Meet the team of instructors at Body Balance Yoga & Fitness. All of our instructors are dedicated to sharing their love of yoga with their students within a compassionate and inclusive environment. As you read below, you’ll see that our team offers a rich, diverse background of experience and training and thus a variety of classes to meet individual needs and practices.
Meet Our Team
Amanda Jackson
Amanda is a RYT-200 with the Yoga Alliance and she teaches a variety of classes including Vinyasa Flow, Hot Yoga, Power Yoga and Gentle Restorative Yoga. Amanda started doing yoga at age 24 and has loved using it as a therapy for the body and spirit ever since.
Amanda is a long-time athlete who has participated in half marathon races and enjoys CrossFit for strength training. After experiencing chronic back pain, it was recommended to Amanda that she try yoga as a possible solution. Amanda immediately started practicing yoga and quickly transformed her body to be pain free and stronger. Through her yoga training, Amanda has developed a deep personal meditation practice and enjoys teaching meditation in the community as part of her yoga journey. In her yoga classes, Amanda brings her enthusiasm for yoga and her compassion for others. She leads others to practice being in the present moment one breath at a time.
As the ring master of her own circus and a mother of 3 vibrant girls, she loves the quote ‘not my monkeys, not my circus”. Sometimes it is her monkeys and coming to the mat to practice is a break from her circus.
Amy Rains
Amy is a RYT 200 with the Yoga Alliance and is currently teaching Hot Yoga at Body Balance. She has been teaching both Hot Yoga and Vinyasa for over 12 years. Amy’s favorite is a good sweaty flow class!
Amy has always been an athlete, and found yoga as a teenager to help train her body in a different way. In addition to teaching yoga, Amy is a nutritionist, cook book author, and food blogger at Wholesomelicious where she shares delicious and nutritious recipes every week!
Amy is a mom to Addy and Luke (ages 13 and 11), and loves spending time with them and cooking for her family. She can also be found coaching youth baseball or softball many months out of the year!
Bunkie Righter
Bunkie is a RYT-200 graduate of Shanti Garudasana Yoga Training School. She currently teaches Restorative Yoga, Gentle Flow Yoga and Hot Yoga at Body Balance and loves the opportunity to facilitate classes inclusive of everyone.
Bunkie’s love of yoga began at the age of 26 when a friend introduced her to yoga practice in order to heal from an illness. Ever since then the connection of breath to movement has been her guide through life’s challenges and peak experiences! Bunkie is a believer that being present on your yoga mat in a community of others practicing can foster greater peace and wellbeing for all.
When not on her mat, Bunkie creates Malas as a meditation practice, loves to hike and loves to spend time with her large and loving family.
Candice Kehayes
Candice is a RYT-200 and she is currently teaching a variety of classes at Body Balance including Vinyasa Flow, Hot Yoga and Pilates Barre. She believes our words are medicine for our hearts and loves sharing poems and mantras that heal, nurture and motivate the mind, body and soul.
According to Candice, her desire for connection and deeper meaning brought her to learn and teach many different forms of movement and yoga. She says that yoga has truly helped her deepen her self-development and build spiritual, emotional and physical strength. She believes in the quote: “Motivate the Mind and the Body will Follow”
Caroline Garrett Hardy
Caroline has close to 1,500 hours of yoga teaching under her belt. She is a E-RYT-200 and RYT-500 with the Yoga Alliance. She completed her Vinyasa-flow training and her 500-RYT with Asheville Yoga Center in North Carolina. At our studio, Caroline teaches Yoga-Pilates, Gentle Yoga, and Vinyasa.
Her teaching style focuses on movement for mobility, flexibility, and strength. Caroline provides a lot of details to her students about beneficial body placement with an emphasis on agility and strengthening the core. In Gentle Yoga, she makes sure to add a special emphasis on mindfulness and breathing. She recommends Gentle Yoga for anyone seeking renewal and inspiration who wants a more in-depth instruction or who is less familiar with yoga. She recommends Yoga-Pilates core training to add stability, strength, and self-confidence to anyone’s practice.
Personally, Caroline enjoys learning and creating. To stay challenged, it is essential for her to keep learning. She loves people and thrives off of her family, friends, and relationships with others. She also finds joy in making and exhibiting artwork and traveling. Her favorite asana in yoga changes several times a year, but one of her constants is a backbend/Dhanurasana as it opens the heart and invigorates. She also enjoys Trikonasana because it opens up the hips and provides a stretch of the spine, making her feel so alive.
Cindy Crace
Cindy has over 6,000 hours of teaching experience and is a E-RYT 500 with the Yoga Alliance and a C-IAYT certified Yoga Therapist with the International Association of Yoga Therapist. At Body Balance, Cindy is currently substituting for a variety of classes ranging from Hot Yoga to Restorative Gentle Yoga. Cindy is also the Director of the Shanti Garudasana Yoga School at the College of William & Mary and is well-known throughout the local yoga community.
Cindy’s teaching style is one that is holistic and therapeutic in its approach. Cindy welcomes and encourages all levels of students into her classes. Her personal favorite asana is the Garudasana, the Eagle being the King of all birds. She loves the symbolism of hugging into oneself and all that it represents – the importance of self-care, self-love, mindfulness of our body, and turning within with gratitude for everything our body does for us.
