Leila El Krekshi comes from a multicultural background with both Finnish Libyan origins. A true nomad, Leila has lived and worked in a number of countries spanning Europe and Africa, and North America before establishing herself in Menorca. She has run retreats in Menorca, Dordogne and Mafia Island (Tanzania).
Prior to creating Orenda, Leila worked in various countries i.e. Libya, Tunisia, Sweden, Denmark and Tanzania in the private sector and international cooperation, where she covered political issues, human rights, responsible business and private sector development.
Leila has practiced meditation yoga, dance and capoeira most of her life. Due to her enthusiasm she started teaching dance and capoeira classes, and organizing workshops next to her regular job. In Tanzania, she took this a step further: she started using dance and capoeira as tools for social projects. She taught capoeira at Muda Africa for contemporary dancers and Doctors of the World (MDM) for heroine drug addicts, and for street teenagers. Additionally she set up a capoeira group in Dar es Salaam for adults and children which is now led by one of her students and co-founded Dance Art Fusion, a collective of artists from all over the world promoting dance and fusion of arts through classes, workshops and performances.
The integration of yoga, capoeira and dance in Leila’s life and her cultural diversity, is a continuous process of self discovery, creativity, and transformation, connecting the movement, and the soul, with the universe. Leila’s interest in the yoga path led her to India to Art of Living Ashram in Bangalore. To fine tune her passion she completed her yoga teacher training in Classical Yoga with Wiseliving Yoga Academy in Thailand, which is affiliated to The Yoga Institute of Santacruz, Mumbai, India- World’s Oldest Organized Yoga Institution, and later taking part in Thich Nhat Thanh mindfulness retreat. Her strong motivation to bring positive change, and share knowledge with others is what ultimately led her to shifting her path by dedicating herself to Orenda, where she can bring her vision to the world.
Leila is also a qualified Thai Massage Therapist from the Thai Massage Chiang Mai school in Thailand (TMC) and speaks English, Arabic, Finnish, French, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese and basic level of Swedish and Kiswahili.
She also holds a Bachelor degree in Business Management and a Master’s in Environmental Engineering and Sustainable Infrastructure from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. This diverse combination of all of her experiences has made her uniquely qualified to understand virtually all kinds of people from all walks of life.
