I’m a retired dance professional.  At age 8 I began ballet lessons, and by age 14 was awarded a series of scholarships to study with San Francisco Ballet and to participate with the company in classes.  In 1978, “The World’s Biggest Show” (Don Arden’s “Hello, Hollywood, Hello”) opened on “The World’s Largest Stage” (the MGM Grand in Reno, NV), I was hired, and thus began my professional career in cabaret dance.  Retired from dance at age 28, I began a formal college education and achieved a BFA in Dance at Cornish College of the Arts in 1996.  I continued my education in a post baccalaureate program through Western Washington University and acquired an elementary/K-8 teaching certificate in 1998.  An injury ended my public school teaching career as a Creative Dance Specialist, but inspired my intensive study of Pilates.  I owned and operated Island Pilates Center for 10 years.  My husband and I moved to Hawaii in 2013 and now reside in Laupahoehoe, Hawaii.

As a comprehensively trained and certified Stott Pilates Instructor, I have completed well beyond the required minimum of 500 hours of education and training, which includes effective communication and observation skills, modifications for specific body types, and theory and practice of postural analysis. To my formal academic study of human movement, I have applied my life-long personal history of physically challenging experiences to create classes with exercises for most every body type and condition.  I offer both personalized and group cueing and imagery.  My teaching style is more observational than participatory:  I am adept at layering those skills that result in an effective program design for each person’s needs.  Participants in my classes learn to execute increasingly challenging exercises safely, precisely, and with appropriate alignment.  In sum, I believe that a solid foundation in the principles of Pilates can be applied to everyone’s everyday movement activities for effective endurance and healthy preservation of the body.