Darling Yoga - Yoga For Every Body

Our Teachers

Emily Darling (Owner/Instuctor)

The opening of Darling Yoga is a life long dream for Emily who has been teaching in Kansas City since 1993. She began her studies in the rich tradition of Iyengar Yoga. She has also studied Ashtanga, Vinyasa, and Restorative Yoga. Her desire to continually expand her yoga knowledge led to her most recent certification in the fall of 2005 at The International Sivananda Vedanta Ashram in Woodbourne, New York. She creates a style of her own incorporating a variety of aspects from her vast yoga background. Emily is nurturing and compassionate by nature, thus creating a class atmosphere that is non-competitive yet challenging. Her orchestration of rest and movement create inner peace and strength in the body and mind. She credits inspiration to Max Strom, Doug Swenson, Shiva Rea, Judith Lasater, Kim Schwartz, and Bryan Kest, as well as the many great teachers in the Kansas City area including Lisa Uhl, Patricia Gray, Kathleen Kastner, Suzette Scholtes, and Mick Goodman. She thanks her mom who introduced her to yoga in her early teens.

"Yoga is the gift of finding peace within ourselves. It brings an awareness that allows us to see more clearly and live more fully from our hearts. I feel blessed to be able to teach and share what I feel so passionate about. Bringing people into stillness, allowing them to find the present moment is a beautiful art as it softens everyone."

Lisa Uhl

Lisa began her practice of yoga over a decade ago and became an instant favorite when she started teaching in the Kansas City area. Lisa is certified through the worldwide Bikram Yoga College of India and has also completed an Ashtanga teacher training program with David Swenson. She has also attended a workshop with internationally known yogi Pattabhi Jois. Lisa's love for yoga extends across many styles rooting with her beginning studies with Iyengar Yoga evolving into the flowing styles of Vinyasa and Ashtanga Yoga. Lisa offers a balanced and inspiring flow that follows the rhythm of the breath, blending fluid movement with careful attention to alignment. In a playful style, Lisa infuses joy and love into her classes encouraging flexibility in both body and mind.

"Yoga has changed me in so many ways. My life is more fulfilling, and I have a clear understanding of my purpose. Most of all I've learned to trust the process of life."

Kory Jacobs

Kory Jacobs has been practicing yoga for six years and teaching for three. A serious injury led her to study fitness and movement of the human body in college, and to delve into yoga as a way to rehabilitate her body. Her classes are taught with the intention to influence personal growth while bringing the body back into balance through understanding ones body awareness.

"I love teaching yoga because it has been very healing in my life and I have a passion about sharing it with others."

Amy Jin Schmelzer

Amy Jin Schmelzer Loves yoga! She is enamored with yoga's holistic health benefits and its place in creating communities of the most honest and pure-hearted kind. Amy grew up in Dubuque, IA and graduated from DePaul University (Chicago, 2000) with a B.S. in Marketing, where she was also a full-ride scholarship athlete. Since then, her travels have mostly taken her deep into the realms of Metaphysics/Spirituality, Holistic Healthcare, and motivational writing and speaking. She has gone deeply into herself for answers and loves to share what she knows! Amy's classes are Kest Power Yoga (www.poweryoga.com) based, fueled by her love for the Ashtanga primary series.

"I enjoy teaching. Your life is your own. The evolution of life will see all people coming together. From diverse, rich patterns and backgrounds that have no discernable connecting force, except that which speaks of God. And so yoga becomes a way of giving, receiving, expressing Truth in the highest possible forms, as well as just giving glory to the fact that we have these bodies and mental capacities and must, if we are to endure, be responsible for their care and nurturance. I hope you enjoy your precious time here. Yoga Be."

Mandy Ratliff

Mandy has been exploring her passion for yoga for 4 years. Most recently she completed an Ashtanga Second Series Intensive with Tim Miller. The balance and harmony it brought her led to her desire to share the gift through teaching. Mandy views yoga as a spiritual, philosophical, and energetic journey that inspires greater understanding of and connection to the true Self within.

"Strength, peace and wisdom reside within. It is our task to make the connection. We do the practice to love ourselves so we can learn to love others more."

Sumya Anani

Sumya Anani is an eager student of yoga and feels that all conscious movement is a path towards wholeness! Sumya has been teaching yoga for 10 years. In addition to her 500hr Registered Yoga Teaching Certification through Yoga Alliance, her love of movement led her to becoming a massage therapist, a personal trainer, and a 4X World Champion in professional boxing. Her eclectic teaching style was inspired and born out of her curiosity, study, and appreciation of all styles of yoga. She has been inspired by Iyengar teachers Manouso Manos, Paula Self, and Aadil Palkhivala, Anusara teachers Doug Keller, Desiree Rumbaugh, and Christy Burnett and Ashtanga teachers Bhavani Maki, Richard Freeman, and David Williams. She also studies regularly with teachers David Lipschutz and Kim Schwartz. She threads asana, anatomy, and philosophy into her teaching. In February 2007, she completed a 40-hour Anatomy in Clay training by Jon Zahourek. A.C.T. (Awakening Change Together) is a karma yoga group that gets together once a month for volunteer projects around the city. To be on Sumya's email, you can contact her through her website www.sumya.com

"Yoga is a wonderful practice to explore and fulfill our potential. I'm grateful for the daily lessons of being a better person, partner, and parent that yoga brings to my life."

Victor Roberts

Victor found yoga after years of football and the Marine Corps took a toll on his body. His first class, however, opened his mind to a much bigger view of what yoga could offer beyond the physical body, and before long it was evident that teaching was Victor's true calling. His personal experience with yoga as therapy allows him to relate to the differing needs of each student and he approaches each class with this inspiration. He has completed teacher traning programs with Max Strom as well as Marcia Wenig of Yoga Kids International, and he continues to be an avid student attending worships with many nationally renowned teachers. Also a certified herbalist and Thai Yoga Massage Therapist, Victor truly believes in the practice of healing through the breath. His class encorporates this art along with great emphasis on proper alignment to enable both healing and development.

