Leisa Taylor

ReForMat™ by Steele Pilates, PILATES THERAPEUTICS Pelvic Core, and a certified PROnatal Pre/Postnatal Performance Training Specialist

From: Small Town, Ohio

About Leisa: I am a New York-based certified Pilates instructor, dancer, and movement educator, with advanced training in ReForMat™ by Steele Pilates, PILATES THERAPEUTICS Pelvic Core, and a certified PROnatal Pre/Postnatal Performance Training Specialist, with additional training in PostPartum Fitness - A PILATES & PHYSICAL THERAPY APPROACH, approved by the Pilates Method Alliance®.

As a brain tumor survivor, lifelong dancer, and Founder/Owner of LTMovement©, a virtual Pilates program that inspires and instills in others the tools to feel energized, confident, and empowered through mindful movement, I believe firmly in the power of movement to heal. I have shared my approach to the Pilates practice in classes and wellness retreats throughout the Hamptons and NYC, as well as in workshops in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Nevada, and Memphis, Tennessee.

My desire to explore the many facets of movement steered me to multigenerational dance company Dances For A Variable Population, an organization that promotes dance as an innovative approach to therapy and empowerment through creative movement with special emphasis on enriching the lives of senior adults; Dance/NYC as an advocate for the advancement of inclusion, accessibility, and equity at the core of today’s dance/arts culture; and Gallim, under the direction of Andrea Miller, where I curated educational arts programming and was instrumental in the company’s groundbreaking choreographic residency at The Metropolitan Museum of Art as well as its first-ever self-produced Joyce Theater season in NYC. I hold a dual B.F.A. in Dance and B.A. in Journalism from Ohio State University (summa cum laude).

Why Leisa started practicing and became an Instructor: I teach Pilates because I believe in it.

I preach movement as medicine because not only has it proven that for me, but more, extended to so many of the wonderful individuals with whom I’ve had the privilege to move.

After being diagnosed with a brain tumor, movement became not only a road to empowerment, but a tool to heal. I became fervently passionate about well-being, motivated by a mission to inspire in each and every individual a healthier, more positive relationship between mind and body, a truly transformative interconnectedness where I became convinced beautiful and lasting change thrives. I fell in love with the low-impact, empowering, and restorative pillars of the Pilates methodology, and felt moved to share how my history with the practice provided a sense of mental clarity and effective physical patterning, a language that has since becoming an instructor, allowed myself and others to reach new vigor and depths of connection. I decided to pursue the role of "instructor" because I desired the opportunity to help students and clients to go about their day with an energized ease and kinesthetic attunement. Tapping into that state of flow — your body moving in coordination, intentionally congruent, a conversation of muscles working in synergy — is remarkably rewarding, and paves a unique path for true inner peace to grow. Calm while the core fires. Such power.

What inspires Leisa off the mat: I find that inspiration is boundless... The beautiful monotony and magic of the everyday, filled with fleeting moments of joy, resilience, laughter, and tenacity, are illuminating. The unconditional love of an unbelievably supportive partner, an amazing family, and the kindness and fresh perspective of friends and strangers, alike. Nature. Vulnerability. Honesty. Authenticity. Humility. Generosity. Wonder.

A note from Leisa: Rooted in flow, functionality, and strength, my class provides a remedy to injury-prone exercises through intentional, carefully curated full-body flows, helping you build a strong, flexible, resilient body with safe, sustainable movement patterns and heightened proprioception. No muscle untouched, my approach to the Pilates practice offers a path towards deep core strength, confidence, a sense of grounded intention, and a new mastery over movement. You’ll engage muscles you perhaps didn’t ever know existed to sculpt and awaken the vast benefits of alignment, control, balance, and endurance, without stress on the joints.

Through the foundational principles of breath, clarity, mindfulness, and the exceptional Pilates repertoire, my hope is that you'll discover (and continually keep rediscovering) the remarkable power in you.