Allison is the founder and creative director of Heights Pilates. Movement has played a significant role in her life as a former multi-sport athlete turned fitness enthusiast. She discovered Pilates in college rehabbing a knee surgery. After just a few sessions, Allison felt immediate benefits and knew she had to keep doing it. Soon after, she moved to NYC to attend graduate school and enlisted in a classical Pilates training program on the side. Allison went on to complete her 600-hour comprehensive certification from the United States Pilates Association under the guidance of Brett Howard.
The majority of Allison's time in New York consisted of working for Equinox Fitness Clubs, where she acted as Area Pilates Manager for downtown Manhattan and taught Pilates in both the studio and group fitness settings. She is a third-generation, classical Pilates instructor, lineaged through Romana Kryzanowska.
Allison has over 15 years of teaching experience and has worked with clients of all levels and backgrounds ranging from professional athletes to clients recovering from surgeries to postpartum mothers to weekend warriors. She views the student-teacher role as symbiotic and feels extremely lucky to carry on the work of Joseph Pilates. An eternal learner, Allison's experiences have shaped her as a teacher and entrepreneur and she's so excited to bring her studio dreams to life. Pilates Forever.
Monica is a lifelong fitness devotee. From cheerleading and track and field in middle and high school, she expanded her fitness routine in college, where she pursued running, tennis, gymnastics, and aerobics. She remained dedicated to fitness through two pregnancies, which helped her thrive pre-natal and post-partum.
She found group mat Pilates classes as a therapeutic response to low back pain over 20 years ago and discovered classical private Pilates instruction over a decade ago. Amazed at how just five sessions resulted in meaningful improvement, she got hooked. Inspired by her classically trained instructors in Richmond, VA; Detroit, MI; and NYC, she immediately enrolled in a classical Pilates teacher training program after a 33-year successful career as an executive in financial services.
She is a third generation instructor, trained by Alycea Ungaro at Real Pilates in NYC, who, for over a decade, studied under Romana Kryzanowska, Joseph Pilates’ hand-picked protégé. She is thrilled to be giving to others what her instructors gave to her, which is a love of living life free of pain and the ability to do the things she loves to do in life with confidence and energy. She is a proud mother of two adult daughters, and is a recent transplant from NYC. She resides in Raleigh with her husband of 35 years, and is loving the Raleigh area!
