About

The Pilates Foundation Team

The Pilates Foundation is led by a volunteer Board made up of the PF teaching community. They represent and report to the membership in the running of the organisation and make democratic decisions regarding the issues that adhere to the mission of the Pilates Foundation while moving the organisation forward into a changing world of Pilates.

There are several other integral roles & people that work alongside the Board to run the organisation and help it grow.

Nita Amin

Nita Amin

Finance & Strategy Advisor

Pilates has been a central part of Nita’s life since 2001 which began with a journey of rehabilitation after a car accident and then undertaking the Matwork training course at The Place in 2005. She went on to do Bridging Course training with Anne Marie Zulkahari and Hana Jones over a period of 4 years which she was unable to complete when she gave birth to her son Shiv, in 2009. Pilates continues to be a core practice for Nita’s physical, mental and spiritual path in life.

Nita is a Chartered Accountant with years of experience supporting businesses to identify and achieve their goals for growth and development. She has been an advisor to the Pilates Foundation Board on financial and strategic matters since 2014 and is passionate about the role of the organisation as a community of teachers and as a professional body.

Natasha Alpe2

Natasha Alpe

Board Member & Administrator

Natasha Alpe is a comprehensive trained Pilates Foundation Pilates teacher. She graduated in December 2011 from Trinity School of Music and Dance LABAN under the tutelage of Jessica Moolenaar. Her Pilates training at LABAN had a strong emphasis on injury rehabilitation and the Thomas Myers anatomy trains. Natasha’s background in contemporary dance combined with her love of the moving body drives her passion to help people move more efficiently. “I am always inspired by the precision and power of Pilates and how it makes your body feel”.

After graduating, Natasha taught at The Pilates Sanctuary, ESPH in East Dulwich, The Osteopathic Clinic, The Light Centre Belgravia and Moorgate centres and she has covered in numerous other studios including Trevor Blount Pilates Studio. She accumulated her own private clients teaching 1:1’s and duets in their homes and was also employed by Palecek Principles to teach private clients. She currently lives in Stroud, Gloucestershire and enjoys the challenges of being Mum to 21month old Ollie.

She feels very excited by the possibility of being on the Pilates Foundation Board and looks forward to bringing all her teaching experience and organisational skills to making the Pilates Foundation stronger and support its members.

Agnela2

Angela Gasparetto

Diversity & Inclusion Advocate

Angela qualified as a Pilates Matwork teacher in 2013 and is currently undertaking Bridging training with Anne-Marie Zulkahari. Originally from Nova Scotia, Canada, Angela has made London her home since 2005. She holds an MA in Movement Studies from the Royal Central School of Speech & Drama and also teaches Expressive Movement and Physical Performance at various drama schools in London, and works as a Theatre Movement Director. Angela has a special interest in inclusive and integrated practice, working with physically disabled actors and actors with learning-disabilities. She spent four years as Inclusion Advocate & Specialist Movement Tutor at a drama school, working with a student who is a wheelchair user. Angela sat on the PF Board for three years and then shifted her focus to working with Ethelinda to focus on PF Diversity & Inclusion work.

Ethelinda Lashley Scott

Ethelinda Lashley-Scott

Diversity & Inclusion Champion

Ethelinda is currently the Curriculum Manager of Performing Arts Studio Scotland at Edinburgh College where she has been employed for over 20 years. Her background is dance and she studied at London Contemporary Dance School. Her work bought her to Scotland in 1989 where she joined Dundee Rep Dance Company (Scottish Dance Theatre). She moved onto start her own company, Helter Skelter Dance Co. As a freelance dance artist and choreographer, she has worked with many theatre directors throughout Scotland. Her last project saw her collaborating with A Blank Canvass and Jubidi Theatre working on ‘In Her Shadows’ an Aerial piece based on Mental Health.

In 2011 she gained her MA in Dance Theatre Practice at Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts accredited by John Moors University.

Ethelinda currently sits on the Academic Board at Edinburgh College and the Diversity and Inclusion Panel for The City of Edinburgh Council. She is also involved in many activities that seek to service the local community.

Ethelinda is a long-standing PF member and formerly sat on the PF Board.

She is embarking on a PhD focusing on the question ‘Has Pilates Neglected Diversity? ‘

Hana Jones

Hana Jones

Professional Standards Advisor

Pilates has been at the centre of my physical self-practice for the last 40 years and it continues to challenge me as I gain ever more understanding of how my body moves and changes with the passing years. Regularly returning to the fundamental principles and functional anatomy has meant that I continue to evolve as a teacher to find new and different approaches to my work and enabling me to guide others towards having a more profound experience of their bodies during a class.

I have now been teaching Pilates full-time for 35 years, both as a studio owner working in a variety of environments and as a trainer of both matwork and comprehensive teachers, many of whom have gone on to have very successful careers as Pilates teachers and trainers worldwide. My interest lies in how we use movement to support individuals to be all of who they are on the four levels of human expression: physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. I relish the opportunity to work with teachers who yearn to keep their teaching alive and exciting.

Rosie Minogue2

Rosie Minogue

Board Member

I have always been interested in physicality and how the body works but at school I could never see the point of competitive sport and as drama was my main thing I found myself working in Theatre in Education for some years. That morphed into comedy writing with a sideline in comedy promotion along with a music degree. So I came to Pilates quite late (in 1998) after the birth of my first child had left my body in a mess. It was chance that I began with a foundation teacher. It made a massive difference and made so much sense. After a few years and another child, and a differently trained teacher who I found very frustrating I wanted to learn more and so started to look for training. | was really disappointed with what I found. I only came across courses that seemed very limited in their ambition and curriculum so I didn’t go for it until 2004 when I found the Pilates Foundation Matwork training at The Place and that set me off on my journey as a teacher. My training continued with Hana Jones and Anne-Marie Zulkahari and I qualified as a studio teacher in 2011. I now have a small studio in North London.

Elliot Minogue Stone

Elliot Minogue-Stone

Social Media Services

Elliot comes with social media experience and is a contemporary dance performer, choreographer and producer. After training at London Contemporary Dance School and Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp he now works freelance across Europe frequently collaborating with Belgian dance collective; SIDEWARDS and Orley Quick & the Hairy Heroines. He lives in Brussels and London.

Cat Proudfoot

Cat Proudfoot

Board Member

Cat started practising Pilates at the age of 18, from that moment she knew that she wanted others to know how beneficial Pilates could be, not only as a means of rehabilitation, but also for everyday life. She believes strongly that the development of deeper body awareness using the Pilates method can lead to better overall health and wellbeing.

Cat trained with Sasha McLennan & Winona Holl through the Pilates Foundation in London in 2014 and later bridged with Sasha in 2017.

Cat prides herself on providing a supportive and empowering environment for anybody, working on functional movement to not only assist you in class, but in everyday life also.

Ruth Walker

Ruth Walker

Board Member