Meet Our Asheville Pilates Instructors

At Happy Body, our team is made up of compassionate, highly skilled instructors who bring both deep expertise and a genuine passion for helping others feel better in their bodies. Each member of our team offers a high level of personalized instruction and a commitment to meeting you where you are. We take pride in creating thoughtful matches between clients and instructors, and you’re always welcome to schedule sessions with different team members to find the fit that best supports your goals. We’re here to guide, encourage, and celebrate you—welcome to the Happy Body family.

**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.

**Alice Jane Eacho** - Pilates Instructor
Alice Jane is a certified Comprehensive Balanced Body Pilates Instructor (2018) under the mentorship of Jennifer Gianni. She is a lifelong mover, dancer and fitness lover, and has studied many different movement modalities over the years. She witnessed the healing power of Pilates through her own pregnancy, birth and postpartum and became hooked. Pilates also helped her heal injuries from hyper mobility as a dancer. Alice Jane teaches the Pilates method as a manual for how the human body works in motion. She’s passionate about trigger point/ therapeutic fascial release techniques for recovery and pain relief. AJ is fascinated by the magnificent human body and is honored to support those in all levels of their healing journey. She continues to grow and learn through movement education courses and research.
Alice Jane holds a BFA in musical theatre and a minor in music from Stephens College(2006). She has performed in professional musical theatre, film and tv, commercials, voice over, and dance companies.
Outside of the studio, Alice Jane is a mama to her teen daughter, an amateur gardener, loves camping and hiking in our beautiful mountains, a farmers market connoisseur, loves to cook farm to table with local ingredients, a lover of health and nutrition, and is dedicated to living a radically healthy lifestyle.
**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.

**Eden Hughes** - Pilates Instructor
Eden is a lover of movement in all forms, and came to Pilates as a means of cross-training for ballet while still in high school. She fell in love with Pilates first as a student, and the infatuation only deepened once she began teaching. Eden is a comprehensively certified Balanced Body instructor, as well as a certified Pregnancy and Postnatal Corrective Exercise Specialist (certified under Sarah Duvall with CES). Her work is also heavily influenced by her studies with the Neuro Studio for Pilates and the Neurosciences, and Tom Myers’ Anatomy Trains curriculum. Eden’s approach to the method goes beyond traditional repertoire, focusing on applying Pilates principles to functional movements that translate directly into everyday life. She prioritizes balanced, whole body movement in her sessions, while also educating clients on body mechanics and helping them form efficient, sustainable habits. Pilates should help you do all of the things you love! When she’s not teaching, you can find her dancing with the Asheville Ballet, hiking with her puppy and husband, or crafting.
**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.

**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.

**Renee Giles** - Pilates Instructor
Renee is a lover and a believer in the power and wonder of movement. She is a certified STOTT Pilates instructor. She has been a mover her entire life and is glad to be back to the teaching realm after taking a break since COVID. Renee went to Ohio University to study dance, kinesiology, and choreography and that is where she was introduced to Pilates in 1998 after a car accident that left her unable to dance. Pilates brought her strength back and deepened her awareness of the connections within the body and made her fall in love with the work. Following that, she moved to Asheville, NC to continue her studies of the body and anatomy in massage school receiving her massage license, Renee has also been certified as a Dance for Parkinsons instructor as she continues to explore all the ways movement can help bring balance, joy and healing to the body. She is continually fascinated and in awe of the human body and loves to share her passion of movement with awareness of the body, breath and spirit.
**What sparked your passion for Pilates?**
What sparked my passion for Pilates was in college, I was a dance major, after 1 of my car accidents, I couldn't walk and had so much pain, so instead of being in the dance studio, they sent me upstairs to the Pilates studio. It was miraculous to me how much it helped with not only taking away my pain, but brought my awareness so much deeper into the connections of the body and gave me so much more strength and balance than I had ever had before. I dove deep into understanding where the work stemmed from and the history of Pilates and i absolutely fell in love with the work.
**What’s your favorite hobby outside the studio:**
My favorite hobbies outside the studio are walking with friends (especially on a warm sunny day), being poolside and my most favorite thing is watching my kids do what they love. I am a proud Mama.
**Favorite sweet treat:**
MMMM... favorite sweet treat is tough. Dark chocolate never fails and then there's coconut anything and lemon anything. I guess it depends on the day :)
**And a little love from one of her clients:**
Renee’s energy is absolutely contagious! She brings such joy and lightness to every class, while also grounding it in a solid understanding of how the body moves. I always leave feeling better—physically and emotionally. Her teaching style just really clicks with me.
F.T.

