Nancy Talley, Owner – 200 Hour E-RYT
Nancy began her yogic journey in 1997 while working in the Los Angeles fashion industry. To relieve stress and insomnia she explored Kundalini and Restorative classes but soon found Vinyasa to be her calling. She attended the White Lotus Foundation to study under Ganga White and Tracey Rich for her 200 hour RYT in Santa Barbara, CA. Currently a 200 hour E-RYT, she is on the path to her 500 hour E-RYT through Beloved Yoga in Reston, VA. Nancy has also studied Yin Yoga and has completed the Self-Awakening Yoga Therapeutics Teacher Training under Don and Amba Stapleton. Nancy reminds her students to work with compassion towards themselves and to stop and enjoy the journey rather than focus on the final pose they are trying to achieve. She purchased Soaring Spirit Yoga Studio in 2010 and hopes to continue to serve the growing yoga community in Prince William County and surrounding areas.
“When we see that the cosmos is rippling with change, it is difficult to conceive of anything that does not change.” –Paramahansa Yogananda
Nancy Talley, Owner – 200 Hour E-RYT
Instructor
Summer Kiser, Founder – 200 Hour RYT
Summer founded SSYS in 2009. The idea for Soaring Spirit Yoga was born out of a desire to provide a welcoming space and community where you feel supported in your exploration of yoga and wellness. Summer completed her 200 hour RYT training through Pure Prana’s Interdisciplinary Holistic Yoga Teacher Training in Alexandria, VA.
Summer Kiser, Founder – 200 Hour RYT
Instructor
Melissa Sistoza – 200 Hour RYT
Melissa Sistoza is a 200 hour RYT, a Prenatal Yoga Certified Teacher, and has trained in Self-Awakening Therapeutics Yoga. She is always supplementing her education with workshops and reading. Melissa first began her practice as a way to de-stress from the responsibilities of motherhood. Several years later she’s still committed to a regular practice, but found it has become much more than a de-stressor, it’s a way of life. Melissa draws on inspiration from various methods of yoga that continue to influence her teaching and day to day living. She follows the Eight Limb Path of Pantanjali as a basic guideline for raising self awareness and a compassionate lifestyle. This path she believes is the underlying process of connecting to eternal grace and total liberation of the Self.
Melissa Sistoza – 200 Hour RYT
Instructor
Sophia Brock – 200 Hour RYT
Sophia took her first yoga class in 2004 to see what this “yoga” thing was all about and was instantly in love with the sense of peace that yoga brought to her and has continuously taken classes since. Sophia completed her 200 hour Interdisciplinary Holistic Yoga Alliance certified Teacher Training at Pure Prana of Old Towne Alexandria in December of 2008 and YoKid (www.yokid.org) teacher training January 2009. She will forever consider herself a “student” because there is so much to learn regarding this ancient practice that teaches you peace, calmness, stability, harmony and healthy thinking as well as living. Sophia has taken workshops with Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa, Seane Corne, Cyndi Lee, Patricia Walden, Dinabandhu Sarley and Alanna Kaivalya. She will continue to enhance her training via attending yoga classes, conferences, workshops, Yoga videos and reading/studying yoga related materials. Serve, Love, Give, Purify, Meditate, Realize!
Sophia Brock – 200 Hour RYT
Instructor
Francie Trainor – 200 Hour RYT
Francie began practicing yoga seven years ago as a complement to her dancing, an extension of her meditation practice with a strong focus on Tantra. She completed her 200 hour RYT training in Vinyasa Yoga in October 2010 through YogaFit. Francie plans to continue studying toward her 500 hour RYT over the next two to three years to further deepen her practice. She seeks to promote wellness, a deep sense of well-being and confidence in her students, patiently encouraging growth, healing, unabashed creativity and joyful self-acceptance. She also teaches Classical and Folkloric Egyptian Belly-dance, improvisational dance classes, Meditation, and Meditative Art.
"Who loves, loves love, and loving love, forms a circle so complete, there is no end to love." St. Bernard
Francie Trainor – 200 Hour RYT
Instructor
Kathy Brobst – 200 Hour RYT
Kathy has been working in the fitness industry for 14 years, beginning her career as a certified group exercise and pilates instructor. She began her yogic journey when she began teaching BodyFlow, a combination of yoga, tai chi and pilates. Kathy was diagnosed with advanced degenerative disc disease and a heriated disc and doctors offered her only pain pills and cortisone shots. Kathy increased her yoga practice and today is pain free thanks to the healing power of yoga not only physically but mentally and spiritually. Kathy completed her 200 hour RYT yoga teacher training through YogaFit. Kathy’s goal is to share her joy of yoga with others and offer them hope in any difficult situation. Her passion for yoga helps her see that together as a community, we can make the world just a little kinder, one class at a time.
Kathy Brobst – 200 Hour RYT
Instructor
Kodi Campbell – 200 Hour RYT
Kodi, a native of Oregon, graduated from Oregon State University in 1999 and has lived in Idaho, Mississippi and California before moving to Virginia. She has been practicing yoga since 2002 and earned her Yoga Alliance 200 hour RYT certification in 2006. Kodi teaches beginning yoga, power yoga, vinyasa, prenatal and yin styles. She also holds an AFAA Group Fitness Instructor certification and Pilates Mat I & II certificates from Balanced Body University. Kodi has three young children and enjoys spending any free time she has traveling, camping, scuba diving, white water rafting, and participating in road races and triathlons.