Cindy finds joy in spending time with her family and with her “zoo” of pets! She enjoys outdoor sports and especially loves sculling on the James River.
Emma Sophie Moore
Emma Sophie Moore is a recent graduate of the College of William & Mary (‘21) as well as the Shanti Garudasana yoga school (‘20). She has a B.S. in neuroscience and a minor in psychology. She currently teaches hot yoga at Body Balance and substitutes for any type of class at the studio, from gentle restorative flow to sunrise vinyasa! She is also the social media coordinator at Body Balance.
Emma Sophie is originally from Arlington, VA where her love for movement and art began. She grew up dancing at the Washington School of Ballet in D.C., playing and competing in violin, and was a professional musical theatre actress, singer, and dancer. When Emma Sophie went to college at William & Mary, she discovered her love for yoga at the campus recreation center and knew immediately that she wanted to start teaching.
Emma Sophie also loves cooking at home for her friends and family, hiking, reading, and playing outdoors. She plans to go to PT school someday soon to become a physical therapist.
Felix Vlad
Felix is a RYT-200 and he is currently teaching Hot Yoga at Body Balance. Born and raised in Transylvania, Romania, Felix moved to the United States in 1994 and 2 years later he made his home in Williamsburg. Over the years, Felix worked in various positions including food and beverage where he become part owner and manager of Alize Bistro in 2006 where he operated until 2012.
His other lifelong passions were karate and fitness; which Felix began practicing karate at the age of 14 when he became part of the Shorin Ryu Karate School. More than 20 years later, Felix can still be found teaching and training there, and he also spends time at the James City County Recreation Center where he teaches Zumba, aqua, strength training, and various other fitness classes.
Heather Guntherberg
Heather is a RYT-200 with Yoga Alliance and teaches Warm Vinyasa Yoga at Body Balance. “I teach yoga to cultivate compassion in myself and in others. Through teaching, I hope to inspire a sense of compassion for the self (mind and body), for all beings and for our World.”
Heather began practicing yoga in 2009 to complement her long-distance running and water sports. It wasn’t long before she recognized the benefits in mind and spirit. She completed her 200 hour teacher training in 2014 through Buddha Balance and then went on to complete Levels I & II Stand-Up Paddleboard Yoga Teacher Training with H2Yo and LazyDog Paddle out of Key West in 2015. She is an instructor trainer as well as World Paddle Association Level II certified. She partners with Lori Erwin at “Paddle on Williamsburg” for training and lessons. Taking her practice out into nature, especially on the water, was a natural progression.
Heather holds her Doctorate in Clinical Pharmacy and is the Chief of Health Management in an Ambulatory Care Center. She weaves mindfulness, meditation, and yoga on and off the mat to support her staff and patients to increase their overall wellness. Heather is the mother of two bright, beautiful, teenage daughters, and two loving Rhodesian Ridgebacks. Together they enjoy traveling, all things ocean, reading, and laughing.
Kaitlyn Romei
Kaitlyn is a Yoga Alliance certified E-RYT 200, RYT 300 and instructs Vinyasa, Flow and Restorative yoga at Body Balance. Kaitlyn enjoys sharing her knowledge of yoga in hopes to cultivate a deeper sense of self and well being. She mindfully structures her classes to offer opportunities to explore ones boundaries and find accessible options when faced with challenges on the mat.
Kaitlyn’s yoga journey began with a fascination to the physical practice. Her first and still favorite posture introduced to her was “full wheel pose”. As a child she would stand up and drop back unaware that she would be practicing this movement as an adult studying Ashtanga Yoga in India under the guidance of Sharath Jois. While her personal practice is rooted in the most gymnastic like form of yoga, she often dives into restorative and yin to find balance. Yoga humbles Kaitlyn and reminds her to be mindful and to have compassion towards all living beings. The focus on breath, intention and gratitude help her share the practice with grace and ease.
When Kaitlyn isn’t on the yoga mat, she is living the farm life. She and her fiancé raise chickens, a worm farm and enjoy gardening. On the weekends, they work at the Williamsburg Market selling goats milk soap and other goodies. They have a dream to master the art of preventing and treating soil erosion through regenerative and natural farming techniques. Altogether, Kaitlyn loves cultivating inner peace and extending that same peace to everyone and everything she encounters.
Lauren Thornberry
Lauren is a RYT-200 and graduated from Shanti Garudasana Yoga Training School in 2021. In addition to being a frequent substitute for Hot Yoga, Gentle Yoga, and more, Lauren is also our Social Media and Marketing Coordinator.
Lauren is an upcoming senior at The College of William and Mary where she is majoring in Kinesiology with a concentration in Human Nutrition and Psychology.
Lauren’s yoga journey began in 7th grade when she started focusing more in-depth on her health due to chronic illness. She learned that movement and nutrition are some of the best forms of medicine for the body. She now is a health coach and uses her nutrition knowledge and passion for yoga to help others focus on themselves and aid others in their path to optimal health.
