Soul * Fitness Yoga studio teachers

Shelley Smyth-Schuster

Shelley Smyth-Schuster, a long-time Fort Worth resident, began taking Nia in traditional gyms in 1999. She was immediately amazed with how she felt both physically and emotionally after taking a Nia class, which led her to begin researching other forms of mind/body fitness, including yoga. Through books, videos, and by taking classes throughout the metroplex, Shelley developed a love for yoga and the philosophy behind it. In 2001, she joined forces with Megan with the intention of creating a space in Fort Worth to facilitate the energy created by mind/body fitness classes. Their efforts produced Soul Fitness.

After 5 years of teaching English to high school seniors, Shelley has refocused her energies on Soul Fitness and teaching Hatha yoga. Shelley spent time in Austin living in the ashram at Barsana Dham studying and continuously furthers her studies by taking classes and workshops and trainings at studios throughout the metroplex. Nia and Yoga enabled Shelley to connect with herself emotionally, physically and spiritually and she hopes to share her experience with others through her teaching and Soul Fitness.

Megan Roark-Reece

Megan took her first Nia class in 1998 and fell in love. She immediately identified with how natural and organic the Nia movements felt. For the first time in her life, she was going back to class day after day for the sheer joy of the experience of Nia, not because she felt she had to put in her token 55 minutes at the gym. As Megan began to sense herself healing through this magical movement form, she knew someday it would be her time to share the truth she was experiencing through Nia. In July 2001 Megan had that chance, traveled to Austin, and earned her white belt.

In November of 2001, Megan and Shelley began the journey to create a space in which to share their vision with the community. Through Soul Fitness she has had the opportunity to explore the world of teaching Nia. In addition to teaching and participating in Nia classes, Megan embraces yoga as a part of her life practice. Megan is currently working on her 200-hour Yoga Alliance certification, through the Priya Yoga program.

Kellie McLarty

Kellie McLarty, M.Ed., L.C.D.C., began her journey in Nia as a student in 1996 and was certified as a White Belt instructor in the Spring of 1997. Kellie has since completed her Blue and Brown belt trainings. Being a licensed counselor in the field of addiction, a middle school counselor, as well as a longtime athlete, Kellie found that Nia incorporated all of the elements of healing, health, play, flexibility, athleticism, and a renewal of spirit that she believes in and loves to cultivate. Nia gives the participant an opportunity to have a voice, to sing, to chop, to kick, and to be silly. Kellie continues to find all of the elements of Nia empowering and the perfect outlet for stress. Her knowledge base of emotional health, stress maintenance, and rehabilitation of the mind, heart, and spirit enhance her classes.

Christa Bell

Christa Bell, a native of Germany, has been practicing yoga for 10 years. She has experience in Iyengar, Sivananda and Ashtanga yoga. Christa has completed her 500-hour Priya yoga training with Michelle Andrie, making her a yoga therapist who is a registered with Yoga Alliance. Christa has attended and continues to attend workshops in both the US and Europe. She believes that each person should work on their own individual level and teaches with the knowledge that each asana can be modified or advanced to meet the needs of her students.

Lucy Cáñez

Lucy began her practice of yoga in the Tidewater area of Virginia in 1973. She has earned yoga teacher certifications from The Mahayana Yoga Ashram in Virginia (1979) and The International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centre in Canada (1998). Lucy started teaching yoga in New Mexico in 1979 and has been teaching yoga and pranayama in the Fort Worth area since 1988.

Lucy is a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT) with the Yoga Alliance at the 500 hour level and received that designation in 2003. Lucy continues to enrich her yoga experience by her own daily practice and attending workshops and classes both in and out of the field of yoga.

Lucy believes that yoga is beneficial and can be practiced by anyone. Lucy strives to make yoga accessible to students of all ages and abilities from the three-year-olds she guides in her Montessori classroom to her students in their 80’s. Yoga is a process: breathe, move, relax and enjoy.

Katy Hobbs

Katy Hobbs, M.Ed., began her practice of yoga in 2001 while living in Los Angeles. In 2002, she began teaching children’s yoga at a California elementary school for gifted children with learning disabilities. The summer of 2005, Katy attended the Yoga for the Special Child basic certification program at the Integral Yoga Institute in New York City. In March 2007, she completed her 200 hour Yoga Alliance teacher training through Priya Yoga in Dallas. Currently, she is working on her prenatal yoga certification through Mamaste Yoga.

Prior to Katy’s first Nia class in 2003 she had not even heard of Nia, but was hooked by the end of her first experience. In June 2004, Katy attended the Nia White Belt training in Baton Rouge, LA with Helen Terry. In May 2006, Katy received her Blue Belt in Nia from Carlos Rosas in Chicago, IL. Katy says that Nia is the biggest compliment to all of her passions and has truly taught her the “body’s way” of moving. Katy’s practice of yoga and Nia has improved her health, strength, communication skills, and overall well-being. She hopes you will join her on the joyous journey toward health.

Heather Andersen

In 1999, Heather Andersen received a most loving gift, Yoga the Iyengar Way. After a year of studying by the book she sought out a teacher. Living in Austin, Texas she was gifted with many. Yoga became her daily refuge from the pressure of pre-medical studies. Using her years of biological, chemical and anatomical training, she was offered a job teaching anatomy and physiology at Yandara, a yoga teacher training center in Baja California. It was there that she completed 200hrs of yoga teacher training. Now a medical student in Fort Worth, she teaches yoga knowing that not all prescriptions require a pen. She is a woman who teaches from her heart, guided by respect for those who have come before her.

Katie Rhodes

In the summer of 2000, I opened a Shape magazine to an article demonstrating yoga postures, I was intrigued. Freshly graduated from Weatherford High School and eager to experience life’s infinite possibilities, I realized that I now was my own coach. My first teacher was Cyndi Lee of New York’s OM Yoga (in a box); complete with strap, flash cards with simple stick figures in postures, and a cd with Cyndi’s soothing voice guiding me through a yoga practice, I was hooked. A class setting was calling me and I soon met my first yoga teacher, Liz Gates, who taught at the McKinney YMCA. I then met and studied with Liz Edwards of MoveStudio in North Dallas, who led me through powerfully transforming Vinyasa Flow Series and deeply soothing Restorative classes. What began as a way to stay healthy after leaving the school sports nest, became a new way of life enlightening mind, body, and soul; giving me a freedom to be me and know that is enough.
I began practicing and then teaching with her at Aledo Yoga and Nia Center, in the summer of 2006. I have since then received my first official teacher training with Karen Prior of N2Yoga, specifically in Yoga for Women.
The beginning of June 2007 will mark my seven year anniversary as a yogi, it has been a liberating journey, full of emotion, physical change and awareness to all of life’s glory which lies within the hearts of each and everyone of us. There are many yogic paths, I feel mine has completed a full circle leading me where I essentially began, to my personal path in Bhakti Yoga, the path of devotion and love~ I look forward to meeting and growing with all those who cross my path.