Kodi Campbell – 200 Hour RYT
Instructor
Graise Lee Jenni – 200 Hour RYT
Graise has come to us highly recommended by her beloved teacher, Dharma Richards (yogagardennc.com). Graise teaches a fast moving vinyasa flow, with each practice focused on a topic that she hopes will help her students take their yoga with them out into the world. She believes that each practice should be a meditation and an offering, but also a place of learning. In the outside world, Graise is a Wildlife Systems Ecologist, working towards her PhD in Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Biology at NCSU. She works with endangered species, specifically birds. Graise and her husband have 4 cats, 1 snake, and 2 little brothers between them. Her favorite place to be is roaming around in the woods, tromping through streams, or walking on beaches adding birds to her life list with her best buddy, a Catahoula Leopard Hound named Ace.
Graise Lee Jenni – 200 Hour RYT
Instructor
Christy Sisson – 500 Hour RYT
Christy has returned to Virginia after living in Mystic Connecticut for three years....and is glad to be home. She began her yoga journey 15 years ago after wandering in to her first class. After moving around and experiencing many styles of yoga she decided to become a teacher and trained at the Southern Institute for Yoga Instructors in Nashville. This 500 hour program was Iyengar based and, while well rounded, paid particular attention to alignment. While she would call her teaching style "eclectic", her flowing classes still retain emphasis on the importance of alignment, to allow students to go more fully, and safely, into each pose. Over the years she has studied with many notable yogis, including Rodney Yee, Ana Forrest, Beryl Binder Birch, David Swenson Deb Neubauer, Desiree Rumbagh and Sadie Nardini. Christy's classes are appropriate for all levels, as she encourages each student to respect his or her boundaries and to explore all areas of the yoga practice.
Christy Sisson – 500 Hour RYT
Instructor
Darnell Bell – 200 Hour RYT
Darnell received his 200 RYT under the direction of Bhekaji (Becca) Lynch through her Soma Yoga program in 2002. Currently the program has moved to SomaFit in D.C. and Beloved Yoga in Reston, VA – somafit.com. A class with Darnell can be described as vinyasa with a bit more of an emphasis on alignment than a typical class. He has experience working with groups from gentle to advanced levels and all ages. Darnell can create a class in which all participants will feel motivated and relaxed. He offers a class that he hopes will become an insightful experience for the student while simultaneously offering strength and toning with cardiovascular activity as well. Darnell has also been teaching Capoeira, an art form that combines dance and martial arts since 2000, teaching and training in Brazil and throughout the U.S.
Darnell Bell – 200 Hour RYT
Instructor
Angela Hart – 200 Hour RYT
Angie is a 200 Hour RYT through Yoga Alliance, having completed her RYT requirements through YogaFit in 2006. Angie has attended teacher trainings with Baron Baptiste, Erich Schiffmann as well as numerous workshops at the Integral Yoga Institute at Yogaville. Additionally Angie has completed trainings focused on Kids, Seniors, Prenatal and Postnatal. Angie’s classes encourage exploration in the asanas through focused attention and awareness of the breath. Her style balances strength and serenity with an emphasis on finding ease and grace in a yoga practice. Students are encouraged to discover the natural union that exists between breath and movement to develop a greater respect for the body. It is her hope that students will find peacefulness in class that they can bring with them off the mat into their world. Angie completed her degree in education through Virginia Tech and lives to embody the Sanskrit names she was given, Anandi, which means personification of bliss.
Angela Hart – 200 Hour RYT
Instructor
Drew Talley – 200 Hour RYT
Drew started practicing Yoga in Los Angeles County, with encouragement from his wife Nancy, in the summer of 2007. He immediately began to enjoy the benefits of yoga instruction by becoming more relaxed, peaceful, flexible, with improved posture, and a better outlook on life. In the winter of 2009 he relocated his family to Metropolitan Washington, DC for the Smithsonian Institution and in the fall of 2010 began his Vinyasa Flow Teacher Training at Beloved Yoga in Reston, Virginia. Drew received his 200-RYT from Yoga Alliance in October 2011. Yoga has helped him reduce stress and anxiety levels and he enjoys passing on his newly acquired knowledge to his students.
Drew Talley – 200 Hour RYT
Substitute Instructor
Marilyn Peppers-Citizen – 200 Hour RYT
Marilyn has been involved in the fitness industry since 1991 teaching at military installations in Virginia, Georgia and New Mexico. Her love of yoga began when a friend invited her to a YogaFit workshop in 1997. She went on to take several other workshops and has practiced on her own. In 2010 she traveled to Arizona to complete her 200 Hour RYT at the Yahweh Yoga Christian Teaching Academy (www.yahwehyoga.com). Marilyn teaches a class dedicated to invigorate, challenge, or relax the participants depending on the student's needs. She is passionate about her personal growth and education, enabling others to experience mind, body, and soul health through the practice of yoga.
Marilyn Peppers-Citizen – 200 Hour RYT
Substitute Instructor
Alec Aakesson – 200 Hour RYT
Alec is a 200 RYT through Yoga Alliance and has been practicing yoga since 1978. He completed his 200 hour training through the Yoga School of Excellence (www.yogatse.com) under the direction of Deborah Perry. Alec also is at the 100 hour level for yoga therapy with an additional 100 hours of practical experience working with scoliosis and Parkinson's patients. He is currently on his 500 RYT path working with Doug Keller's 350 hour Swatantrya Yoga Teacher Certification. Alec has taught at studios and community centers in Tennessee and Virginia.
Alec Aakesson – 200 Hour RYT
Substitute Instructor
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