FLEXIBILITY. STRENGTH. BALANCE. HEALING
The area's longest running studio, serving
Lee's Summit for over 13 years.
Experienced teachers.
Beginner to advanced yoga students are welcome.
We offer carefully curated classes in a boutique studio environment.
Don't just 'do' yoga. Learn yoga safely!
Our Teachers
All of our talented teachers have undergone at least 200 hours of high level yoga teacher training...some far beyond that! We pride ourselves on bringing professional, compassionate, high quality yoga to each and every one of our yoga students.
Leah Morgan- Owner
Leah began her yoga journey as a student many years ago out of a curiosity. Wondering what all the fuss was about, she rolled out a mat at a local health club and gave it a shot. With that first class she started down a path of yoga that ultimately led to Leah becoming a 200-hour+ trained yoga teacher. Studying with inspiring yoga leaders Leah has honed her unique style, which is a fusion of breathing, alignment, honoring your body, living in the moment and having fun.
These are Leah’s second and third yoga studios, having sold her first one in Lee’s Summit in 2010. She is also the co-creator of the Kansas City Yoga Festival and the Kansas City Yoga Teacher Training program.
Whether your goal is to begin or grow a practice, increase your strength and flexibility, learn how to control stress, or become a part of an amazing local community, Leah can help you achieve these goals. In turn, you can begin building a more independent and productive lifestyle. She believes that the sense of peace and transformation that a yoga practice can bring will astound you. Click HERE to learn about consulting and corporate programs.
Vanessa Barrett
Vanessa Barrett has been teaching yoga for over 20 years. She started out as a yoga group exercise instructor at the YMCA then later completed her 200 hour teacher training with the well known Gina Caputo. Vanessa says her teaching style and personal practice has been forever changed from this training. Her energetic classes are taught with intention and meant to influence personal growth on and off the mat. Classes will include breathwork, bits of yogic philosophy and always a touch of humor. Her desire is for students to use their yoga practice to connect on a deeper level to their authentic self and to discover much more than just a pose while they are in class. Seeing students become aware of their unlimited potential is what inspires her to become a better yoga teacher.
When Vanessa is not in the yoga studio you can find her at the gym, walking her furball Jack, spending time with friends and family, cooking with her hubby of 25 years, or cheering on her daughter, who is a pole vaulter at ESU.
Stacy Walsh
I started practicing yoga at home through tapes and books many years ago.
Eventually I got courageous enough to try it in a class setting and I was immediately hooked. I then began training for my 200 hour certification at The Yoga School for Therapeutics and completed the certification process in March of 2015. I have also completed the KCYTT program in 2016.
Prior to becoming a yoga instructor, I worked as a registered nurse around the Kansas City area for 10 years. My focus in nursing was primarily pediatrics and women's health. Practicing and training in yoga has been a wonderful compliment to my previous nursing training and I have felt and seen the many health benefits of yoga.
Now my passion is to teach this amazing and healing lifestyle to others! My training has been based on the teachings of BKS Iyengar, as well as workshops with Doug Keller and Paula Tortlano Self. I enjoy focusing on alignment, stamina, and strength building with some longer holds and inversions. Most of all I like everyone to leave their class and step off their mat feeling happy and healthy!
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Amber Sexton
Amber’s yoga practice began as self-care about 15 years ago to overcome Postpartum Anxiety. She is passionate about using Yoga, breath work, and meditation as a way to promote complete wellness.
Amber balances strength and mobility with the beauty and grace of yoga asanas, and sprinkles in a little bit of playfulness. She loves the adaptability of Hatha, the challenge of Yoga/Pilates Fusion, and the mindfulness of connecting body and mind to breath.
When not on the mat, she enjoys being outdoors, taking walks, going on hikes, kayaking, reading, and spending time with family.
Shane Ledford
Shane had been interested in trying yoga for several years. He was intrigued by its reported meditative benefits, but he thought he would need to be more flexible, have better balance, need more free time, and maybe even lose a few pounds before he could try. Once he tried it out at a Community college class, he began to sense remarkable mental and physical changes within himself, and quickly found Core Balance Yoga Studio.
His yoga practice captivated him so much that he attended 5 to 7 classes a week for over a year. Then, wanting to deepen his practice and understanding, he enrolled in the Kansas City Yoga Teacher Training program where he studied with an amazing kula, completing the 200 hour certification.
Shane is honored to be teaching at Core Balance, his home studio that has benefited him so greatly. His teaching is gentle, basic, and meditative. He asks his students to “just breathe,” and be mindful and present in their practice. His passion is to hopefully pass on the transformative benefits of yoga that were given to him.
Tracy Hackett
Tracy has been teaching yoga since 2017 after graduation Kansas City Yoga Teacher Training and is currently working on her 300 hour advanced yoga studies certification. She enjoys teaching and practicing a variety of yoga styles, including Power Flow, Slow Flow, Gentle Yoga, and Mindful Yin. Outside the studio, she can be found snuggled up with her dogs, reading a good book, or in the kitchen trying out a new recipe.
