Staff profiles

Wendy Smith

Wendy Smith is the co-ordinator of Studio 202. She is trained in both Pilates and Massage and can provide treatment in remedial, myofascial release, and relaxation massage. Wendy has a background in dance and teaches Kinetics at a tertiary level in the Victorian College of Arts School of Dance. She danced with State of Flux Dance Company for 11 years and performed and taught extensively with them in Australia and overseas.

Wendy is a passionate supporter of the dance community and is also Australia’s only qualified Skinner Releasing dance teacher; a form of improvised dance, which she teaches at Studio 202.

 

Josef Lehrer

Josef’s interest in the body and movement began early, having danced from a young age. Currently he is a practitioner of Contact Improvisation (a contemporary dance form), the Pilates Method and Massage. Josef has been teaching Pilates for 5 yrs, beginning his training with the APMA and, more recently, completing his Cert IV in Pilates Instruction with the Pilates International. He also holds a Diploma of Remedial Massage. Josef enjoys letting the weave of his different body practices and treatment modalities inform one another.

 

Jo White

Jo has been teaching Pilates since 1998 and has been a part of the 202 team from its beginning. She is certified both through the APMA and Pilates International and has taught at various studios in Perth, Melbourne and Tokyo. Her interest in movement practices stemmed from her passion for dance, which has taken her to the far reaches of the globe (including Transylvania). Jo teaches ballet and contemporary dance at the Victorian College of the Arts and Chunky Move Dance Company. She is also a keen yoga practitioner and teacher.

 

Zac Jones

Zac has a dance background graduating from the Australian Ballet School in 1996 and has been dancing ever since. He also has 4 years of Pilates teaching experience obtaining his certificate with APMA. He has an interest in Aikido too, having trained and worked in this disciplines for many years. He is a black belt.

Currently Zac is involved in teaching strength training at the Australian Ballet School. When teaching Pilates Zac likes to use imagery to facilitate a deeper understanding of the body in movement.

 

Phoebe Cole

Phoebe Cole graduated from RMIT University 2006 in Myotherapy. Whilst there she gained a great deal of experience in many areas of elite sport and dance. Since graduating, Phoebe has worked in different specialist medical clinics. She has also spent a 2 ½ year stint working as a Myotherapist in Europe.

Phoebe has explored many interest areas over the years including neck pain and TMJ dysfunction, headaches, lower back and hip pathologies. She brings to her pilates teaching the experience of working alongside surgeons and rehabilitation teams for pre and post hip surgery. Her keen interest in continuing to develop her skill and techniques have seen her undergo further studies in NST (Neuro Structural Integration) technique, Bowen Therapy and the Emmett technique.

Phoebe became interested in providing a more the rounded approach to her patients and became qualified in Clinical Pilates with Dance Medicine Australia and enjoys finding the underlying functional issues to someones pathology.

Phoebe also works at The Melbourne Spinal Clinic with specialist Peter Salvaratnam.

 Emily Ranford

Emily is currently undertaking the Diploma of Professional Pilates Instruction through Pilates International. She became deeply interested in Pilates and the moving body through her background in dance. She is a 2009 graduate of The Victorian College of the Arts, Bachelor of Dance. Since graduation, Emily has kept up her interest in body practices to help maintain her dance practice and further her knowledge.

 

Lee Jaaksoo

Lee has a dancing background, having began her dancing career at 7 years of age.

As a result of her background and experience, she has a strong interest in movement through the harmony and connection of body & mind.

Her qualifications include Sport Kinesiology in ACCM, PMA Pilates Instructor traning course, Thai Yoga Massage, CorpusPilates Foundation and Level 1 course, Power Yoga Level 1, Certification in PortdeBras Level 1 and Fitness trainer -Estonian Fitness Trainers Education

She also hold a Bachelor of Entrepreneurship from Estonian Business School, which includes studying in Spain for one year in San Pablo CEU University. In line with her entrepreneurial spirit and ambitions, she has a strong passion for sports, body movement and helping people achieve their goals in health and fitness through the balanced movements.

Helen Gilfilan

After an extensive career in advertising as an art director, in 2008 Helen trained in the Australian Pilates Method in Melbourne in Melbourne and has since been teaching at various established Melbourne studios.

Helen strongly believes in the body’s ability to heal injury through self maintenance. She keeps up to date by attending workshops and conferences and maintains a rigorous training program for herself.

Helen also has a strong interest in yoga which she has practiced since childhood, working with the highly regarded teacher Manfred Finger in Johannesbourg. for many years. Helen is also a part time visual arts student with a passion for drawing and printmaking in wood engraving and etching mediums.

Phillipa Condous

Phillipa has 23 years of experience as a physiotherapist and has a masters degree in Manipulative Physiotherapy, specialising in dance injury and maternal health. She has also been teaching Pilates for 9 years, completing her education with the Pilates Certification Program at the Kane School of Core Integration with Kelly Kane, New York in 2000.

When she was living in New York she worked with Riverdance on Broadway, The Cunningham Company and was personal physiotherapist to Mikhail Baryshnikov and his company the White Oak Dance Project. Recently she worked with the Cunningham Company for the Melbourne Arts Festival in 2007 and the Australian Ballet.

Phillipa is inspired by dance, music and travel and enjoys cooking, playing tennis and camping with her family.

Elissa Lee

Elissa’s passion for the body & human movement stems from a long career in contemporary & classical dance. Having grown up in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado in Boulder, Elissa spends some time getting back to her hiking and camping roots and visiting family on the other side of the Pacific each year. Elissa is a Remedial Massage therapist specializing in spor ts, relaxation & myofascial release massage. She is also a lecturer in anatomy & physiology at the Melbourne Institute of Massage Therapy in Heidelberg.

 

 

Holly Huon

Holly Huon is a certified Feldenkrais Practitioner, having completed the first Feldenkrais Training in Melbourne in 1991 and she has worked with individual consultations (FI) and class work (ATM) ever since.

Holly has been involved in the organisational and professional development of the Feldenkrais method since its inception in Australia in the mid 1980’s. Her other qualifications include Physiotherapy, Neuro Linguistic Programming and Caroline Myss Archetypal Work. She has been a student of Oki-do Yoga for twelve years, and Buddhism for fifteen years.

Regarding her practice, Holly sees herself as a "pattern detector" and "shape-shifter", enjoying the challenge of even the most complex adaptive patterns a person gets into following injury, trauma or long term condition. She also enjoys the simplicity of early intervention.

With a love of adventure and family life, Holly "walks the talk", having spent several months of the past three years exploring the Northern Territory and The Kimberley Ranges. She loves spending time with her family and friends, reading, creative arts and movement.

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