Our Teachers
Hope Bidinger
Hi, my name is Hope and I’m a 500 hr. yoga teacher and fitness instructor. I enjoy seeing students evolve in their practice and have fun along the way. My physical background is in hip hop dance and gymnastics. I found that students attend my classes for guidance on alignment, arm balances, inversions, and strength training. Also, I love to speak about body awareness and meditative techniques to calm the mind-body. I believe it’s important to provide space for students to come to their own conclusions and gain more clarity in their lives. Let’s enjoy the process and I’ll see you on the mat!
Kelsey Bolfing
Hi! My name is Kelsey. I am a transformational coach, mother, and what I like to call a joy bringer. I’m here to guide people through change so they may align with their higher selves and live a joyful life. My mission is to find joy as often as possible and inspire others to do the same. Life is a beautiful gift and it is up to us to find joy and love as often as we can.
For most of my life, I have struggled with mental health issues, and one thing I have found that really helps me is movement. Moving my body has always been medicine for my mind, body, and soul. When I am struggling, putting on some music and moving, frees me from the prison my mind can often be. Exploring all that my body can do, and challenging it to find new ways to move, keeps my body, mind and soul in alignment for finding joy. My joy journey also includes many creative ventures including singing, playing the piano, acting and improv, writing poetry, songs, short stories, and scripts, painting, drawing, crafting, cooking, and playing with my daughter and dog.
My dance background includes: 13 years of classical ballet, 10 years of jazz/musical theater, 1 semester of ballroom dance, 1 semester of hip-hop, and workshops in contemporary/modern, burlesque, belly-dance, and pole fitness. Pilates and yoga were foundational in developing strength as a dancer, and have always been interwoven into my dance practice.
It is through movement and my many creative pursuits that I found my purpose, to be a lighthouse for joy, guiding those that may be shrouded in darkness back to the light of love and joy that lies within. Life is a beautiful gift, especially when we consciously seek to find love and joy as often as we can.
My credentials include: BS in Applied Sociology, CPT (certified personal trainer), CYI (certified yoga instructor), Certified Nutritionist, Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, Certified Fitness Coach, and Certified RSPS (Recovery Support Peer Specialist).
I’m very excited to join the Body Shop family and continue to bring joy to more people. I look forward to moving and grooving with each of you.
Kim Frueh
Hey y'all.
Movement has always been an important part of my life. I have spent the majority of my life dancing and discovered a new love with yoga about 12 years ago. I decided to take my yoga a step further through teacher training 5 years ago, and rounded out the education with the Core 26 training.
I absolutely love group fitness classes as they create a family, a community, personal accountability and amazing friendships!
When I'm not in the studio, I enjoy spending my time with my family, friends, watching OU football, being by the water, watching a good show or reading a good book. Our very full household includes our 12 year old daughter, 4 dogs, 2 mini donkeys, 2 pigs, 2 bunnies, and a goat.
My husband Jason and I are just thrilled to have the opportunity to bring our vision of a boutique fitness studio to San Marcos!
Erica Garcia
Hi, my name is Erica and I teach buti yoga, at body shop. By day, I’m a comal county 911 dispatcher, and a mother to 3 beautiful not so little babes. I flirted with a yoga practice for a really long time, but didn’t commit to one until 2016. Yoga has brought a great sense of empowerment, healing and enlightenment into my life. When I found buti yoga, in the beginning of 2022, it brought out a confidence and a curiosity that I had never experienced. I love that the strength of yoga, and the fun of booty shaking meet in this practice. In my spare time, I love to spend time with my kids, read, hang out with friends, try new foods and experiencing life.
Elise Hofmeister
Elise has taught yoga in San Marcos and the surrounding Texas Hill Country for almost a decade. Originally from San Antonio, Elise has lived in San Marcos since 2005. She graduated from Texas State and has since become a part of the community. She has been a certified yoga instructor since July 2012, studying under the guidance of Helen Stutchbury and Camp Utopia in Wimberley, Texas. Elise has continuing education hours and experience teaching Vinyasa, Hatha, Restorative, Yin, Gentle Yoga, Slow Yoga, Power Yoga, and Meditation.
Elise’s teaching style is a mix of Hatha and Vinyasa Yoga, cultivating mindfulness within each pose with ease of movement through the poses. In her classes, she brings excellent detail and awareness to your body, as well as attention to breath, allowing your mind to be present, with an ability to embrace and experience each moment. She comes from a place of love, ensuring her students feel cared for and safe.
Elise strives to connect the teachings on the mat to the practice you take with you when you step away. From trying to stay present to having an awareness of interactions and situations, reactions and decisions in everyday life, and in choosing kindness, patience, and peacefulness. She hopes to serve and guide you on your journey into yoga and help guide yoga into your life.
In addition to yoga, Elise works from home and manages the office for The Wildflower Country Inn & Event Center, located between San Marcos and Wimberley. Elise enjoys spending most of her time with her family and is “Mom” to an incredible two-year-old. Her favorite things to do include being at the river, in water and outside, going to the beach, takin’ a road trip, cooking, playing volleyball and other sports/games, and getting together with friends.
