Island Pilates Center Instructors

Leslie Larch - Pilates Mat & Group Reformer
Leslie is a retired professional dancer trained and certified in STOTT PILATES. She holds a BFA in Dance from Cornish College of the Arts and a WA State Teaching Certificate from WWU. Her teaching style emphasizes form, focus, precision of movement, and a personalized curriculum to help clients achieve effective core support, strength, and stability. She opened Island Pilates Center in 2003.
360.221.8881 leslie@islandpilatescenter.com

Nicole Falso - Pilates Mat & Reformer, Zumba
Nicole began dancing at the age of 3. Also an accomplished soccer player, she began cross training in STOTT PILATES in 2006. Nicole specializes in rigorous equipment workouts that leave her clients both beaming and buffed. She inspires and nudges her clients to increase their strength and body awareness. In 2008 she joined Island Pilates Center as a full partner.
360.661.6909 nicole@islandpilatescenter.com

Whidbey Island Yoga Instructors

Amanda Murphy - Hatha Yoga & Power Yoga
A blend of Astanga, Iyengar, and Vini Yoga. Amanda has been a certified yoga instructor since 2002. Her original training was in the Indra Devi technique. Her classes are now a blend of different styles of Hatha Yoga. Amanda's certification as a Holistic Health Practitioner, and five year practice as a massage therapist gives her a strong base of knowledge in anatomy and body mechanics, which apply directly to her hands on yoga instruction. For more information go to >> www.whidbeyislandyoga.com or call 360.969.2401

Kristen Nelson - Viniyoga
A highly adaptable form of yoga that is practical and accessible for a wide variety of abilities. Kristen Nelson-Coombe is a certified yoga instructor who trained at Whole Life Yoga in Seattle. She has also taught prenatal yoga.
kgabber71@yahoo.com

Taylor Harrison - Vinyasa Yoga
I have an extensive background in sports and fitness (soccer and swimming primarily, and if it's considered a sport yet, ultimate frisbee.) I found yoga years ago and it immediately resonated within me as an activity I must pursue. It centered me, it allowed me to focus, it humbled me and it made me feel great. I realized that yoga was something that built you from the inside out. On the mat I felt safe and like I belonged. I began practicing Power yoga, Hatha, bits and pieces of Ashtanga and developed, with the help of my teacher, a rather developed Vinyasa practice. After years of studying, reading, and practicing with the help of various teachers, I am prepared to lead you on a journey of self development, self-awareness and love. Come join me for the fun, the work, the sweat, the joy, the yoga!

Other Instructors

Shirley Jantz - Qi Gong & Tai Chi
An integrative practice for wellness. Strengthens joints and tendons, while calming mind and body in fluid movement. With ease in posture and alignment, Qigong offers relaxed and gentle exercises to open heart and lungs, and nourish whole body well-being. Shirley Jantz, instructor and 16-year practitioner weaves Medical Qigong and Reflexology for fun, interactive classes.
360.221.6296 2herons@whidbey.net

Kate Pitroff - Belly Dance
Focus is basic technique, body alignment, and movement isolation, as well as more advanced layering, musical interpretation, rhythm identification and basic choreography. Warm-up and cool-down sequences will begin and end each class. Our goal will be to get up and DANCE! Kate began studying raqs sharqi, or "belly dance", in 1985. Until 2008, she led classes for beginning through advanced dancers at Kathryn Ferguson's Xanadu Studio in Tucson, Arizona, and since 2008 has taught classes in both weekly and workshop formats in South Whidbey. She is recommended for her patient, thorough breakdown of movement and combinations, her musical expertise, and her emphasis on student safety.
shimmysisterkate@gmail.com

Abi Tschetter - Movement Fusion
Abi has played many roles: student, certified instructor, writer, doula, artist, photographer, fitness enthusiast, wife, mother, sister, child, friend… She has lived large, lived small, and she has inhabited many spaces and shapes in between. She is a contributing author of a story still in process - ever yearning to dance - learning to breathe and to be.