Mission Creek Pilates:
who we are

Abby Crain
paige starling sorvillo
Aura Fishbeck
Shannon McMurchy
Margit Galanter
Janet Das
Eyla Moore
Tingzin Ellis

Abby Crain (owner) has been teaching Pilates since 1999 in the Bay Area, New York City, and Austin Texas. She was certified by Master Teacher Madeline Black. She continued her studies with Mercy Sidbury of St. Frances Dance Medicine in San Francisco, who helped her recover from a back injury, and Carrie Field ( now of Taos, New Mexico) who taught her the fundamentals of the technique and how to teach. In New York, Abby was fortunate enough to be whipped into shape after her first child by first generation teacher Kathy Grant, at New York University. Other influential Pilates teachers have been Michelle Larsson, Marie Jose Blum, and Kelly Kane. She has also studied Body Mind Centering with Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, prenatal yoga with Mia Borgatta, Pilates for pregnancy with Debbie Goodman, and anatomy with Irene Dowd. Abby dances and teaches dance in New York and San Francisco, and has practiced yoga since 1991. In 2003, she opened a Pilates studio in New York's East Village called Sixth Street Pilates, which is still flourishing today (under new ownership). She has worked with dancers, painters, computer programmers, baseball players, pregnant and post partum mamas, folks with Parkinsons, folks with repetitive stress injuries, actors, yogis, carpenters, architects, musicians, bodyworkers, people with shoulder pain, and people who just want to get into shape and live a fuller and more versatile life in their bodies....Abby's classes combine strict attention to refining technique and instilling good biomechanics with a rigorous and playful physical practice.

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paige starling sorvillo is a Pilates practitioner, bodyworker, choreographer, and performing artist based in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1997. Dancing since church-basement-ballet at age 3, she has been moving ever since. In 1997, paige was drawn to Pilates through a repetitive strain injury to her shoulder and now focuses her practice on rehabilitation for both chronic and more acute musculo-sekeltal injury. Paige's work draws on her extensive experience with western contemporary and Japanese Butoh dance as well as on her continued study of diverse therapeutic movement forms and therapeutic massage techniques. She believes that release-based work partnered with targeted strengthening can allow painful and/or inefficient movement patterns to dissolve making room for more easeful pain-free patterns to emerge promoting healing and balance for the whole person. Her detailed, intuitive and creative teaching of the Pilates method for hehabilitation is balanced by her vigourous and precise group teaching challenging and entertaining the most demanding fitness-based clients.

Originally certified in the Pilates method by Ellie Herman in 2001, Paige has further focused her practice via continuing education in Pilates-based rehabilitation with Lizz Roman, Polestar Education and many others. She is currently studying the Hendrickson Method for Orthopedic Manual Therapy with Tom Hendrickson in Berkeley.

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Aura Fischbeck received her Pilates teaching certificate from the renowned Pilates Center in Boulder, CO, http://www.thepilatescenter.com/, and has been teaching the Pilates Method since 2003. Her interest in Pilates as an exercise, rehabilitation, and body/mind integration technique evolved out of her background as a dancer, and her teaching of the Pilates method continues to be informed by as well as inform her dance training and movement artistry. She aims to meet each individual client where they are in their fitness or skill level with an appropriate and custom designed experience, and works with a wide range of ages from 12-86. Her emphasis is on good breathing, proper alignment, and efficient and healthful technique, resulting in overall well being and an improved quality of life. She has also worked as an advisor to Pilates teachers in training for the Pilates Center of Boulder.

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Shannon McMurchy is a certified Pilates instructor, Craniosacral practitoner, and Feldenkrais® practitioner, and holds additional certificates in Craniosacral Therapy, Therapilates for Osteoporosis®, and massage.

From 2002 - 2008, she worked as a rehab specialist in the world renowned Dancemedicine Clinic at Saint Francis Memorial Hospital.

With over 20 years as a movement educator, Shannon employs a multi-disciplinary approach, drawing from her background in (post)modern dance, Iyengar yoga, developmental movement studies, BodyMind Centering®, Aikido, and surfing. She has studied functional anatomy and biomechanics with Jean Claude West for 8 years and rehabilitative movement medicine with Nora St John, Marie-Josee Blow Lawrence, Mercy Sidbury and Lee Morgan. She recently completed a 125 hr certification in Craniosacral Therapy, covering both biomechanical and biodynamic models of the work. She maintains a private practice in Craniosacral Therapy and Feldenkrais.

