Our Team
At Happy Body, our team is comprised of positive, energetic, community-oriented, and compassionate instructors. We take immense pride in ensuring that you receive the utmost care, attention, and instruction from every member of our dedicated team. We can assist you in scheduling your sessions interchangeably with our exceptional team, as we recognize that there are often ideal matches of personality and approach among our professionals. We encourage you to embrace the diversity of styles available in our studio, enabling you to deepen and expand your movement awareness. We are fully prepared and excited to assist you in actively cultivating balance within your body!
Mary Beth Chandler - Pilates Instructor
Mary Beth has worked in the Fitness Industry for over 19 years. She discovered Pilates while working as a personal trainer and began introducing the method to her clients. Mary Beth became a Certified Stott Pilates Instructor in 2004. She furthered her studies with Polestar Pilates and still enjoys learning various forms of exercise and movement. She also holds certifications with ACSM as an Exercise Physiologist, TRX Suspension Training, RYT200 Hatha and Integral Yoga, and as a Post Rehab Breast Cancer Specialist with the Pink Ribbon Program. Mary Beth enjoys helping people discover a healthy lifestyle and happy body! She believes workouts should be fun, educational, and challenging.
What sparked your passion for Pilates?
I fell in love with Pilates because I believe it's good for everybody! I love how much body awareness it creates helping us to address muscular imbalances and move with ease. It compliments day to day living, hobbies and activities.
What is your favorite hobby outside the studio?
I enjoy working in the garden, crocheting, needle felting, yoga and entertaining my cat! Taking a watercolor class is on my to do list!
What is your favorite sweet treat?
I'm a salty and spicy girl, however I do love dark chocolate.
And a little love from one of her clients:
I am so grateful for our work together over the last couple of years. I was definitely at a low point physically after completing my breast cancer treatment and our work together has helped me to get stronger and to feel more resilient. Thank you for your warmth, encouragement and guidance!
-S.G.
Jessica Damon - Pilates Instructor
Jessica has been teaching Pilates since 2006. She is grateful to have been mentored by Nora St. Jean and Naomi Leiserson, receiving their skillful transmission of the St. Francis Dance Medicine lineage of Pilates. This rehab-oriented training, coupled with her years spent working in a chiropractic clinic supporting clients during acute injury, were foundational to Jessica's teaching. She is also certified in Pilates for Scoliosis and Perinatal Pilates and has an MFA in Dance from CU Boulder.
Jessica draws on a wide range of complementary modalities in her teaching. Her sessions are non-traditional and often include concepts from Feldenkrais, Fascial Movement Training, Bartenieff Fundamentals, and many other somatic forms.
Outside the Pilates studio, Jessica is a grain-free baking aficionado, independent dance artist, mama, yogini, aspiring homesteader, secret singer, and accidental guardian to a very cute pit boodle and two hooded rats. She is thrilled to be joining the Happy Body community.
What sparked your passion for Pilates?
I started having back problems at age 14 - too many backyard back-walkovers without enough core strength! During and after college these problems often flared up during peak periods of dancing and performance. In my 20s during a particularly bad flare a friend lent me her Advanced Stott Pilates Mat DVD - I spent an hour going through the (very challenging) repertoire and, upon standing up afterwards, had no pain! I was hooked and enrolled in a teacher training a few months later.
What is your favorite hobby outside the studio?
I love grain-free baking and hiking with my canine children, but hands down my favorite way to spend my time is dancing - it’s not really a hobby, more like a life passion! Most of my dancing life has centered around modern dance technique, choreography and performance, but since moving to Asheville I get most of my dancing fix through contact improvisation - a non-hierarchical, high-contact, full-bodied partner dance that explores gravity, momentum, flying, falling, weight sharing, and lifting. It's like applied Pilates! An expressive, athletic, somatically rich and sometimes high thrill form of play for grownups. And this summer I am hoping to learn a new partner dance - tango anyone?
What is your favorite sweet treat?
85% dark chocolate please and thank you very much :)
Alice Jane Eacho - Pilates Instructor
Alice Jane has been a lifelong student and lover of Pilates since playing on her mother’s reformer as a child. She grew up in South Florida, then moved to New York City to pursue theatre after receiving her BFA from Stephens College in 2006. She found that she had developed injuries and habits from hyper-mobility and misalignment in dance and yoga, intense dance training (in heels!) and physically demanding rehearsals and show schedules. Alice Jane relocated to Asheville 10 years ago and her passion for Pilates was reignited throughout her pregnancy and postpartum. She credits this incredible work to her seamless home birth experience, as well as healing her body from old dance injuries and car accidents. She is the mother to a seven-year-old daughter, is still acting and working in voice-overs and commercials, dance companies, and singing in local performances. Alice Jane believes that we all have the right to pain-free healthy bodies so that we may fully embody our true purpose and enjoy the abundance of the gifts life has to offer us.
Alice Jane is a fully certified Balanced Body® Comprehensive Pilates Instructor.
She holds a certificate in “Practical Release”, and integrates therapeutic fascial release techniques into her teaching.
