Sampling the city’s latest yoga additions: Nella Yoga, Yoga Patch, and Karma Tribe Yoga

%{[ data-embed-type=”image” data-embed-id=”57150b0689121ca96b927cfb” data-embed-element=”aside” ]}%

When I rolled into Yoga Patch at 6 a.m., the sky outside was still dark. A streetlamp cast a lonely circle of yellow light across the parking lot to help guide me inside the six-year-old Waldo mainstay’s spacious new studio in the Arbor Vitae Yoga and Wellness Center (7235 Central), which also houses Floating KC, an aesthetician and a massage therapist.

Yoga Patch co-owner Maria Murphy greeted me as I entered. To her left, a large waterfall trickled down a mirrored backdrop, creating a soothing, spalike ambience that made me forget I’d failed to drink any coffee yet. Entering the place felt like getting a brain massage — exactly the effect Murphy intends.

“People feel at home here, and that’s the kind of place I’ve always wanted,” she told me when I spoke with her after class. “Anyone who walks through that front door will feel at home and welcomed, like this is where they need to be.”

Yoga Patch relocated to Arbor Vitae last October after spending several months remodeling the old warehouse into a stylish, 13,000-square-foot studio that can accommodate more than 50 yoga classes each week — quite a change from the previous one-room space. Class offerings are varied but full of crowd-pleasers: prenatal yoga, kids classes, chair yoga, t’ai chi. That diversity has helped Yoga Patch fill a vital role in Kansas City’s growing yoga community.

“I think yoga should be for everyone,” Murphy said. “We’ve had great success with our classes for older adults and people in general who have issues with their bodies. And kids love yoga. They don’t really know they’re doing it, but they love it. I also feel it’s really important to do pay-what-you-can classes.”

That morning, Murphy led me to a room at the back of the studio, where several surprisingly bright-eyed persons sat cross-legged on their mats. For the next hour, I followed along with instructor Laura Kinney, who reminded the class that whatever we were doing was fabulous, even when our poses were fabulously imperfect.

Behind Kinney, two gnarled, 6-foot-tall cacti stood sentry at the east-facing windows. As the morning progressed, I watched the sky slowly turn pink behind their spiky branches. The scene felt so surreal that for a moment, I forgot I was in Kansas City.
My next stop was Nella Yoga (2100 Grand), another studio that’s working to build a yoga-centric community. Founded by Shanell Petersen, who moved to Kansas City after falling in love with our town earlier this year, the intimate, four-month-old studio offers relaxing yet challenging vinyasa flow classes.

A mother to five-month-old twin girls, Petersen quit her corporate job after giving birth to focus on doing something that, she says, “mattered to the community.” It’s the 9-to-5 world’s loss, for hers is the kind of calming presence that more offices could use. The first time I attended one of her classes, she welcomed me with a hug and offered me a cup of chai tea. She told me that she’d recently started drinking the stuff as part of her 30-day sugar-free challenge. She asked me what I wanted to focus on in class, and I told her that I’d been struggling lately with arm balances.

“I always face-plant onto my mat,” I said. “It’s super-awkward.”

She offered a very believable reassurance: “Don’t worry. I have lots of tricks for getting into those poses.”

As we began our practice, the sealike sound of our ujjayi breaths quickly filled the studio, serving as a complement to the traffic rushing down Grand and the birds chirping on a nearby wire. The studio’s location in the center of the city — right across from the Western Auto sign, to be exact — reminded me that yoga does not exist in a vacuum. Instead, it feels most powerful when it interacts with all of life’s complexities.

The impending arm balance interrupted my deep thoughts. Following Petersen’s instructions, I was able to suspend my body sideways on the backs of my arms for several seconds before I crumpled to the mat like a wet towel. Several whole seconds!

“I’ve never done that before,” I said, pretty damn pleased with myself.

The second time I stopped by, Petersen sat chatting with two students in the lobby. She told me that she was doing the sugar-free challenge again — but now, a chalkboard listed the names of the people who had pledged to do it with her.

“This time, I don’t have to do it alone,” she said.

Just down the street, Karma Tribe Yoga (2001 Grand) was my final destination for the week. Officially opening September 14, the fledgling studio was that day operating on a limited schedule, including the donation-based weekly pop-up classes that have earned owner Lauren Leduc a large following of local yogis since she started this spring.

“We do yoga outdoors in unusual places, so it becomes very visible to the public,” Leduc said of the pop-up classes, which will continue through the fall and winter. “We’ve done city parks, wineries, the library rooftop downtown, the Kansas City Museum — basically anywhere I can gather people.”

In addition to a fifth-floor studio space that offers a striking view of downtown, one thing that makes Karma Tribe different is that all of the classes are pay-what-you-can. When I recently attended one of Leduc’s “core flow” classes, a jar by the entrance suggested a donation of 10 bucks.

“A lot of these people are teachers, social workers or students,” she said. “They’re in these positions where they’re contributing greatly to society and giving a lot, but they can’t afford a traditional yoga membership.”

That night, the packed room was filled mostly with women. Leduc asked how many of us “liked our bellies.” Only one person raised her hand. She reminded us to be grateful for our bodies “no matter what they look like,” then suggested that we view the burn in our muscles as love rather than punishment. That sounds reasonable, until you’re dripping with sweat while attempting to sit in an invisible chair.

As we moved through the challenging series, Leduc reminded us to breathe. Outside, the sun began to set, reflecting off the skyline in the distance. We inhaled and we exhaled.

Nella Yoga
missnellayoga.com

Yoga Patch
yogapatch.com

Karma Tribe Yoga
karmatribeyoga.org