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Yoga Staff

Pilates Staff

Diana Gore has been certified in Authentic Pilates since 2000. She has been training with Romana Krysanowska and her daughter Sari Mejia-Santo in NYC since 1997 and was hand picked to begin the certification training. Since then, she has taught in Arlington and Alexandria, Virginia at Studio Body Logic from 1998-2005, Joy of Motion Dance Center in Bethesda and Washington, D.C., Maryland Youth Ballet in Bethesda and directed Studio Body Logic 2 in Hagerstown 1998-2005 before opening My Pilates Place in Hagerstown and Frederick.

Diana's background includes extensive training in ballet. modern dance, gymnastics, and floor barre technique. She has coached competitive swimming, gymnastics and taught dance for all levels as well as choreographed and developed off ice training for figure skaters. She performed with the Dayton Chamber Dance Ensemble in Ohio from 1991-1997, nationwide as a member of the Athletes in Action Gymnastics Team from 1973-1977, as well as guest performances with Hosanna Sacred Arts and The David Company.

She coached women's gymnastics at Wheaton College in Illinois and Twigs Gymnastics Club in Ohio, where she was dance trainer for a Junior Elite Select member for the uncontested 1980 Summer Olympic Gymnastics Team.

She holds a B.S. in Psychology from the University of South Carolina and is proud to have birthed and raised four strong, contributing citizens of the United States. Other interests include Costume Design and heirloom sewing as well as studies in the Visual Arts and Theology.

Whitney Crawford is a recent graduate from Shenandoah University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Dance Education. She studied Pilates under Kim Gibilisco while attending the University and received her Pilates mat Certification through the Pilates method Alliance in May 2008. Ms. Crawford taught Pilates to High School dance students during her student teaching at Martinsburg High School. She is also currently teaching Pilates Mat Classes to all levels at Health Unlimited in Mount Airy and Fitness 4 You in Damascus. Ms Crawford is very excited to begin her Beginning level Mat Classes here at My Pilates Place in Frederick.

Catherine Christopher was born in Westhampton Beach, NY and moved from NYC to Maryland in 2000. She has a BFA in Fine Arts and has been a Decorative Painter since 1995. She began Pilates with Diana Gore at My Pilates Place in June 2006. She became interested in teaching Pilates as a way to expand her career as she realized that Decorative Painting and the climbing of scaffolding was getting more difficult. She auditioned and was accepted into the Romana's Pilates Apprenticeship program at True Pilates in NYC April of 2008. She soon discovered that Pilates was now enabling her to climb the scaffolding better and for much longer than she had anticipated. She is currently teaching at My Pilates Place and is excited about completing her Certification, which is over 700 hours of teaching and instruction. Her students are delighted to work with her as she has a great eye for detail with a wonderful sense of humor.

Paula Grider is a former professional dancer starting her career internationally and then moving to New York City to pursue musical theater until she retired in 1995.  During her professional career, she found Pilates to be extremely rehabilitative to enable her to heal much more quickly and, as a result, continued to pursue the practice of Pilates as a preventative measure. Long after retiring from professional theater, because of its healing nature physically and spiritually, Pilates has become a way of life for Paula.
 
Her first introduction to The Pilates Method was in the late 1980s as a client and in the year 2000 became certified by Romana Kryzanowska and continued to work out with Romana once a week for the next four years.  Paula also took sessions and learned from Sari Pace the excellence of her teaching on the Wunda Chair, as well as other apparatus.  During that time, Paula also worked closely with Ton Voogt and Michael Fritzke assisting them when they were Master teachers during the Wunda Chair portion, taking sessions with them for a total of ten years (two years previous to the certification) and observing countless hours of their teaching style both with the general clientele, instructors and watching most if not all of the Intensive Workshops they gave to apprentices while they were with Romana's  certification program.
 
After becoming certified, Paula spent the next four years teaching at The Pilates Studio learning from excellent instructors, i.e., Ton Voogt, Michael Fritzke, Brett Howard, Sandra Zoyner, and also teaching alongside of Romana Kryzanowska and Sari Pace at what is now known as True Pilates.  She watched numerous continuing education courses that were given at those particular studios over that four-year period.  She had the privilege of teaching Mat Class for the BFA Program at Joffrey in NYC.
 
Internationally, she has enjoyed working at Bermuda Body Works where she was a guest instructor for three months and worked with instructors to help gain a deeper understanding of The Method to pass onto their clientele as well as clientele in general.  She has also traveled to Rome, Italy for the last two years to teach at Equilibria to, again, help instructors gain a deeper understanding of The Method.

Recently for the past four years, she has been traveling to Costa Rica to work at Om Prem, an existing Pilates studio that has no certification.  She has been working with "apprentices" at that studio to raise the level of their teaching while also at the same time equipping them personally to be able to go into a certification program of their choosing.  Since traveling to Costa Rica, two of those apprentices have since become certified by a reputable program, and in the future, Om Prem will be looking to set up their own certification program with the guidance of Ton Voogt and Michael Fritzke with the education portion to be run by Paula Grider.

Paula has studied and continues with her education with various opportunities that arise in NYC; The Kelly Kane School, Bob Lieken of Power Pilates, Anatomy of the Trunk, Spine and Limbs with Irene Dowd, Kathy Corey, Kathy Grant (one of the elders who was a client and taught for Joseph Pilates who is now 89 and is still teaching at NYC), Ton Voogt and Michael Fritzke , Rebekah Rotstein - Osteoporosis and Pilates, and a myriad of others very knowledgeable in the field
of Pilates.
 
At this time, Paula has relocated to the Washington, D.C. area and is teaching at Classic Pilates in Kensington and also in Takoma Park as well as conducting workshops for clients and instructors when the opportunity arises.

Yoga Staff

Lata, born and raised in India, has been practicing yoga for the last 35 Years. She learned yoga in her backyard while watching her father practice early every morning. She enjoys expanding her practice continuously with her father and daughter. Now, when Lata goes to India she finds it thrilling to give yoga tips to her father. Lata also values her recent experience learning from Katie Cariffe and Larry Schultz at It's Yoga in San Francisco and with Danny Paradise in Khaknar, India.   During her annual visits to India, Lata takes classes in yoga and meditation at the Yogendra Yoga Institute of Santa Cruz, Mumbai.

Lata was recently a guest yoga teacher and lecturer at teacher trainings held for school teachers of the Washington County Board of Education in Maryland. Lata teaches weekly yoga classes in two assisted living homes, one nursing home and to adolescents and adults at Brooklane Hospital, a psychiatric center. She also has a schedule of classes that are open to anyone in the community. Letha enjoys bringing yoga into her community as part of the Usha Yoga vision. She was recently featured in the Hagerstown Herald Mail. 

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