Beyond Team
All of our instructors are certified in pilates and/ or barre, and have additional training and pre and post-natal exercise as well as exercise modifications for injuries and special health concerns. Most people originally come to our studio for physical therapy but keep coming for the workouts, so instructors here have extra experience in rehabilitative exercise.
CARYN CONNARTON
CARYN CONNARTON is the owner of Beyond Fitness Pilates & Barre Studio. Her classes are definitely some of the more challenging classes on the schedule, but she'll make sure you also fix your achy spots while you are sweating it out. She is definitely the person you want your initial private session with if you have an injury or health concern. It's also worth taking one of her rolling classes at least once, so you know how to use all the amazing massage tools here before or after your other classes. Caryn currently offers Pilates and barre-based physical therapy, private Pilates sessions, weekly group Pilates and barre classes, sport-specific athletic conditioning classes, Anatomy Workshops using Anatomy in Clay, and Instructor training and mentoring.
Elle Fishelli
Every pilates studio has a dancer and Elle Fischelli is ours! Elle is a STOTT Pilates trained instructor with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance Performance and Choreography. She spends half her days teaching dance and the other half of her days teaching Pilates. She was introduced to Pilates during her ballet training as a teen, but began to pursue Pilates more seriously after she was injured in college. Elle is well versed in the healing properties of pilates. A session with Elle will always leave you feeling better than when you walked in!
ALI EVANS
ALI EVANS is a Beyond Fitness Pilates Studio class enthusiast turned Barre instructor! She originally came to the studio to find a safe way to exercise without aggravating her scoliosis and fell in love with the classes here. When Caryn noticed how encouraging she was to her fellow students, she invited her to take Beyond Fitness Pilates Studio's own one-on-one intensive barre training program, including the Intensive Anatomy in Clay, Pilates and Barre for Injuries, and the Pilates Arc Barrel and BOSU training. She went on the get certified in STOTT PILATES. She has also completed workshops in pre and post-natal exercise, injury modifications, and exercise for building bone density. Ali is a part-time Pilates instructor and part-time rock star (literally!), so naturally, she has THE best playlists. Her classes are lots of fun and welcoming to those of all levels.
ROSE GIOVENETTI
ROSE GIOVENETTI is a part-time STOTT-certified Pilates instructor, part-time tap dancing instructor, performer, and comedienne! She is our senior exercise specialist, teaching Pilatoga to the music of Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington and Pilates with Props to a cool playlist only a musician could put together. Rose loves keeping all ages moving. Her current client list includes a 16-year-old junior Olympic champion and a personal training client 106 years young! Rose's classes will keep you laughing while you safely strengthen your muscles and improve your balance and posture. Rose credits her personal Pilates practice for being able to walk the Camino Santiago across Spain three times in the last few years, and to continue performing (most recently in Belgium)! You might recognize her because since 1979, she has taught group exercise classes at all the best studios in the Cambridge area, and she teaches tap dancing at Deborah Mason's Performing Arts Center. Rose joined our team in 2007 and has taken our in-house instructor training, including our Intensive Anatomy in Clay course. We have all learned something from Rose's extensive experiential knowledge as a dance/ movement educator.
MJ KENNY
MJ KENNY teaches private and group Pilates classes here that will keep you laughing as she keeps you moving! MJ teaches with a dance instructor’s eye for detail on keeping proper form. She discovered Pilates as the capstone to a personal post-surgery rehabilitation, and loves teaching others how to use Pilates to achieve their goals. MJ joined our team in 2006 and regularly helps athletes, dancers, and those with injuries alike, achieve amazing results. MJ's original training was in a classic Pilates studio, and has participated in all our instructor workshops, including Pilates and Barre for people with injuries, exercise to improve balance and bone density, TRX, and Tower programming. Her classes are lots of fun and welcoming to all levels. When she's not teaching, you'll find her biking around Cambridge or out sailing on the Charles.
BETSY MCLAUGHLIN
BETSY MCLAUGHLIN is one of our best and most innovative Pilates and Barre instructors. Betsy is constantly on the hunt for new and more challenging exercises, so you'll always do something you haven't done before in her classes. Betsy's favorite workout is Advanced Pilates Mat, and she loves challenging people to do more advanced exercises than they think they can do. She is welcoming and encouraging to new people, a stickler for proper form, and loveably irreverent. We tell people you need a strong core to withstand her Reformer class workouts and a strong stomach (for some of the conversations that go on in there)! Betsy teaches Pilates group classes and privates full time and joined our team in 2006. She has attended many of our workshops, including Pre and Post-Natal Pilates, Pilates and Barre for Injuries, TRX/ BOSU, and Tower Programming. Betsy is also fully ensconced in STOTT PILATES and takes their weekly instructor choreography classes as well as all their advanced instructor workshops, including Pilates for cancer survivors.
KRISTIN NICKSON
KRISTIN NICKSON is a Beyond Fitness Barre Class enthusiast turned instructor! She took classes regularly here (mostly Monica's famous Saturday Barre class and Caryn's classes) for two years before diving into our Anatomy in Clay Workshop and our Intensive Barre Teacher Training. So her classes have a similar high intensity, with a focus on safety. If you are looking for a challenge, she's got you covered! Since she's joined the Beyond Fitness Pilates Studio team, she's taken all our instructor workshops, including Injury and Special Populations, Pre and Post-natal Pilates and Barre, and BOSU and Barrels training. When not teaching or working her "real job" as a pharmacist, Kristen is a busy mom of two daughters.
