many institutions including Southern Illinois University, Harcum College, PA, Oklahoma State University, Central Michigan University, and the University of Greensboro.  Dana Burnett's collaborations include performances with Ransom Wilson, Hilary Hahn, Nathaniel Rosen, Andres Cardenas, John Mack, and the legendary Leonard Rose. Other festival performances have included the Skaneateles Festival, NY, Bar Harbor, Maine New Music festival and the Virginia Waterfront International Arts Festival, which included performances and a recording of Carnival of the Animals with Andre Michel Shub. She has recorded for the Naxos and Arabesque labels and her performance of Ravel's Piano Concerto in G has been featured on NPR. She is currently residing in San Diego as pianist and co-artistic director of Camarada, pianist for the Northern California Flute Camp, and on the faculty of Cal State San Marcos.