"I know of no other form of exercise that combines mental and physical awareness the way yoga does in order to open the many windows of opportunity within your own mind.Meditating through yoga is your access to the infinite."

Ashley Walburn

Ashley Walburn is the mother of four sons. She has been doing Ashtanga and Vinyasa yoga since 2001 and is a 200 hour Yoga Alliance registered yoga teacher (RYT). She has studied under Bhavani Maki, Max Strom and Colette Crawford. Locally her most influential teachers are Patricia Gray and Emily Darling. She is a marriage and family therapist and is a certified pre-natal and post-natal yoga instructor through Colette Crawford at the Seattle Holistic Center.

"As a mother of four sons, yoga has helped guide me to a more peaceful, loving way of birthing and parenting my children. Teaching mothers yoga gives me an opportunity to share that part of me with them."

Michelle Warner

Michelle has completed a Restorative training with world renowned yoga teacher Judith Lasater. She is also a licensed massage therapist and is certified in prenatal massage. In 1996, Michelle acquired a degree in psychology from Nebraska Wesleyan University. With her background in health and wellness, which includes multiple certifications, Michelle easily conveys the importance of a yoga and massage to create a balanced life.

Michelle gains satisfaction assisting those with chronic pain, illness and expectant mothers.

"Yoga allows one to relax, renew and replenish. I feel so blessed to have been introduced to yoga and feel it's my calling to teach others the therapeutic benefits. In this busy world we all need to take care of ourselves. Yoga is one of the best avenues to do this. Come experience just letting go completely."

Nancy Fabiano

Nancy has long believed in the interconnectedness of body mind and spirit. She was a certified fitness instructor for several years before discovering yoga in 2000. She credits her mother for introducing her to yoga. Nancy has been teaching Yoga in the Kansas City area since 2001. Her teaching style is clearly influenced by her training with great Iyengar teachers Aadil Palkhivala, Pauta Tortolano, John Shumacher and Francois Raoult.
Nancy is registering with Yoga Alliance for her RYT certification. She acknowledges Kansas City area yoga teachers Suzette Scholtes and Emily Darling for inspiring her on the path.

"For me, yoga is about reconnecting to our divine nature. It's about bringing light and awareness into our daily living. As our practice brings us into a place of peace and harmony, this has a ripple effect in the world. My hope is to create a sacred space where mindfulness, open-heartedness, and possibility can be experienced."

Frances Bell

Frances began practicing yoga over twenty years ago at home (self taught) before she then ventured out to studios in the Kansas City area. She soon realized she didn't want to just do yoga, but rather wanted to be yoga. This thirst for knowledge led her to attend a "Perfect Health" workshop with Deeprak Chopra and Dr. David Simon. After cultivating stillness in body and mind, Frances experienced pure awareness of the connectedness of all beings and realized "I know the meaning of yoga!" This experience led Frances to complete 300 Hours with Deeprak Chopra's "Seven Spiritual Laws of Teaching" program. She continued her training by completing 200 hours with Shiva Rea, who introduced her to the style of Fluid Power Vinyasa Flow, and she has also been blessed to work with many others including Seane Corn, Annie Carpenter, and Vinnie Marino of Yoga Works.

"It is the breath which begins the journey within Mind, Body, and Spirit that leads to the essence of yoga!"

Devin Listrom

Devin has been practicing Ashtanga and Vinyasa for over seven years. A former aerobics teacher, he found yoga after noticing how aerobics had been damaging to his body and has been hooked on Ashtanga yoga since. He has studied with Kathleen Kastner, Tim Miller, David Williams, Karyn Noble, Bryan Kest, and Bhavani Maki. A dedicated vegan and animal rights activist, Devin also loves to talk with students about the spiritual and ethical limbs of yoga. Devin is now teaching the IMPROV Ashtanga class on Wednesdays where he interwines poses from the various Ashtanga series adjusting to the various levels in the class.

Sarah Manley

Sarah (Sam) Manley is now teaching the new Saturday morning Kid's Yoga class. Sam is a mother of three, ranging in age from one to eight. She has practiced yoga off and on for ten years and recently started to involve her kids in the practice. Their progress inspired her to train to be an instructor and she is now certified by YogaFit for Kid's Yoga.

"Children and yoga fit together perfectly. It is a great opportunity for kids to get involved with the practice at such an impressionable time in their lives when all of poses come so easy and they have no body issues or stigmas. What better way to start a lifelong journey than when we are fresh and ready?"

Sami Aaron

Sami Aaron leads a free 30-minute Pranayama class on Saturday mornings starting July 12th. Sami began practicing Pranayama in 2004 as she worked through a difficult emotional period of her life, finding that the effects of this practice allowed her to realize a higher spiritual connection which brought an acceptance and a deeper understanding of the daily trials and tribulations that touch each of us. Her Pranayama inspiration originated with her teacher, Patricia Gray; she has also studied Pranayama with Ganga White and Tracy Rich from the White Lotus Foundation and had private Pranayama training sessions with Richard Rosen (Oakland, CA) and Gay White (Berkeley, CA).

"When I come to the final moments of my Pranayama practice, I am filled with gratitude for the sense of stillness and balance and spiritual connection that surrounds me; gratitude to my teacher for offering this opportunity to me to learn Pranayama, and gratitude to the long lineage of Pranayama practitioners who have graciously shared this wonderful aspect of yoga.
I welcome the opportunity to share this knowledge with others and to give this opportunity to breathe in all that embodies Pranayama - air, energy and life."

Photos coming soon...