Kristin Haraldsdottir, PhD
Owner, teacher
Kristin hails from Akureyri, Iceland, and her classes are rooted in the life-changing experience that a rigorous physical and sweaty practice can have on emotion regulation and confidence. After a successful career as a rower and coach, she earned her MS and PhD in exercise physiology. After decades of high intensity training and performance in sport and academia, Kristin established a regular yoga practice and transformed her approach to her own physical and mental health. She is excited to share her highly physical and mental practice to the Hudson Valley at Lava.
IG: @kharaldsdottir
Halle Becker
Teacher, yoga
Halle is a master teacher with over 20 years of experience in hot yoga studios in New York City, and was one of the original instructors at SoulCycle. She was voted NYC’s favorite hot yoga teacher, and has a devoted following around the world. She teaches from the parts of her life that have needed healing and spiritual examination, and thus leads a class that is rigorous and sweaty, and keeps it very real. After decades in NYC, Halle now calls the Hudson Valley home and is excited to bring her energy and teaching to the Lava community.
IG: @hallehomegirl
Emily DeForest
Teacher, yoga
Emily DeForest is so excited to be teaching at LAVA! Certified in Power Vinyasa and Traditional Hot, Emily taught in the city for 3 years before moving to Hudson last fall. Having practiced yoga for 10 years, Emily’s classes are intended to build strength, lengthen muscles, and leave you feeling centered and ALIVE! She can’t wait to meet you on the mat.
IG: @em_deforest
Amanda Huggins
Teacher, yoga
Amanda is a Holistic Anxiety Coach, Intuitive healer, author, and certified yoga instructor with 500+ hours of training. Her yoga practice and teaching career began long over a decade ago in Los Angeles, but she's been happily back on the East Coast since 2020 and splits her time between Catskill and NYC. Whether she's teaching yoga, talking with a coaching client, or holding an energy healing session, Amanda takes an integrative approach to all of her work: "start with the body, work with the mind, and tune in to the soul." Her yoga classes are alignment-focused, soulful, sweaty, and creative. More than anything, Amanda wants her students to feel comfortable, safe, and empowered - both on the mat, and off. She can't wait to meet you!
Lauren Ferguson
Teacher, yoga
Lauren has been inspiring others to pursue their optimal life through healthy strategies for the past 11 years. She has a career in the corporate wellness space and is currently working with Calm, the mindfulness app. She holds a degree in Exercise Science and Psychology, is a 200hr Yoga teacher, and has taught in New York City studios Y7 and SurfSetNYC. Now living in Athens, she is excited to be a part of the Lava community!
Tara McIndoo
Teacher, yoga
Tara has been teaching yoga for over 18 years, and encourages you to meet yourself where you're at on the mat. Through an enthusiastic practice she hopes to guide you to a place of inner peace. "With each conscious breath we take we experience what it means to turn inward."
Tara completed 200 hours of teacher training with Lilly Leon of Om Shanti on Long Island, and completed a 500 hour certification with Shakti Yoga in Woodstock.
Rae Wilson
Teacher, yoga
Rae is a multimedia artist whose fluid practice explores ceramics, florals, and movement. She is less interested in perfection and is instead attentive to nurturing space for growth. Rae has been a steady practitioner of yoga since she was 15 years old, coast to coast, St. Augustine, Florida to the south of India, where she earned her yoga certification. Her classes integrate Ashtanga posturing with Vinyasa flow to create a strong and endurance-based class. After a 6-year break from teaching, the Lava community feels like a home away from home. Get ready to sweat hard in her 60-minute moving meditation!
Kate Devine
Teacher, Barre
Kate is a writer, teacher, and the creator of Notice, Wonder, Arrange: Writing Workshops and Mood Barre. She is interested in how movement can uplift our moods and usher us into more creative and receptive states of mind. On the mat and on the page, Kate sorts through lived experience to find deeper self-awareness and self-expression. Participants have described her classes as grounded, inviting, energizing, and joyful. Originally from coastal New Jersey, she calls Catskill home.
IG: @katemdevine and @moodbarre
Karolina Haraldsdottir
Teacher, FIT
Karolina brings the intensity and focus of a lifelong athlete to every class, creating a dynamic, high-energy environment where every student is encouraged to challenge themselves. As a former D1 NCAA Track and Field athlete in the heptathlon, she understands the power of movement to transform not only the body but the mind and spirit. Whether you’re a seasoned athlete or new to fitness, Karolina’s classes are designed to challenge and uplift you, helping you tap into your full potential.
Karolina believes that fitness is a journey, not a destination. Her approach is both motivating and welcoming, making every student feel empowered, no matter where they are on their fitness journey. Beyond the gym, Karolina runs a business strategy consulting firm, where she helps entrepreneurs build sustainable, scalable businesses.
Join her for a session that will leave you feeling stronger, more energized, and ready to take on the world!