**Nancy Mackintosh** - Pilates Instructor
Nancy was introduced to Pilates as a client following the birth of her 2nd son to help recover from a “geriatric” pregnancy. Her love of the practice lead to her training in London achieving her comprehensive certification from Pilates Foundation UK. Setting up her own studio and working alongside other certified teachers, she specialized in rehabilitation and mature clientele needs, working one to one in a boutique studio setting.
Following the graduation of her 3 sons from secondary school to University education, Nancy chose to return to her native American roots, settling on the Big Island of Hawaii where she continued to work with private clients in person on Island and remotely with her English clients via online presence.
Nancy has recently moved to Asheville and is looking forward to enjoying all that the beautiful community has to offer.
**What sparked your passion for Pilates?**
I fell is love with the movement and mindfulness required to be both a student and teacher of the Pilates method. I love the concentration, the precision needed, the rhythm of the exercises. I love working with clients, helping all to listen to their bodies and what is needed to move and keep moving for many years to come.

**What’s your favorite hobby outside the studio?**
Spending time with family and friends and my dog, Winston - from walks to lazy Sundays, lovely restaurants to pub quizzes, exploring and enjoying my new home in Asheville!

**What’s your favorite sweet treat?**
Sticky Toffee Pudding (with vanilla ice cream on top).
**And a little love from one of her clients:**
Nancy is fantastic! Her sessions hit the right mix of stretch and strength, and she brings care to every session. Glad she’s part of the Happy Body crew.
-J.K.

**Riley Ford** - Pilates Instructor
Riley holds a 600-hour Comprehensive Pilates Certification from Classical Pilates Education and is a Nationally Certified Pilates Teacher. She also holds a 200-hour Yoga Certification from Ember Hot Yoga. What she loves most about Pilates and yoga is that they require awareness of the present moment. There’s little room for outside distraction, when you are focused on the movement and breath. That kind of focus is a great gift to ourselves. Her teaching style is educational and coaching with plenty of room for laughter, keeping things light and fun.
**What sparked your passion for Pilates?**
Looking to expand my strength and mobility outside of the yoga studio, I fell hard for Pilates. My first sessions were hilariously humbling as I learned where my body’s instabilities were, but I survived to tell the tale! When I committed myself to the Pilates method, I was amazed at how quickly I developed strength and grace. My love for mindful movement is what attracted me to Pilates, and witnessing transformation in my clients is what keeps me motivated in my commitment to the practice. It’s pure movement magic!
**Favorite hobby outside the studio:**
I love connecting with nature, on a trail or simply sitting in the sun with a book.
**Favorite sweet treat:**
Peanut butter cups!
**And a little love from one of her clients:**
Riley has an amazing understanding of the body—her knowledge of anatomy really shows in every session. I love how she intuitively tailors each class to what we need that week. It’s never the same twice, and always exactly what my body needs. Working with her is a highlight of my week!
S.S.

**Whit Zeh -** Co-Owner & Studio Manager
Whit Zeh is a dedicated advocate for holistic well-being and community connection. As Co-Owner and Studio Manager, she brings heart, organization, and intention to everything that makes Happy Body thrive — from nurturing the team and clients to creating a welcoming, seamless studio experience. With a background in wellness coaching, yoga instruction, and meditation guidance, Whit is passionate about supporting others on their personal paths toward health, balance, and happiness. Her mission is to ensure Happy Body remains a space where everyone feels seen, cared for, and supported in their journey toward strength and wellness.
Outside the studio, Whit enjoys hiking with her dogs, listening to music, reading, and exploring nutrition and nourishing meals. She loves life in the Appalachian Mountains, where she lives with her husband, and is the mother of two adult sons.
**What sparked your passion for Pilates?**
My background in yoga and love for movement led me to Pilates, where I discovered a new way to build strength, stability, and resilience. It challenges me to move with greater awareness and has been a powerful reminder that movement is about longevity, aging well, and supporting our bodies at every stage of life.
**Favorite hobby outside the studio:**
Hiking, cooking, reading, and listening to music.
**Favorite sweet treat:**
Chocolate Chip Cookies & Ice Cream
**And a little love from a client:**
Whit is a true bright light—her warmth and positive energy make everyone feel instantly welcome, like a hug when you walk through the door. She keeps everything running seamlessly at the studio, and we’re all so grateful for her presence and care.
C.H.

Happy Body Affiliates

At Happy Body, we believe in fostering a community of wellness professionals and enthusiasts who share our passion for healthy living. Our Affiliates Program partners with like-minded practitioners, educators, and artists to expand access to meaningful, holistic care.

From pain relief and improved mobility to stress reduction and overall well-being, our affiliates support individuals on their unique healing journeys—connecting clients with trusted experts who care.

Meet Our Asheville Pilates Instructors

Happy Body Affiliates

(828) 277-5741

1378 Hendersonville Rd. Suite E2 Asheville, NC 28803