Jeanette Lewis
I have been teaching yoga since 2007, moving into my 17th year of teaching. My first true yoga love has been teaching alignment and form in the Hot 26 series. I owned 2 studios in Albuquerque, New Mexico for almost a decade, and have continued to teach in the Hill Country after moving to New Braunfels in 2015. My teaching style is always evolving with a focus on honoring the healing benefits of the Bikram sequence while also allowing space for change and spontaneity. I have been a part of a number of teacher trainings and I also run my own Teacher Training and workshops. After spine surgery in November of 2020, I am back in the room to heal and help others heal while learning patience through the exploration of our own limits each day.
“Moving back to Texas has been a wonderful adventure. It was just a few years ago, okay, maybe more than a few (over 20), that I received my MBA from TCU on a violin scholarship. Yoga was not even on my radar as a career. But a year after my daughter was born, I found this crazy yoga. This practice helped me to find “Me” again when I was a new mom. This yoga healed me and brought sanity to many insane challenges in my life. I want that for everyone. It is such an awesome experience getting to practice with my husband and also to teach him (Who doesn’t like to boss around their loved ones!). Since moving to Texas over the last decade, I have been able to step outside of my Bikram box as well. Branching out and teaching hatha, yin, fusion and flow, always with an alignment focus of course. I am no rock star yoga champion, and I may not be able to bend backward until my hands touch the floor…but I can help you to learn how to move correctly into and out of postures. We might even have a little fun doing it! And now that I am relearning what my body can do after surgery, it has given me an entirely new perspective on modifications and my ability to help those with back problems and other chronic pain. As one of my teachers always said “Pain is a precious gift”.
The one most valuable lesson I have learned is that we are each our own best teacher. Learn to be comfortable getting uncomfortable. Making each student I teach feel welcome and most important safe within the space is my ultimate goal.
See you on the mat!”
Off The Mat: If I am not "Professoring" at Texas State, or hopping on a plane to go see my daughter (my reason for being) at Georgetown University in D.C., then you will find me at home hanging out with my amazing husband of 26 years and our 3 adorable doggies. I absolutely love dogs and would rescue even more if I could. Someday I will have a ranch full of rescue Chihuahuas ! I love to organize and reorganize and declutter and especially enjoy nesting in my beautiful home. If I could make a living cuddling with my dogs and creating peaceful spaces to “just be” that is where you would find me 24/7.
Erika Nielson
Dr. Erika Nielson was introduced to yoga when she was a child and rekindled her love of yoga when she was 19 after a traumatic cycling accident. She used yoga to help her navigate her healing journey and as a supplement to physical and occupational therapy. She received her initial certifications from YogaFit and later trained with Manju Jois (Ashtanga Yoga). She continues to enhance her teaching by learning from various instructors and researching often. She loves to teach beginning yoga, break down postures, understand how postures are felt in different bodies, and provide modifications to best honor each body. When she’s not teaching or taking yoga, you can find her teaching at Texas State University, walking her dogs, spending time with her kids, camping, hiking, weightlifting, reading, singing, or just “being”.
Dipali Patel
Dipali firmly believes Yoga is a form of lifestyle and a state of constant awareness where the mind and body are in a union. She became a Yoga teacher in 2014 after finishing 18 months teacher training course at Yoga Niketan, Gujarat, India. In 2015 she passed the International Yoga Teacher Certification exam administered by the Ministry of Aayush, Government of India to be one of the first 200 Yogis in India to have received this honor. On top of this, she has been practicing yoga for the past 24 years. She has been trained in BKS Iyenger’s style of yoga as well as traditional Ashtanga Yoga. She has also received certification in guided imagination meditation and self-hypnosis by Dr. Palan in Gujarat and she is also proficient in the Reiki technique. Dipali believes Yoga as a perfect way to rejuvenate and reawaken one’s mental and physical self. She has experience in teaching classes in the Vinayasa, Alignment BKS Iyenger style, Ashtang Yoga, Hath Yoga, Restorative, Pranayama-Meditation and Self Hypnosis. She hasworked in a State Women’s Rehabilitation Center, Vadodara, India and volunteered her time at agirl’s orphanage since 2015 as a yoga teacher. She was also a personal Yoga instructor in India and since 2017 she has worked at various Yoga studio’s in San Marcos, Texas. You can expect her sessions to be fun and refreshing that are suitable for Yogis of all backgrounds.
Kait Schaller
I think I can honestly say movement was my first love. For as long as I can remember, it’s been a way of life. I started gymnastics at the ripe age of two, and competed until about the age of 12, winning two National Championships along the way. When that chapter of my life came to an end, I found movement in all the other sports available to me - volleyball, basketball, track, competitive soccer, you name it. I didn’t know life without it. All this to say, movement has always been a literal constant.
After graduating college from SMU with a degree in Statistical Science, I got my first desk job. It took all of one week for me to seek out a way to move my body. I walked into my first yoga class about eight years ago, and have never looked back. Stepping on my mat for the first time took me home. It felt oddly familiar, but brand new, and I haven’t been able to go a day without it since. This movement was medicine.
In 2021 I decided to deepen my practice, and completed my 200 hr teaching training from Practice Yoga Austin. I wasn’t certain then that I would teach, as I was still full time in the tech world, but that didn’t matter. The desire and yearning to learn more was (and still is) strong.
In short, yoga quickly became my favorite way to move, connect, listen, and honor myself - not only my physical body, but also my mind, soul and spirit. This practice is something I have deep reverence for, and I truly look forward to sharing it with you :)