What sparked your passion for Pilates?
Being a lifelong lover of all styles of movement, fitness and dance, pilates has offered me the most profound healing, especially through pregnancy/postpartum and rehabbing old injuries.
What is your favorite hobby outside the studio?
Gardening in the sunshine
What is your favorite sweet treat?
Fresh summer peaches
And a little love from one of her clients:
Ever since I stepped into the Happy Body world you’ve helped me reconnect with my breath and find more balance in my life. I truly look forward to our time together and the focus and calm I gain from your instruction benefits my entire week. Your guidance and expertise inspire me to push myself, even though I may look at you side-eye-ed when you ask me to do some crazy looking move, you gently remind me to just try it and see. Your classes have improved my strength, flexibility, and body awareness tremendously. Your emphasis on mind-body connection elevates the practice and I’m amazed by your attention to detail for each student’s needs. Pilates with you is my weekly recharge for mind and body and I couldn’t be more appreciative as well as your calming presence creates such a welcoming atmosphere. Keep Being You. Keep Teaching. Keep Learning. Keep Living!
-S.P.
Christina Heldreth-Johnson - Kinēsa Instructor
Christina is a Kinēsa Practitioner who offers a unique system of Feldenkrais-inspired movements to increase inner awareness. Her approach with clients involves various somatic modalities including Kinēsa for self-healing by flowing through stuck patterns related to stress and unresolved life events to find ease. Finding how each client moves through life is a unique design of their past movement histories. Her goal is to help clients turn their past body experiences into their natural state of well-being and vitality for a happy and healthy life.
Christina's movement story began when she was a dancer, which eventually led her into the world of Pilates and Yoga. Since 2002, she has been teaching Pilates and discovered early on in her dance training the benefits of Pilates, Hatha Yoga, and the Feldenkrais method to help enhance her flexibility, strength, and mindfulness.
Alongside her professional dance career as a Soloist for Columbia City Ballet, SC, and Principal dancer/Aerialist for Walt Disney World, Christina acquired her certifications through Stott Pilates, Physical Mind Institute, Hatha Yoga Level 1, as well as other certifications.
Outside of teaching, Christina loves all the beauties the WNC area has to offer, taking nature adventures with her wonderful husband and furry babies. Other favorite pastimes are decorating, journaling, reading, creating aromatherapy mixtures, art doodling, and sharing her love of fashion in the form of all that “SPARKLES!”
What sparked your passion for Pilates?
Pilates has been a part of my life since I was 14, it has helped me in many different capacities during and after my dance career.
My exploration of movement has now branched into the somatic world of Kinēsa which has further enhanced my Pilates and Yoga practices and teaching.
What is your favorite hobby outside the studio?
Outside of the studio I love dancing, camping, and being in Nature.
What is your favorite sweet treat?
My favorite treat is my Grandmother’s oatmeal cookie recipe. Home sweet Home YUMMINESS!!
And a little love from one of her clients:
Christina has introduced something totally new to my self care regimen. I love her positive energy- it’s absolutely contagious. Kinesa offers me an amazing tool to address areas of my body that might not feel optimal. Learning how to work with the nervous system and bones is intriguing, especially since I’ve spent years taking care of my muscles. I love this practice, but most of all, love the practitioner!
Thank you Christina! You are a light in my world!
-C.D.
Eden Hughes - Pilates Instructor
Eden is a mountain and movement lover, and has found a home in each. She is a comprehensive Balanced Body certified Pilates instructor and has been a long-time Pilates fanatic, first having found the medium as a means of cross-training for dancing and inevitably falling in love with the way that it gifts vitality back to the mover. Eden recently graduated from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with majors in Dance and Arts Administration and a minor in Therapeutic Recreation, and her movement and wellness philosophy centers around joyful, informed movement. A mobile mind and body are the source of so many good, life-giving things! Eden is also a classically trained dancer, and uses her history of disciplined, embodied work to inform her exploration of wellness through Pilates. It is a joyous journey that never ends, and she is ecstatic to continue the journey in this wonderful community!
What sparked your passion for Pilates?
It all began with cross-training for ballet and ensuring injury prevention along the way.
What is your favorite hobby outside the studio?
Dancing
What is your favorite sweet treat?
Popsicles
And a little love from one of her clients:
I am truly a “happy body” because I have you as my Pilates instructor.
You always have a smile and a cheerful demeanor, and I appreciate both - even when you have me do squats and sits!
This old body has its aches and pains, but since you watch me like a hawk to be sure I’m doing everything safely and appropriately, I feel secure. You give me confidence and encouragement, and I know I am stronger because of you. I appreciate you and am so glad you are in my life.
C.H.
Amanda Newcomb - Pilates Instructor
Amanda is a certified Pilates instructor through Pilates Sports Center’s comprehensive training program based out of Encino, California. A dancer, Amanda discovered Pilates at Appalachian State University, where she completed her Bachelor of Arts in Dance Studies and Nonprofit Management. As an undergraduate student, she was involved in the Appalachian Dance Ensemble, the App State Classical Pilates Program, and was an Excellence in Dance Scholarship recipient. An Asheville native, Amanda now enjoys dancing with the Asheville Ballet and implementing her own personal Pilates practice. She is excited to share Pilates with others and all the wonders it has to offer for both body and soul. For Amanda, Pilates is where artistry and athleticism collide and she loves helping others find their own inner beauty and strength.
