Lauren Weir
Administrative Director & Instructor

Lauren Weir holds a Business degree from Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo.  Before relocating back to the Bay Area, Lauren lived in San Diego and worked in the real estate business as the Executive Assistant to the president of a land development company.  She also was the Project Manager for the Star River Ranch subdivision in Boise, Idaho. In the past, Lauren has been a program director for summer sports camps. Lauren loves to exercise, be outdoors and is an avid SF Giants fan.  In addition to working for F.I.T., Lauren teaches group exercise classes to adults throughout the East Bay. 

Terese Hoibye
Financial Manager

Terese Hoibye holds a BFA in dance education from the Norwegian Ballet College. After college she continued her dance studies in New York at Alvin Ailey American Dance Center and Peridance Center. She started dancing when she was 7, performed extensively since the age of 10, and has appeared on Norwegian National TV and at the Norwegian National Theatre. She spent 4 years in New York where she danced with Jodi Liss Dance/Ideas and produced Dancing Planet International Dance Festival. Since moving to the Bay Area she danced with Anima Mundi Dance Company, The Lively Foundation, HerPic Performances, and performed and presented her own work at the Norwayday Festival in San Francisco. She recently performed in Mariposa Studio’s Cassandra at Mission Creek, Women on the Way festival with HerPic Performances, and was commissioned to choreograph for Argentina Dances by Tango and More.

Terese has taught for over 10 years in Norway, New York and the Bay Area.  Her teaching experience ranges from young children through adult in both Ballet and Contemporary. Recently, she served as Program Director and Ballet Mistress for CTA in Walnut Creek for 3 years. She is currently teaching at Conservatory of Classical Ballet in San Leandro, California Academy of Ballet in Martinez, DLOC in Pleasant Hill, and ODC Youth Program in San Francisco.

Hannah Hogan
Instructor

Hannah has enjoyed teaching gymnastics, creative movement, circus arts and martial arts with Fitness in Transit for three years. She is a playful soul and a big kid at heart, so working with children has always been an important and joyful part of her life. In the past she's worked at Model School Preschool, Monkey Business Day Camp and with the children martial arts program at Studio Naga in Oakland. Hannah studied gymnastics and dance through her childhood and early adult life. Five years ago she began studying Poekoelan Tjmindie Tulen, an Indonesian martial art, and has since devoted her movement studies to developing herself as a martial artist.

Melecio Estrella
Instructor

Melecio Estrella is a bay area native. As a youth he was immersed in the world of competitive gymnastics. From this foundation, he has grown into the worlds of dance and performance. He currently tours nationally and internationally as a performer with Project Bandaloop and the Joe Goode Perfomance Group. Melecio has been teaching gymnastics for 9 years, as well as creative movement, theater arts and preschool yoga. Melecio's teaching style celebrates children in their inherent creativity and joy for movement, while providing lessons that will safely challenge them to expand their movement capabilities. SAFETY is always the top priority, followed by Fun, Fascination and Playful Physicality.

Katie Polanshek
Instructor

Katie is a 2007 graduate of Point Park University where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Dance. While attending Point Park, Katie was featured in numerous performances, including one at American College Dance Festival in Buffalo, NY. Sherecently moved to the Bay Area from Illinois. Katie has taught all levels and genres of dance for seven years and currently teaches gymnastics and creative movement for F.I.T.

Martina Oskarsson
Instructor

Martina moved to America in 2000, after she finished her degree in children’s growth and development in Sweden. She was living in Portland, OR, teaching yoga and creative movement with Fuego, a youth organization for at risk teenagers. She was enrolled in Do Jump and there studying Acrobalance and trapeze art. In Portland she was really involved with the art and performance community, performed in a variety of shows including a collaboration with Alex Grey and at the annual Time Based Art festival. She has since 2002 been practicing Yoga and through that found a deep love for movement arts.

She has been teaching workshops in circus arts, acro-yoga and physical theater.
Martina came to the bay area in October 2007, after she has finished the 1 year Professional Training at Dell Arte International School of Physical theater. And have now been working with F.I.T since December 2007.

