After her degree course in English and Drama Maxine Tobias taught in schools in England and built a successful drama department in a Secondary School in the East End of London. She went on to teach in France and Switzerland, where she was introduced to the works of Jiddu Krishnamurti at his Summer Lecture series. These talks were a pivotal event in Maxine's life and led her to return to London to find a yoga teacher.
This was the late 1960's when she met and began her studies with BKS Iyengar, who, as the guest of Yehudi Menuhin and The Asian Music Circle brought Yoga to England. Iyengar's dedication and intens ity to communicate this art was like no other learning process that she had ever encountered. The classes were small and the first hand knowledge acquired in those days has stayed with her for life. At this time she met Dona Holleman and has been a pupil and a friend, ever since. She has traveled many times to India to work with BKS Iyengar and at a teachers' workshop, 1989, she was re-acquainted with Karin Stephan and in 1990 they began teaching together at the Yoga Macrobiotic vacations.
Maxine began teaching Yoga in 1971 at the behest of BKS Iyengar.// For many years she dedicated herself to teaching Yoga in Adult Education for The Inner London Educational Authority. She served on the committee, edited the first Iyengar Newsletter in the UK and ran one of the first Iyengar Teacher Training programmes. She was accredited with an Advanced Level Certificate by BKS Iyengar for her dedication and achievement in Yoga.
Maxine owns a beautiful studio in Chelsea, London, where she teaches a dedicated group of pupils including, actors, writers and business leaders.
Her other passions are opera, ballet, literature and the performing arts. These influences she brings to her teaching because of her belief that Yoga helps us understand and to fulfil our creativity.
She has also studied The Rudolph Laban System of Educational Dance, Jazz Dance and Pilates.

Maxine Tobias is the author of three books.
"Stretch and Relax", (Dorling Kindersley1984) and "Complete Stretching" (Knopf;1992) have both been world best sellers. Her video "Basic Yoga", Carlton 1995, is available on PAL only. Her Yoga expertise has led her to design 'The Chelsea Yoga Kit', a collection of yoga clothes