What sparked your passion for Pilates?
For me, Pilates was a practice in somatic sustainability. I loved the way it allowed me to take care of my body and the community of people it introduced me to.
Favorite hobby outside the studio:
I love dancing and crafting.
Favorite sweet treat:
Anything chocolate, but brownies are #1!
Alli Conrad-Cooper - Admin
Alli has been a resident of WNC for close to 10 years. She moved here from Orlando, Florida after graduating college. She visited the area shortly after her parents moved to Maggie Valley and fell in love with the scenery and knew she wanted to call these mountains home. Her professional background is primarily in animal welfare but she has a personal interest in fitness and movement so she’s thrilled to be a part of the Happy Body community! She has one daughter, four dogs and four cats so spends her spare time enjoying her big family.
Happy Body Affiliates
At Happy Body, we believe in fostering a community of wellness enthusiasts and professionals who share our passion for Pilates and promoting a healthy lifestyle. Our Affiliates Program is designed to collaborate with like-minded individuals and businesses to spread the joy of wellness and create a positive impact on people's lives. Our affiliates are a diverse group of professionals, including practitioners, educators, artists, and enthusiasts who share a passion for wellness.
By partnering with our affiliates, we aim to connect individuals seeking wellness services with qualified practitioners and educators who can guide them on their healing journey. Whether you're looking for pain relief, enhanced mobility, stress reduction, or overall well-being, our affiliates are here to support you.
ArtPlay- Studio and Gallery Owners
Unleash your creativity and explore the fascinating world of art with our adult art classes at ArtPlay. Whether you're a seasoned artist or a beginner looking to discover your hidden talents, our classes are designed to inspire and guide you on your artistic journey.
Lex Keklak - Acupuncturist
Chinese Medicine is a walking contradiction. Broken down, the pieces, or elements, are very simple. When they are put in motion, everything gets a little more complicated. It’s a little bit like life. Lex delights in helping you examine the pieces of your life to explain why they aren’t moving as smoothly as they could. When coupled with needles, this understanding can elicit powerful changes in your body and your life.
It’s been said that if you swing a cat in Asheville, you’ll hit a yoga teacher, acupuncturist, or massage therapist.
Lex hails from the north, Philadelphia area specifically, so she doesn’t always understand expressions like ‘swinging a cat’ and she an animal lover, so you can be sure she’d never do it. But she is an acupuncturist AND a yoga teacher.
It was yoga that made her understand that there are ways to feel more at home in one’s skin. After her first bikram yoga class she remembered thinking, “I want to do this everyday for the rest of my life.” It was via yoga that she was introduced to her first acupuncturist and mentor. She helped her unravel a decade of digestive issues and more. She set Lex on a path to healing.
Lex went on to study at The Won Institute of Graduate Studies, Daoist Traditions, and to finally graduate from Jung Tao School of Classical Chinese Medicine. In addition to being licensed to practice in North Carolina, she is certified by the National Certification Commission For Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine. Other certifications include Acupuncture Facial Rejuvenation, Microneedling, and NADA, the National Acupuncture Detoxification Association.
Her understanding of the physical body through yoga has inspired an interest in treating injuries and chronic pain with acupuncture, cupping, and gua sha. I also enjoy working with a wide range of conditions, including digestive issues, anxiety, depression, PTSD, and addiction, treating not only the physical manifestations, but the underlying causes.
She likes to say that she didn’t find acupuncture so much as it found her. Lex has been blessed to stumble upon the most amazing healers in the most unlikely of places. She strives to help her patients find their own way to health and wellness.
Jessica Mark - Ortho-Bionomy® Advanced Practitioner & Instructor
Jessica Mark’s greatest love is working with and learning from the body. The vision of Happy Body was created from a yearning of a welcoming and supportive space for movement, health, and wellness for all bodies. “When we feel comfortable, can find support, and live with awareness in our own physical bodies, we cultivate a greater balance and resilience within ourselves, greater peace in our communities, and ultimately, find our harmony within the world we inhabit.” Jessica is a Licensed Massage and Bodywork Therapist (NC #9944) in Ortho-Bionomy® as well as a certified Pilates instructor and Ortho-Bionomy Instructor. Jessica complements her primary practices of Ortho-Bionomy and Pilates with studies in Polarity Therapy, Gyrokinesis®, Trauma Therapy, Pre-Post Natal Pilates, and Body-Mind Centering®. She believes in the truth and integrity of the body and is passionate about the blending of touch and movement. In her practice and instruction, Jessica works to bridge the gap between the language of the body and the language of the cognitive mind so that clients may find freedom and ease in their physical being. Jessica is a happy mama to Sydney and Jonathan, and a happy partner to husband, Rich.