Private Pilates/Movement Education Practitioners

Donnella Wood is a certified Somatic Movement Therapist, Laban/Bartenieff Movement Analyst and Pilates Teacher with a background in dance and mental health. She is the director of BodyWise Studio where she works with athletes, dancers, injured individuals, and those wanting to feel more at home in their body. Her work focuses on helping individuals develop a deeper ability to listen to their body and develop the strength, awareness, and connection needed to move without pain and tension. She has a passion for working with Tango dancers and individuals seeking to understand themselves more deeply through movement. She offers: private and group classes in Pilates, Movement Therapy and Analysis, Authentic Movement, The Tango Body, and Reverence for the Body . Contact her at 503-234-5193 or at donnella@bodywisestudio.net.

 

Stephanie Schaaf has been teaching Pilates since 1997. A professional dancer and choreographer, Stephanie brings her life long love and fascination for movement to her practice. Having worked in a highly respected sports medicine clinic in San Francisco, in private studios and in her own private practice, Stephanie works in partnership with her clients, to help them work toward change, healing, and the cultivation of a vital presence in their body. Stephanie offers private Pilates sessions. She has extensive experience working with people recovering from surgery and injury. She also enjoys working with anyone interested in optimizing their movement for the physical demands of their daily life and athletic/artistic performance. She can be contacted at (503) 284-1222 or swschaaf@mindspring.com.

Gina Frabotta is a certified Pilates Instructor through the Physicalmind Institute and holds a degree in Modern Dance/Movement Therapy from Ohio University. She has been teaching Pilates for five years and is experienced working with professional athletes, injured individuals, and people diagnosis with chronic conditions like fibromyalgia. Her teaching style also draws from her experience teaching dance and movement to children, seniors, and people with mental and physical disabilities. She can be contacted at (503) 309-3290 or gemarie@peoplepc.com.

 

 

Karena Kelly was trained as a classical ballet dancer at North Carolina School of the Arts, Ballet West Conservatory and the University of Utah.  She began her own practice of Pilates in 1994 to support her dance. In 2001, after leaving the world of dance five years prior, she turned to Pilates once again to help her understand and rehabilitate physical issues acquired from dance and life. In 2003, she received her certification from The Pilates Center in Boulder, Colorado, and has mentored under some of the finest movement educators in the country.  The Pilates Center is exclusively recognized for generating teachers uniquely skilled and strong in the understanding of the anatomy of movement.  Students are taught, with over 800 hours in one year of teaching, observation, lecture, symposia and personal exploration of the work, to apply this knowledge through classical Pilates. Since 2003 Karena has taught all over the United States and has served as a teacher of teachers in Paris, France.

Like Donnella Wood, she actively studies Argentine tango and participates in the Portland tango community.  She has also been very involved in many outdoor sports activities much of her adult life such as snowboarding, technical mountain and sport climbing, backpacking, and paddling.  She is therefore able to convey, experientially, the applications of Pilates as a therapeutic tool for clients' endeavors, both artistic and athletic.

Massage Therapy

Lucinda Agre is a licensed massage therapist with over twenty years experience. Her work reflects her reverence for life and her traning in Swedish, Deep Tissue, Myofacial, and Acupressure techniques. Lucinda nourishes her clients with customized massage therapy sessions that include personalized aromatherapy, hydrotherapy, and lotions rich in anti-oxidants. Contact her at 503-475-0953 or lucindaagre@hotmail.com

 

Yoga/Pilates Teachers

Wendy Foster, a certified Pilates Instructor, has been teaching Pilates since 1999 and specialized in prenatal, birth preparation and post-partum recovery through Pilates. She enjoys integrating a variety of mind-body techniques to facilitate the physical and emotional transformation that occur during pregnancy and the fourth trimester. With a background in yoga, mountaineering, and most recently cesarean recover, she has experience personally the benefits Pilates offers to reclaim the body, build movement awareness, and enhance peak performance. Contact her at (503) 459-8936 or wfoster1@pacifier.com. You can also visit her website DivinePilates.com.

 

 

 

Dana Sturtevant, MS, RD is a certified Kripalu yoga teacher and nutrition therapist. She began practicing yoga ten years ago when she developed carpal tunnel syndrome while in graduate school. As her practice deepened, she began to experience more than just the physical benefits of yoga. Yoga improved her body image, which positively impacted her relationship with food. Recent research shows what Dana has long believed, that yoga can help people who struggle with food/weight obsession by increasing body awareness and promoting self acceptance. The style of yoga she teaches offers a unique way to integrate body and mind. Dana shares her business, Be Nourished, with licensed counselor Hilary Kinavey, MS, LPC. Their passion is helping people explore how an enjoyable relationship with food happens naturally when the focus is more on nurturing the body and mind and less on dieting. For more information, visit www.benourished.org or call 503.288.4104.

 

Anne Finstad began her practice of Ashtanga yoga in 1996, and in March of 2000 traveled to India to study with the Guru of Ashtanga Yoga, Shri Pattabhi Jois. Since then she has returned for several in depth periods of study with Guruji and his grandson Sharath Rangaswami, and was granted the honor of their permission to teach. She is committed to teaching this practice traditionally, and to keeping it accessible to all, regardless of age or capacity. She is known for a sense of compassion that honors the whole person, and for an investment of her own focus and energy that encourages those who study with her to move beyond the physical and more deeply into the ashtanga yoga practice. She believes in practicing with attention to alignment, devotion in the heart, and a smile on the face. You can contact Anne at sattvayoga@gmail.com or (503) 929-6161.

Jason Stein says: "I began the practice of yoga asana in 1998 because I was looking for a physically demanding form of exercise. Soon after I took up the practice I began to appreciate its much subtler and profound aspects. Certified ashtanga teacher Dominic Corigliano first introduced me to the ashtanga vinyasa system, and for the last 6 years I've practiced daily with my principal teacher Tim Miller, the first teacher certified to teach by Sri. K. Pattabhi Jois. I completed Tim Miller's Adjustment Intensive in 2003, and I've spent more than 8 months in Mysore, India, practicing with ashtanga yoga master Sri. K. Pattabhi Jois and his grandson Sharath."

Meghan Maris has been a teacher and practitioner of yoga for over 8 years. She received her Teacher Training and Advanced Teacher Training through the International Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Center. Meghan spent 3 years at the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Center in London, England, teaching and living in the traditional Gurukula (teacher-student) system. She has taught courses on Hatha Yoga, Meditation, Yogic Philosophy, Yogic and Ayurvedic Diet and Cooking to students from all over the world. Meghan is currently a student of Ayuveda and incorporates the principles of Ayurveda into her classes.

Workshop Teachers

Kristin Gordon George and Beth Lorio met at Psychic Horizons Center in Boulder, Colorado where they both completed their clairvoyant training and became licensed ministers of the Church of Inner Light. Combining 12 years of intuitive reading and healing experience and backgrounds in the arts (Kristin in music and Beth in theater), their offerings at Bodywise Studio are wonderful body/spirit healing experiences. No previous energy work experience is required to enjoy their events, just show up ready to have fun and stretch a little!