Shannon believes in mindfulness as a cure for all evils, and feels blessed to be able to share in people's discovery of the power and pleasure of bringing mindful attention to the body in movement.

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Margit Galanter's unique practice, Physical Intelligence, helps people experience the innate clarity and vitality one can uncover through the potency of movement. Physical Intelligence incorporates Margit's expertise as a Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitionercm, acupressurist, qigong practitioner, and movement artist. Margit received an MA in Movement Research and Practice from NYU's Gallatin School in 2004. She works privately with clients, teaches workshops, performs, and collaborates with practitioners from a wide range of backgrounds, physical abilities, and disciplines.

Margit's fascination with the potency of movement has drawn her to embodied research for decades. She has taught and presented extensively around the U.S., including at Mills College, SFSU, Naropa University, U-Mass Amherst, Earthdance, Omega Institute, YMCA, and various venues locally and abroad. Margit lived in Indonesia, where she taught at University of Gadjah Madah and studied martial arts, as well as traditional healing and dance forms. She is co-curator and co-founder of SEEDS Festival, an international arts and ecology experiment. Margit has facilitated professionals in organizational development, supported artists in their performance development, curated educational symposia, and has worked extensively in the interdisciplinary arts and in social and racial justice movements.

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Janet Das is a bay area native who grew up dancing, acting and singing from a very young age. Her first passion was ballet and as a young adult she discovered modern dance and felt like she had come home. She decided to study dance more in depth and earned her BFA from California Institute of the Arts and an MFA from Mills College. She began dancing professionally with Heidi Duckler's Collage Dance Theater and Monica Favand's Trip Dance Theater in Los Angeles. She was also a member of AXIS Dance Company for three years dancing in the works of Joe Goode, David Dorfman, Kate Weare, Shinichi Iova-Koga, Alex Ketley, and Sonya Delwaide. She currently is a member of Katie Faulkner's little seismic dance company.

At CalArts she was introduced to the pilates method from Jillian Hessel and Clare Duncan. While there Janet learned release technique, Bartenieff Fundamentals and Laban Movement Analysis from her late teacher Lyndon Branaugh. These experiences inspired her to continue her education in somatic movement principles. Janet became mat certified in April 2012 through Ellie Herman studios and currently teaches mat classes at the Oakland YMCA and Turning Point Studios in Walnut Creek.

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Eyla Moore Eyla Josie Moore is a San Francisco native who grew up playing music and dancing. Daughter of the late, great Jazz drummer, Eddie Moore, Eyla is honored to follow in her father's footsteps. She holds a B.A. in Dance from SFSU '08 and is extremely proud to be a Certified Dunham Technique Instructor. Eyla won the title of Queen of SF Carnaval 2011 and was the recipient of an Isadora Duncan Dance Award that same year. She teaches Katherine Dunham Technique and Fusion Rhythms at ODC Dance Commons in SF. Eyla is also currently pursuing a pilates certification and works as an Apprentice Trainer at Precision Point Pilates in Oakland. Lastly, Eyla is proud to help lead the Latin Dance Grooves/ODC/Rhythm & Motion Carnaval contingent who is the current Grand Winner in the Contemporary/Fusion Category for SF Carnaval 2012!! Eyla is excited to be on staff at Mission Creek Pilates and looks forward to this partnership!

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Tingzin Ellis Tingzin has many years of Pilates experience both as teacher and student. As a teacher, Tingzin brings a sense of enjoyment and humor to the work, which has always been there for her. She has a gift for creating an environment for her clients that promotes and enhances health and wellness and is dedicated to helping people of all ages and fitness levels.

Her work aims to understand, inspire, educate, and motivate clients onto a path toward achieving their personal goals. She continues to deepen her understanding of the method and to enhance her own practice and teaching skills by participating yearly in workshops and continuing education courses.

As a youth, Tingzin participated in competitive sports, dance, horse back riding and finally found her niche in figure skating. But it was her journey towards recovery from a severe car accident that brought her to Pilates. What hooked her initially was its fun and challenging aspects but as she continued, not only did her neck pain heal but also her posture and strength changed dramatically. Pilates' complexity continues to be an interesting and a transformative force in her life.