Gail Giovanniello/Owner Mind Your Body Pilates and GYROTONIC®

Gail’s love for Pilates began at SUNY Purchase while she was earning a BFA in dance. She has had an extensive dance career in NY, around the US and abroad. As one who has worked with her body all her life, Gail finds the Pilates method to be the most effective exercise for any physical level. Gail has an in depth comprehension of anatomy, movement, and a keen eye. She is a master in her craft and leaves her clients feeling well, looking tall and strong and moving with ease. Checkout a gallery of Mind Your Body clients. Gail is fully trained on all the Pilates apparatus, GYROTONIC® Pulley Tower, Jump Stretch Board and is trained in Thai Yoga body work.

Gail’s talents and energetic spirit have played an essential role in the success of Mind Your Body™. Established in 1995, it is one of the first Pilates and GYROTONIC® studios on the Upper East Side. When not teaching or managing the studio, you can find Gail cycling over the GW, downhill skiing, scuba diving or rhythm tapping! Once a dancer, always a dancer.

Sierra Bayles

With a background in dance, Sierra embarked on her Pilates career. Enamored with kinesiology and anatomy, Sierra’s love of the body and its movement has been applied to both teaching and studies. She is trained through Stott Pilates and is efficient in mat and all the Pilates apparatus. Sierra also holds a training certificate from Pilates Academy International (formerly Pilates on Fifth). She began teaching at Mind Your Body in 2007. Sierra is currently pursuing her pre-medical accreditation from Columbia University.

Rachel Harvest

Rachel Harvest was born and raised in Allentown, PA. A dedication and passion for classical ballet brought her to a professional career with the Cincinnati Ballet, Dayton Ballet, and Ballet Theatre of Maryland. She received her BFA in ballet performance at the College Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati.She was introduced to Pilates while dancing as rehabilitation and strength training to advance her work. Upon moving to NYC in 2006 and finalizing her dance career, Rachel chose to become certified at the Kane School of Core Integration, where Pilates is taught with an extra emphasis on movement study and proper usage. Rachel uses her ballet background, her love for athleticism and challenge, and her Pilates experience to create sessions that are individually tailored. Her classes are enjoyable and challenging and she never fails to add a little creativity, personality, and fun to her workouts. Rachel is currently working towards a Masters in Dietetics. She is most noted for her gentle execution of one of the toughest Pilates classes in NY. She has been teaching at Mind Your Body for over 2 years.

Ashley Maher

Ashley came to New York as a ballet dancer. She studied the Stott Pilates technique on all apparatus and has a grounded knowledge of movement. She demonstrates with precision, which makes her Pilates teaching easy to follow. With her lovely personality and strong technical abilities, Ashley’s classes are most enjoyable and popular! She has been teaching at Mind Your Body for over 2 years.

Dana Lynn Dlugosz

Dana Lynn Dlugosz hails from the small town of Sellersville, in Bucks County, PA. She holds a B.F.A. in Dance Performance from SUNY, Purchase College, NY. She has had the pleasure of performing with such dance companies as American Repertory Ballet and Terra Firma Dance Theatre, both of New Jersey. She currently continues to perform with Miro Dance Theatre (a collaborative dance and multimedia company in Philadelphia, PA) where she has been a member since March 2007. Recently, Dana performed at The Kimmel Center in Philadelphia and the Academy of Music with The Opera Company of Philadelphia in their production of Orphee & Eurydice. Dana began her Pilates practice in high school as a cross-training and strengthening tool for dance. After being injured in college she utilized it in her rehabilitative physical therapy work to regain strength and muscle mass. Dana caught the Pilates “bug” and knew she wanted to become certified to better understand her body, as well as pass the wonderful practice on to others through teaching. After moving to New York she studied and became certified in contemporary Pilates under Lawson Harris at The Fitness Guru Teaching Lab, in Brooklyn. Dana has taught many forms of dance over the past 6 years including ballet, modern, jazz and stretch to students ages 5 through adult. She currently teaches Pilates at The Yoga Room, in addition to teaching fitness classes and Pilates at The Greenpoint YMCA. She is thrilled to be an instructor at Mind Your Body and hopes to impart lots of enthusiasm, energy and movement knowledge to her clients!

