About Our Santa Cruz Pilates Studio

The Agile Monkey Pilates Studio is located on Pearl Alley in downtown Santa Cruz. We offer private sessions, semi-private group Pilates classes and comprehensive Pilates instructor education programs.

The newly renovated studio is both serene and revitalizing, reflecting the beautiful area in which we live. With bamboo floors, lots of natural light, the full range of Balanced Body Pilates equipment, and quality instructors, it is truly a wonderful place to work out, re-focus on health and, of course, find your inner monkey!

About the Instructors

Lisa

Arwen

Ky

Karen

Lisa Graham, Owner

Lisa is a certified Pilates instructor and educator, certified massage therapist and published author. Lisa was first introduced to Pilates at UCLA and received her formal training from Ellie Herman, at EHS Pilates in San Francisco. Pilates was the perfect way for Lisa to combine her training in dance with her passion for Kinesiology. Always eager to learn more, she has continued her education by working with remarkable instructors such as Lizz Roman, Nora St John, Lolita San Miguel, Brent Anderson, Elizabeth Larkham and many more.

As an educator for Balanced Body University and the EHS Pilates Institute, Lisa has trained instructors locally, across the United States and internationally. Her students have gone on to great success and now teach all over the US as well as in Greece, Ireland, Italy, France, China and Korea.

Lisa’s book credits include co-authoring Ellie Herman’s Pilates Mat and Ellie Herman’s Pilates Cadillac, as well as collaborating with Ellie on the three other books in that series. She has also worked with Nora St. John on the instructor training materials for Balanced Body University.

Lisa opened Agile Monkey in its current location in September of 2007 and is thrilled to be part of the Santa Cruz health and wellness community.To read more about Lisa’s approach to working with clients,  please see below.

Arwen Brooke, Senior Certified Pilates Instructor

Arwen discovered Pilates by accident—she went into her first mat class thinking she was attending a yoga class! It was love at first exercise though, and she began attending every Pilates class she could find until she finally decided she’d like to share her love of the Pilates method with others and become an instructor. She completed her certification through the Physical Mind Institute in 2004 and continues to expand her education and skill through specialized training at Center of Balance, and now at Agile Monkey. She loves Pilates for its whole-body approach and its focus on wellness for the body AND mind. Her teaching style is one of empowerment, encouraging students to learn their way into better fitness & an overall better life experience.

Arwen enjoys motivating and encouraging confidence in her clients by helping them to develop efficient, healthy movement patterns for everyday living. She uses her sports and rehabilitation-based movement studies background to inform her teaching style as well.

To read more about Arwen, please visit her website.

Ky Carnell-Russell, Senior Certified Pilates instructor

Ky Carnell-Russell is a certified Pilates instructor with advanced training and experience in Pilates-based rehabilitation. She worked as a Pilates-based rehabilitation specialist at the world-renowned St. Francis Hospital’s Center for Sports and Dance Medicine for several years. Ky co-owned and directed a thriving Pilates studio in San Francisco for the past 4 years, and is excited to have recently relocated to beautiful Santa Cruz and to be teaching at Agile Monkey.
 
Ky is devoted to helping her clients experience ease and joy in movement, as well as feeling the personal satisfaction that arises from progressing and excelling in a challenging physical activity. She loves teaching Pilates to clients in all stages of life and well-being, and includes elements from her background in rehab, fitness, anatomy, and dance into her sessions. Ky has had successful experiences working with clients with practically any injury or chronic pain condition and truly believes that pilates has something to offer everyone.
 
Ky is a faculty member of Balanced Body University and co-teaches the instructor training program with Lisa. Ky is also pursuing her Master’s degree in Kinesiology at San Jose State University, and is an assistant teacher in Anatomy in Clay.
 
To read more about Ky, please visit her website.

Karen Christiansen, Senior Certified Pilates Instructor & Certified Breema Practioner

Karen is a teacher, healer, and lifelong learner. She uses a holistic approach to her teaching addressing the body, mind, and spirit. She was certified in Pilates by the Physical Mind Institute in 2003. Since then she has continued to learn from all the top Pilates instructors. Karen is also certified as a Breema massage practitioner; Breema means the essence of harmonious life.

Karen taught dance for 10 years in NY and Santa Cruz. Injuries resulting from her dance background created opportunities to learn from western and eastern doctors, and healers. As a result, Karen is equally comfortable teaching a full range of fitness levels from athletic to rehab oriented. She has been able to help her clients with back, neck, shoulder, knee, hip and foot issues, and is experienced working with clients who have Osteoporosis, MS, Parkinson's disease, and Spinal Stenosis.

Her greatest joy comes from showing people how Pilates relates to their daily life helping to eliminate pain, and create strong flexible bodies.

To read more about Karen, please visit her website.

The Agile Monkey Approach to Working with Clients...

Private sessions are always focused on the individual needs of the client and tend to include work on the mat and equipment. Workouts can be fast paced and vigorous or slow and gentle based on the needs and mood of the client.

Understanding that everyone has imbalances, instructors use their knowledge of Pilates and rehabilitation techniques to help each client work more effectively and efficiently in their own body, regardless of their current fitness level. By helping clients understand their postural tendencies and correcting their imbalances, Lisa and the Agile Monkey Pilates instructors have had great success significantly improving their clients physical condition and reducing the likelihood of future injury.

In order to facilitate understanding and improvement of the work, instructors can design individualized home routines for clients. Not everyone has the will and interest to work out at home, but at Agile Monkey, it is a goal to educate clients about their bodies and empower them to learn how to fix themselves.

Introducing Our Apprentice and Student Instructors

We currently have two Apprentice Instructors (Avra and Jewelie) and two Student Instructors (Nicole and Jenny) seeing clients at Agile Monkey in Santa Cruz as part of their Balanced Body University Pilates Instructor training course requirements. Our Apprentices, Avra and Jeweile, completed their BBU coursework in 2008 and are well on their way towards certification. Our Students, Nicole and Jenny, just completed their training in 2009 and are now accepting clients to practice their skills. They are all offering inexpensive private sessions on the mat and equipment.

So if you have ever wanted to try a private session but were prohibited by the price, this is a great opportunity. 

Apprentice rates are $45 for private sessions, or $30 for semi-privates.

Students rates are even less: you can take one student private for $25, or 5 student private sessions for only $100!