Cindy Davis
Cindy’s yoga journey began in 1999, on the aerobics floor of a busy health club. Though she wanted to love it, her first experiences were a lot more like childbirth than she had hoped, and she tried to embrace the discomfort and breathe. The healthclub closed, and she continued to explore yoga on her mat at home, beginning to find ease in the poses, before a wrist fracture sidelined her practice, and she explored other healthful practices, like walking, for nearly a decade. Eventually, she made her way back to her yoga mat in 2012, and completed the 200 hour Kansas City Yoga Teacher Training in 2018. She uses her yoga practice to counterbalance a stressful and busy “real life” job.
Cindy believes that yoga is for Every Body, and strives to offer a class that allows both novice and seasoned yogis to explore their range of motion in a playful environment. She encourages participants to challenge themselves, but to always listen to their bodies and to take modifications to stay safe and injury-free.
Jamie Mason
I came to yoga originally to manage stress and depression and began to experience its many healing effects when I came through the doors of Core Balance Yoga Center and began a consistent practice. I completed my 200-hour Yoga Teacher Certification in March 2015 through the Kansas City Yoga Teacher Training Program. I have had specialty training in chair, yin, trauma-informed, yoga therapy, breath work, and mindfulness meditation. In addition, I am a Certified Personal Fitness Trainer and Group Exercise Instructor. I have also been using more yoga postures and principles for several years with reports of positive results in my “day job” as a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor, where I have both the honor and privilege of working with people who struggle with mental health and addiction concerns. I enjoy facilitating workshops on a wide variety of mental health topics as well. My intention and hope is that I can be a guide for my students to experience increased self-awareness, peace, compassion, kindness, and love for themselves and others, both on and off the mat. Thank you to all my teachers & students for sharing this wonderful journey with me!
Jan Sumner
Jan’s introduction to yoga began in 1986, when she participated in a three week program called “Health for Life” at Kripalu Yoga Center located in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. After surviving a life changing burn injury in 1983, she went through a lot of rehabilitation, many surgeries, and experienced a wide range of emotions. Jan believes yoga saved her life and has taught her many things: that true beauty does come from within, that yoga was her pathway to self-love, and the miracle to her physical healing. Jan stayed at Kripalu and assisted with the program that changed her life. In 2020, Jan became a certified Mindfulness Teacher through Midwest Alliance for Mindfulness and in 2021, Jan received her certification as a Let Your Yoga Dance Teacher. This year in April of 2022, Jan completed a six month Women's Feminine Embodiment Program called ‘Beauty Unleashed’.
Jan is very committed to her own personal growth, peace, and evolution. She is dedicated to helping others awaken to a greater self-love through yoga and meditation. She believes connection to our breath is one of the most important tools to our yoga practice. She believes finding stillness, feeling serenity, and building strength through yoga has helped her develop a greater consciousness and deeper connection to her body, mind, and spirit.
Angie Gard
I started my yoga practice in a gym setting 15 years ago ,to stretch out after my real work out and soon discovered the physical and mental benefits of practicing yoga. After 10 years of seeing how yoga helped me maintain a healthier lifestyle and manage the challenges life can send our way I wanted to help share this with others and took the 200 hour training they Kanas City teacher training in 2016,I enjoy teaching at 3 different studios and I also teach at 3 different hospitals to yogis battling cancer, I find so much strength, courage and motivation in every class I attend whether I’m a student or teacher.
Jamie Ford
I found Yoga at a point in my life when I was in search of calmness and serenity. My journey began by taking classes as many times a week at Core Balance I could and I quickly began to experience the benefits of yoga in my day to day life. I decided to deepen my yoga knowledge and completed my 200-hour certification through the Kansas City Yoga Teacher Training program in 2018.
I am now a very motivated yoga Instructor with a passion to inspire others to improve their long-term wellness goals. I strive to help students of all skill levels feel comfortable in their practice, learn essential postures, and ensure a safe practice for everyone. I approach both my personal practice and teaching through curiosity and thoughtful consideration. With focus on alignment, strength, and breath, I help students find the balance between effort and ease to tune into their body.
Karen Leaton
Karen has always enjoyed how the body moves and reacts through dance, stretch and sport. In January 2005, she was involved in a devastating automobile accident. This rendered her practically immobile, in bed most days with meds for migraine, deep tissue and neck damage. She thought life as she had known it was over. Doing the best she could for her growing family, she began a journey on a 9-10 year healing path. Mentally and physically, she sought out more natural healing modalities including massage therapy and a deeper study of the chakra systems, meditation, research, reading and forgiveness. She was happy to include yoga as her daily go-to. Yoga, she says, is the reason for her overall healing.
In 2015, she finally took the leap and committed herself to a year of continued health and learning. In December 2016, she proudly graduated from Darling Yoga as a 200-RYT. She is now very inspired to help others nurture their own mind, body and spirit as they discover the health benefits through a playful, light hearted practice using Hatha Yoga. Karen focuses on alignment, stretch, and breathwork building stamina, strength and confidence. She loves and cares for each of her students with a grateful open heart through an active and gentle approach.