About Life Pilates Vancouver

Life Pilates Vancouver’s mission is to provide the tools to empower people to heal and transform their bodies, minds and spirits.

At Life Pilates we strive to offer the most mindful and comprehensive Classical Pilates training available. To facilitate this we keep the focus on being practitioners and healers. Our facility is small in comparison to most as we are not interested in large classes that simply churn people through calisthenics. By keeping our class size down we can spend the time and give the focus necessary to make sure each client is meeting his or her full potential and finding success.

Our Teachers

Katie Atkins-Castillo: Choreographer/Dancer/Certified Pilates trainer. A native of Arizona, Katie’s career began on the West Coast. She danced professionally in San Francisco with The Della Davidson Dance Theater, Annie Rosenthal Dancers and Steamroller. She graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of performing arts with her MFA in 2000. In May of 2000 she made her NYC debut with Umoja Dance Company and Darrah Carr Dance.

Her choreography was first presented in New York at the WOW Theater Cafe in September 2000 as well as in Shakespeare’s “Pericles” at the New Perspectives Theater. In April of 2001, The Katie Atkins & Breezy Berryman Dance Theater made its debut at the Merce Cunningham Theater in New York City.

In October of 2001 Katie moved to Boulder CO. to be the artistic Director of Bolder Moves Dance Center. There Katie taught Ballet, Jazz, Advanced Modern and Pilates Mat class as well as managed the scheduling and staff. In addition, she ran the Bolder Moves Dance Theater, established Bolder Moves’ 501(c) 3 status, and danced for the Danelle Helander Dance Company.

While in Boulder she also received her Pilates teacher certification from the most rigorous training program in the nation, The Pilates Center, Boulder. Her studies at the Pilates Center brought together a perfect melding of the years of anatomy, biomechanics, ideokenisis and Pilates that propelled her through her dance career and created the perfect opportunity to turn those years of hard work externally and allow Katie to offer her knowledge to help others.

Since leaving Boulder in 2004 Katie has been focused on her Pilates teaching. In November 2007 Katie opened Life Pilates Vancouver located in the historic Academy building in downtown Vancouver. Life Pilates is a full service Pilates studio specializing in private and semi private sessions for everyone from extreme athletes and those in need of injury rehabilitation. At Life Pilates Katie is blessed with the opportunity to use her many years of dance experience, her two degrees in dance and her love for the body and teaching to help others live with less pain, a deeper understanding of their own bodies and how to facilitated a better quality of life.

Melissa Abeling: Melissa grew up dancing and teaching ballet in Vancouver, WA. She was introduced to Pilates when she started dancing for a company whose artistic director was a certified Pilates instructor. Immediately, she fell in love with the comprehensive style and function. Having learned early on of her talent and love for teaching, as well as her interest in the biomechanics of the human body, she soon knew that Pilates would be the perfect compliment to her career. After moving to Florida in 2007 to perform at Walt Disney World it seemed like the perfect time to complete her full certification in Pilates. Melissa loves spending her days making a difference in the lives and well-being of her clients. She recently moved back to Vancouver to continue teaching and be near family, and is performing whenever possible.