Marsha T Danzig
Y4A: Yoga for Amputees Founder
November 4, 1962 - January 8, 2022
Marsha Therese Danzig, below the knee amputee, yoga therapist and yoga teacher, and founder of Y4A: Yoga for Amputees, tragically died from complications of Covid-19 on January 8, 2022.
The yoga and amputee communities continue to mourn her loss.
"Marsha was a major factor in helping the yoga world to become more inclusive of those with limb loss or limb limitation. "
Marsha was a pioneer in the yoga world. She was the first amputee to become a yoga teacher, and she dedicated her teaching to making yoga accessible to anyone with limb loss, limb limitation, or limb difference. Marsha was a major factor in helping the yoga world to become more inclusive of those with limb loss or limb limitation. Her focus on treating amputees as whole people has helped influence the yoga world’s advancement over the last several years toward being less didactic, and being more adaptive and inclusive of everyone – a true yoga for every body, every day, everywhere.
Marsha lived an active life, full of the things she loved – music, art, dancing, laughter – and she was surrounded by the love of friends, family, and the limb loss and limb limitation community. She successfully navigated the effects of childhood cancer, an amputation, and a kidney transplant, and was fully vaccinated, boosted, and careful in her daily life. However, the coronavirus still struck.
Marsha established Y4A Yoga for Amputees in 2008 to bring the healing benefits of yoga to the limb loss and limb difference community. As a result of a lifetime of teaching yoga to and for amputees, she developed a vast network of resources for amputees. Also, over 80 students have completed Marsha’s Y4A teacher training program, representing the US, and places as far away as the UK, Turkey, Australia, Spain, and Russia – a worldwide reach. The list has recently been updated to indicate country, state, and teaching status, and will soon include our latest
teacher training graduates.
To keep these resources active and accessible, Lucy Lomax, Y4A Master Trainer, and Heather Thamer, Y4A Master Teacher, have taken over administration of the Y4A Yoga for Amputees platform. They also intend to continue to train yoga teachers and yoga therapists to teach Y4A Yoga for Amputees. In addition, Lucy and Heather are continuing to teach a weekly free live streaming Accessible Yoga/Yoga for Amputees class through the Yoga Center of Columbia. Thank you for your patience as we traverse this transition.
Remembering Marsha
Marsha Therese Danzig, Yoga Teacher, C-IAYT, RYT 500, M.Ed. Harvard, was a below knee amputee and Founder of Y4A: Yoga for Amputees by Marsha T Danzig®, a program to help amputees move forward in their lives through the healing power of yoga. Marsha lost her leg in 1976 to Ewing's sarcoma. She taught and trained others in yoga for over two decades. She was passionate about imparting her lived experience of adaptive yoga and embodied movement.
Her education and background included:
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Certificate from La Sorbonne in Paris
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Certificate from the Goethe Institute in Germany
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The United Nations , Geneva, Switzerland at the Center for Human Rights
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200 hour yoga certification from Kripalu Center
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500 hour yoga certification
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Reiki Master Level
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Classical Ballet
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Flamenco
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Afro-Haitian Dance
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Thousands of hours studying and teaching in dedicated courses to yoga.
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She presented her program Yoga for Amputees at such venues as the Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, IAYT (International Association of Yoga Therapists) Conference and the Carolina's Pain Institute.
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She wrote many well loved children’s books, yoga books, poetry, and Yoga for Amputees.
Marsha Therese Danzig was a pioneer. She was the first amputee yoga instructor in the US and the Founder of Yoga for Amputees and Color Me Yoga® for Children. Marsha became a yoga teacher and created her programs while she was still a patient living on dialysis. As a young child, Marsha experienced a rare and deadly form of bone cancer called Ewing's Sarcoma. She was diagnosed and partially treated at Boston Children's Hospital in 1967. She was not expected to survive. Her bone cancer returned at 13. She lost her lower left leg and later the use of her kidneys, but that did not stop her from pursuing her dreams. Marsha had been a dancer to the core throughout most of her life, dancing such varied forms as ballet, African, Afro-Cuban, Afro-Haitian and Flamenco in the US and Spain. Marsha received her beautiful Kidney on Labor Day, 2006. Marsha had degrees from Union College, La Sorbonne, the University of Edinburgh, the Goethe Institute, Harvard University and was a candidate for a Ph.D in Medieval French at Columbia University when yoga called.
She served as an intern in Geneva at the United Nations Center for Human Rights, studying the rights of children with disabilities around the globe. Marsha published several well received books and yoga products. She was the author of Fierce Joy, a memoir about choosing joy, no matter what, From the Roots: The True Story About How I Beat Death and Learned to Live, an autobiography, and Yoga for Amputees: The Essential Guide to Finding Wholeness After Limb Loss for Yoga Students and Their Teachers. She was featured in Yoga Journal, The Huffington Post , Good Housekeeping and Oprah Magazine
Marsha's Book
Yoga for Amputees: The Essential Guide to Finding Wholeness After Limb Loss
A comprehensive guide for both amputees and the people who work with them. A must for any amputee wanting to reclaim their health and well-being after limb loss and any clinician wanting to integrate yoga into the rehabilitation process not only for amputees, but anyone with different movement abilities.
Available for purchase at