Jenna Riegel

Jenna Riegel is certified in Stott Pilates Matwork, Reformer, and Cadillac, Chair and Barrels and has been teaching for over 5 years. Jenna has taught in Los Angeles, Chicago, Iowa and now New York. She has worked for large health clubs such as 24-Hour Fitness, X-Sport Fitness Club, and Gold’s Gym as well small, privately owned studios like Body Symmetry Studio and Twist Studio. In addition to teaching pilates, Jenna also dances professionally and has just completed her M.F.A. in Dance Performance from the University of Iowa. Recently, Jenna joined David Dorfman Dance and Carolyn Dorfman Dance Company. Jenna is thrilled to be teaching for Mind Your Body Pilates.

James Duus

James began his Pilates training in 1990 first with Fran Lehen and then with Romana Kryzanowska, a protege of Joseph Pilates. James worked with Sean Gallagher who is the physical therapist for many of the Broadway shows with dance in them as well as many modern and ballet companies. James worked with these injured dancers using Pilates as their therapy as well as clients who wanted to use it to keep there bodies fit. James has also taught bio-energetic work which is an exercise system to heal emotionally. He also does yoga, tai chi, and tap dances.

Yasuko Sato

Yasuko Sato is a certified Instructor in GYROTONIC®, GYROKINESIS®, GYROTONER®, Leg Extension Unit, Jumping/Sliding Board, and mat Pilates. She has been teaching GYROTONIC® for over 5 years in New York. She graduated Chukyo University in Japan where she received a Bachelor in Physical Education and hailed to NY to pursue her dance career. Yasuko has been amazed by the body awareness that GYROTONIC® has brought to her life, and feels that her dancing has become much better from practicing GYROTONIC®. Besides her dance career, she loves teaching GYRO to people who have the desire to make their body limber and strengthened by unwinding the body and mind. She is thankful for the opportunity to teach at Mind Your Body.

Lamar Talbert

Lamar Talbert a country boy from Dallas, Texas started his arts training in dramatic arts and vocal music at the age of ten. At 17 he graduated with honors from Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing Arts and two weeks after moved to New York to train at the Ailey School. He holds a bachelor’s from Sarah Lawrence College and a masters in sports psychology.  His passion for the arts and sciences have led him to work on numerous consulting projects with The City of New York, Tides and Kellogg Foundations, Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation, Muller/Works, several Fortune 500 finance companies based in NYC, and women/minority owned non-for-profits and businesses. He has worked with Debbie Allen and Patrick Swayze, and has danced for the Fort Worth Dallas Ballet, Ballet Contemperano de Burgos (Spain), and Montpellier Dance (France). Lamar was managing director for Nia Love |Blacksmith’s Daughter Dance Theatre and Rasta Thomas’ Bad Boys of Dance, chief copy editor of movmnt magazine, and currently, he is the health and wellness services coordinator at Citi. In 2007 he produced Living Freely Standing for Justice a sociopolitical performance art festival in Brooklyn. Lamar has been teaching and involved in corporate wellness for more then 10 years. He has been doing pilates since he was 14 and trained at the Laban School (London) and completed his formal training at the Sott Pilates Training Center in TriBeCa. He is an active member of the International Association of Dance Medicine and Science and is finishing up his post-bac in pre-med at CUNY.

Melissa Ullom

Melissa discovered Pilates while studying ballet at the Houston Ballet Academy, where her Pilates practice completely reshaped her body and brought more strength and agility to her dancing and daily life. Melissa has performed with ballet and modern dance companies in Houston, San Francisco, Chicago, and Santa Barbara, CA. She earned her B.A. in Art History, with a Minor in Exercise and Sports Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and received her comprehensive Pilates certification from Body Arts and Science International. Melissa is thrilled to be in New York City dancing for Parsons Dance and teaching Pilates.

Allegra Lopez

Allegra Lopez was born in California where she began studying dance at her mother’s ballet school (Susan Lopez School of ballet) as soon as she could walk. While in high school, Allegra became a student teacher in the dance department, teaching dance to first year dance students and taught in her mother’s ballet school. In 2001 she moved to New York to continue her dance training at the Ailey School. While there she experienced her first Pilates lesson. After studying Pilates for two years, Allegra became fascinated with the changes in her body and dancing due to the Pilates training. Being a natural teacher, Allegra was inspired teach others Pilates. She was certified in January 2003 through Stott Pilates and began teaching shortly thereafter. She focuses her classes on alignment, body awareness, and developing core strength in her clients, enabling them to lead a pain free life. She enjoys challenging her clients and watching their bodies become stronger through Pilates. Allegra has had the pleasure of teaching at Mind Your Body since 2006.

Nazarah Williams

Office Assistant