Franny Canine
Teacher, FIT
Franny grew up in Northern California playing every competitive team sport on the menu. Since then she’s lived in six different states and tried (almost) every outdoor recreational activity and group fitness class in every single one of them. No matter where she goes or what she does – trail running in Washington, racing cyclocross in Golden Gate Park and Crossfitting with tech bros in San Francisco, or heaving 70 lb sand bags up the side of a mountain with backcountry hunters in Bozeman, Montana – Franny finds meaning and medicine in Trying Very Hard With Your Friends. Her classes are sweaty, supportive, and challenging. Come try hard, get strong, and share the transformative power of endorphins and high fives.
IG: @roadkill_barbie_
Arielle Friedman
Teacher, yoga
After diving into yoga in 2006, Arielle deepened her practice by completing a 200-hour yoga teaching certification in 2011. In the decade + since, Arielle has taught vinyasa extensively in NY and SF. Arielle's passion for working with people extends from the yoga mat to the counseling room as she is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who has been working in the field of integrated mental health since 2012. Arielle is deeply compelled by the human experience, namely the relationship between the physical and psychological on the spectrum of holistic well-being. Driven by these interests, Arielle has trained in mindfulness, meditation, somatic work, along with interdisciplinary trauma-informed mental health care and movement practices. Arielle has been an active Lava student since 2023 and is thrilled to join the teaching roster!
IG: @ari_elle_elle_elle
Dean Jones
Teacher, yoga
Dean Slugger Jones (he/they) is so grateful for the opportunity to teach at LAVA. He is a certified vinyasa, yin, and restorative yoga teacher, reiki practitioner, and body worker. Dean is passionate about exploring softness in breath and body and hopes his classes give folks at LAVA the opportunity to allow themselves to stretch, release, and sink into softness without urgency or judgement as a tool for restoration.
IG: @dees.healing.hands
Inge Poladsky
Teacher, FIT
Inge, originally from Denver, Colorado, has lived all over the world, leading her to practicing a wide range of fitness styles and genres in different countries and languages for the past 20+ years. As an artist, athlete, and entrepreneur at heart, Inge has found fitness to be the best source of community and mental health strengthening for all that life brings to you. Inge enjoys focusing on form and functional movement to get you to a ‘health’ that can show up and support your day to day life.
IG: @polad
Courtney Fitzgerald
Teacher, yoga
Courtney has been teaching group, private, and corporate yoga and meditation for over a decade. She has spent the majority of the last 20 years in Brooklyn and is overjoyed to now be teaching yoga within the creative and friendly Hudson community. Courtney’s training includes vinyasa, hatha, yin, trauma-informed, and traditional hot yoga, and she is a certified Katonah Yoga® teacher. Her classes are a fusion of what she finds most stabilizing, comforting, and freeing for the group in front of her. Having had some incredible teachers, Courtney knows the value of a good teacher. But she believes a good teacher knows how to empower a student rather than telling them who they are and what they should want. She prefers to hang a lantern -- lighting a student’s individual path so they might feel safe becoming even more themselves. And she loves to learn from her students. Courtney is also a licensed acupuncturist and Doctor of Chinese Medicine and treats patients locally in Hudson. She can’t wait to do yoga with you!
IG: @fitzgeraldbear
Julia Ham
Teacher, FIT
Julia has been a sporty spice since 1st grade playing basketball through high school, running track and field, and going on to play D3 field hockey in college. Her passion for sports, game, and play was more fully realized when she earned a minor degree in recreation and leisure studies, combining the satisfaction of physical movement with the joy of community play. She is inspired and motivated by the undeniable mind/body/spirit connection and believes that caring for your physical fitness is caring for your mental health, and if you happen to laugh while doing it, even better. Her goal is to get you to sweat while welcoming some playfulness to your fitness. She's excited to be part of the Lava community and work out with y'all!
@oohlalajulia
Grace Pullin
Teacher, yoga
Grace first became a student of yoga 13 years ago. After practicing on and off since then, she has found a beloved home and community at Lava! She is currently completing a teacher training at Sky Ting and working towards a Katonah certification.
For Grace, yoga is a means of organizing oneself to live joyfully and with ease. She hopes to share a practice that cultivates spaciousness, perspective, and well-being.
IG: @blindedsphinx_moth
Mary Knothe
Teacher, yoga
Mary has been practicing yoga for the last 12 years. She was first introduced to yoga in a hot yoga studio in her hometown of La Crosse, Wisconsin so she’s excited to be coming back to a heated studio! She’s been or practicing for more than a decade and has been teaching now for a little over a year! She’s also a gardener and is currently in a horticulture certificate program.
IG: @maryknothe
Steph Lentz
Teacher, Barre
Steph is a student and teacher of intentional movement - as a dancer for 15 years, she later became certified in Mat Pilates, Anatomy, and Biomechanics from Pilates Academy International in New York City. Pilates provides her a framework for building strength and stability, while Barre connects her dance roots with modern body science. A short mindfulness practice at the start and end of class anchors her students in through the breath, then class flows between classical Pilates and firey Barre work. Classes are upbeat, energizing, and students report feeling stronger and inspired to go for that extra rep, appreciating Steph's motivational style teaching while she advocates for listening to your body. New-ish to Hudson after only 3 years, she is excited to meet you and on and off the mat!
IG: @steph.lentz
