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SPRING & PULLEY, a pilates studio. Pacific & Hoyt, Boerum Hill, Brooklyn \ 718-408-1624

About Spring & Pulley
Our mission is to provide our students with the ideal circumstances under which to learn the practice of Pilates. Our commitment is to actualizing your individual potential; we use Pilates exercises as the primary teaching tool, emphasizing good body mechanics, Pilates form and technique. We provide fully certified instructors (that is to say, trained on all pieces of equipment, and having completed at least 650 apprentice hours) through PMA-accredited programs (the PMA is the Pilates Method Alliance). By design, we hold one session at a time, so the studio is calm and peaceful, and located next to a garden. Our equipment is custom-built, state-of-the-art Peak Pilates equipment from Boulder, CO.

Kyra Himmelbaum grew up in New York City. In 1991— like many dancers struggling with an injury — she discovered Pilates as a means to keep her strength during the healing process, and began what was to be a life-long practice. When she returned to dancing, she found she was stronger, more flexible and more highly-attuned after only a few months of sessions. She was certified to teach Pilates by Amy Alpers and Rachel Siegel at the Pilates Center in Boulder, CO, in 1998.

Since then, she has taught at realPilates in Tribeca and the Ultimate Body Control Studio on the Upper East Side, as well as The Pilates Garage in Park Slope, Bridge Pilates in DUMBO and most recently, at the Brooklyn Heights branch of Equinox, where she ran the Pilates studio. She is also affiliated with Namaste New York. While in Seattle, she taught Pilates to ballet trainees at the Pacific Northwest Ballet, and to the award-winning swim team at the University of Washington.

Because all of her teachers trained with Romana Kryzanowska, her teaching is based on "classical" Pilates work, with a healthy understanding of anatomy, and an emphasis on well-coordinated movement. More recently, she has studied with Pilates “elders” Kathy Grant and Mary Bowen. This year, she completed 36 hours of continuing education with Amy Alpers. She spent three years studying the Alexander Technique with master teacher Cathy Madden, and this has also had a profound impact on her teaching.

Kyra holds an MFA in acting from the University of Washington and continues to act professionally.

Sasha Welsh is a dancer and choreographer who began her study of Pilates in 1994 to help improve her technique and heal from injury. She is certified though one of the most comprehensive and traditional programs in the country, Body Precision (outside of Philadelphia), and has studied many different styles of Pilates, dance and yoga over the years. She is committed to finding the exercises that work best for each individual body and personality, and enjoys helping all types of Pilates students meet their goals: fitness clients, athletes and dancers, and individuals suffering from injury and or back/neck pain.

Sasha has taught Pilates at DeSales University and Swarthmore College, to the cast of Cirque du Soleil’s Alegria, and at Real Pilates in Tribeca, as well as other studios in New York. She currently studies with anatomist and dance conditioning expert Irene Dowd. She was certified by teachers who were trained at the Pilates Center of Boulder and continues to be inspired by the teaching of Amy Taylor Alpers and others from the Pilates Center community.

Larissa Velez was first exposed to Pilates while studying ballet as a teenager. She received a BFA in Dance Education from the University of the Arts (1998), where she continued her study of Pilates for improved movement technique and injury prevention. She received Pilates mat certifications from the Pilates Institute of America (2004), Kane School of Core Integration (2006), and Pilates Equipment Certification from the Kane School in 2009. Larissa continues to study anatomy and rehabilitation techniques with Irene Dowd, Sue Hitzman (the creator of the M.E.L.T. Method), and Kelly Kane.

Larissa’s certifications also include Rasa Yoga, Ballroom dance, and Fitness. These various somatic and healing modalities shape Larissa’s varied teaching style which focuses on the student’s individual needs and strengths. Larissa also choreographs her own dance and theatre performances throughout NYC in the contemporary dance community.