Off the mat, Lauren enjoys blogging where you can find her at lettucebelively.com and spending time with her family at home in Kentucky. One of her favorite quotes is “The most reliable way to predict the future is to create it” – Abraham Lincoln. It represents that we each have the power to control our actions and path in life, as long as we work towards finding the methods to create it ourselves.
Follow her on social media @lettucebelively
Mary Robinson
Mary is a RYT-200 and she is currently teaching Vinyasa Flow at Body Balance. Mary has been teaching yoga for 8 years and lives in Williamsburg with her husband, 3 young children, and her dog. Mary considers herself a lifelong student of yoga.
She is always learning, and is eternally grateful for countless life lessons found on her mat. She aims to infuse her classes with the same joy, compassion, and healing that she has found through yoga.
Page Bishop
Page earned her RYT-200-hour certification with the Yoga Alliance in 2014 through Body Balance and she is also certified in two levels of Reiki (energy work) and EFT therapy. Page currently teaches Hot Yoga at Body Balance, which she considers her yoga “home base” and where she attended her first hot yoga class in 2008.
Page has a deep understanding of the universal healing benefits of yoga, meditation and breath work. She is on a constant quest for spiritual growth and self-awareness, and enjoys helping others find their own inner guidance and equilibrium through regular yogic practice.
Page is a dedicated mom, yogi, and community leader. Page was the editor and publisher of the Health Journal magazine for more than a decade, where many Williamsburg locals may remember her from.
In addition to all things yoga, her passions include: reading, writing, teaching stand up paddle boarding lessons, vegan cooking, and working as a licensed real estate agent. She lives in Williamsburg with her daughter Cami and their cat, Darwin.
Paul Crapol
Since receiving his 200-hour certification to teach yoga in 2013, Paul has taught hundreds of classes in the Williamsburg area. At Body Balance, he teaches gentle yoga and restorative yoga, as well as vinyasa and hot yoga. Paul enjoys chatting with students before and after classes, to trade thoughts and tips on practice, including challenges and breakthroughs.
Paul also has an interest in a variety of meditation techniques, such as jhana, metta, vipassana, and walking meditation. Through practicing and sharing the 8 limbs of yoga – along with mindfulness, meditation, and creative expression – Paul hopes to cultivate and share compassion and insight with everyone at the studio.
Richard Tate
Richard is a certified instructor of Tai Chi and Qigong and has studied martial arts, Tai Chi, and Qigong for over 30 years. Richard is currently teaching Tai Chi/Qigong Gentle Flow at Body Balance and he encourages students of all levels to attend his class.
After retiring from his position as Executive Manager of the Williamsburg Inn and Director of Special Events, Richard began his second career teaching Tai Chi and Qigong in several venues including the Spa of Colonial Williamsburg, Riverside Wellness & Fitness, and CNU’s Life Long Learning Society. Richard teaches classes that consist of gentle stretches and graceful movements developed from the ancient Chinese traditions of Tai Chi and Qigong in which the movements are slow, circular, and performed from a stationary posture. The practice of Tai Chi and Qigong is low impact but still highly aerobic and offers many health benefits. One of Richard’s favorite quotes is “You can pay for medical treatment. You must EARN your health” by Dr. Dilip Sarkar (author of “Yoga Therapy and Western
Medicine”.
Richard and his wife Margie practice yoga regularly at Body Balance. When he is not following his passion for Tai Chi, Richard enjoys traveling with Margie, tending to his Koi pond, nurturing his Bonsai, working in his gardens, and reading about history and current events.
Trisha Meacham
Trisha is a RYT-200 and is currently teaching Vinyasa Yoga at Body Balance. She began her practice of yoga in 2011 when she was looking for ways to help improve her running skills and overall well-being. Trisha went on to get certified with Faith Hunter at Embrace Yoga in Washington DC.
Her teaching experience includes teaching yoga classes at resorts and private gyms while living in St Thomas, Virgin Islands. Trisha likes to teach creative, dynamic, vinyasa flow classes linking breath to movement. She loves to share her passion for yoga with all her students.
Trisha moved to Williamsburg in October 2021 with her husband and 2 young children. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her family, pets, yoga, and running and has completed several marathons and half marathons.
Suzanne Hastings
Suzanne is a RYT-200 with the Yoga Alliance and is the owner and manager of Body Balance Yoga & Fitness. Suzanne has been practicing yoga for over 20 years and, prior to taking over ownership of studio in November 2020, she was a dedicated member of the Body Balance community.
Suzanne is a native of Williamsburg but moved away after she graduated from college. After living in Orlando, Florida for 25 years, she bought a house in Kingsmill in 2016 and moved back to Williamsburg. Suzanne was happy to find her yoga home close by at Body Balance and she came to know many of the instructors and other members. She believes Body Balance is truly a special place!
Throughout her career, Suzanne worked in various sales and marketing positions including most recently in senior living where she was involved in sales as well as teaching yoga as a bonus sideline. Suzanne enjoys spending time outside with her dog Piper and can often be found at the Kingsmill Plantation playing catch with her at sunset. Suzanne has one grown son who recently graduated from Mississippi State University (Go Bulldogs!) and now lives in Atlanta.