Tara Fagan
Instructor

Tara Fagan is a movement educator who teaches gymnastics, yoga and creative movement to elementary and preschool aged children throughout the Bay Area. This is Fagan’s third year with Fitness and Transit.  She has also worked for Performing Arts Workshop, the Oakland YMCA and ODC/Rhythm & Motion School. In 2005 she graduated with a BFA in dance performance and choreography from California Institute of the Arts. While there she studied Laban, somatics and Bartinieff fundamentals with her mentor, the late Lyndon Barnaugh. In 2005 she received a Yoga Alliance Teacher’s Certification from It’s Yoga San Francisco.  She attended the Luna Kids’ Summer Institute in 2008. Fagan is also a professional modern dancer who performs regularly with kelly kemp & company, peck peck dance ensemble, Scott Wells & Dancers and Lizz Roman & Dancers. She loves to move and sincerely hopes to encourage this love in each of her students.

Lindsay Shapiro
Instructor

Lindsay Shapiro, a native of southern California, received her BA in Dance from the University of California, Santa Barbara.  As a member of the UCSB Dance Company, she toured and performed in Berkeley, San Francisco, Irvine, San Diego and Montana. After she graduated and relocated to San Francisco, she worked as a choreographer and stage manager, bringing educational theater to youth across the Bay Area. In 2008, she joined Epiphany Productions Sonic Dance Theater as the Educational Outreach Coordinator and helped organize the 5th annual San Francisco Trolley Dances. Ms. Shapiro is happy to join the Fitness in Transit team as a hip hop, gymnastics and yoga instructor.

Sarah Holmes
Instructor

After graduating from St. John's College majoring in comparative literature and philosophy Sarah Holmes discovered circus. She has been playing ever since.  Sarah found circus, capoeira and acrobatics in Santa Fe New Mexico while working as an elementary school teacher. Instantly inspired by the approachability and thrill of all of these interdisciplinary movements she soon hung a trapeze in her classroom and between math lessons would introduce her students to moving in the air and on the ground. By the end of the year all of the students in the school were taking a class a week from her. The students explored physical arts from all over the world - yoga from India, Capoeira from Brazil, poi from New Zealand, and circus arts from different back corners of many cultures. They finished the year with a performance for the community. In addition to teaching in her elementary school, Sarah has also worked as the head councilor at Wisefool's Kid's Circus Camp. She has taught an eight week outreach program at The Real School on Macworth Island in Maine teaching interdisciplinary movement classes to at-risk youth. And traveled to India to learn Mallakhamb (skinny rope) an aerial art where yoga assanas are performed suspended on a rope.  While in India she taught tumbling classes to youth in Dharavi.  Sarah Holmes is one of the founders of a new performance group called the Paper Doll Militia. They are an interdisciplinary group of musicians, artists, aerialists, poets, Capoeistras and acrobats.

Noah Fassell
Instructor

A graduate from the Dell'Arte International School of Physical Theater has been directing and teaching adults and children for over ten years.  In his Theater Arts classes, children explore and play safely within the spectrum of human emotions and expression through fun games and storytelling. The class focuses on developing kinesthetic awareness of self and group, levels of presence, motor and social skills, dynamics of creative movement, voice and speech, and assists in cognitive and emotional growth. A "typical" class will involve a physical and vocal warm-up, theatrical games or "role playing" exercises, and rehearsal of whatever story or play we are working on. These range from made up stories that we create together to puppet shows to adapting children's books such as "where the wild things are" and all classes are tailored to each groups abilities to help them succeed and shine through play.

Issabella Shields
Instructor

Issabella Shields is a local static trapeze artist as well as physical theatre-maker. Recently, she performed in Ten Red Hen's productions of {the 99-cent Miss Saigon} as an upside-down, violin-playing bar girl and in Clown Bible as a tap-dancing "Moses".  She's a graduate of the Dell'Arte International School of Physical Theatre and Lehigh University and is thrilled to be working with the kids of Fitness in Transit.

Summer Bowie

Marina Salonga

Teyhanee Ridgle

Tyler Parks