Just as your core is the center of your being, Jennifer Shea's Pilates, Yoga and GYROTONIC studio sits centered and strong at the core of Staten Island. Tucked away below the base of Todt Hill, The Willow Center for Divine Alignment in Dongan Hills is a sanctuary for anyone seeking a sleeker physique, a balanced mind, body and spirit, and a respite from the hustle and bustle.
"I wanted the studio to have a Hamptons feel," says Shea of the place she called home before she moved to the borough and opened her studio in 2002. Her three-room space conjures a beachy feel, with shells, lighthouses and whitewash creating a scenic calm.
"Even the pale yellow paint color is called 'Uplifting'," she laughs.
Shea ran the Goodson Parker Wellness Center in East Hampton, NY, was an instructor at their Manhattan studio and served as Master Pilates/Yoga instructor at the high-end Gurney's Inn Resort and Spa in Montauk, NY before she re-rooted her family here, quickly noticing there was not a single Pilates studio on Staten Island. Not wanting to commute to Manhattan with a 6-month-old child, she set out to open her own city-inspired wellness space.
"I was inspired to open The Willow to share the practices I had been teaching for over a decade," she says. "There was nothing like that here, and I wanted to create a sustained studio setting for adults to train."
She partnered up with a financial backer (who she later bought out a year later), and opened her doors not too long after September 11th, 2001.
"I think people needed to find their centers, find peace at the time," she says. "I was so happy to have something to offer to help heal their suffering. Even before I opened my doors, people wanted to know when they could start their practice in yoga and Pilates."
Developed back in the early 20th century by a nurse named Joseph Pilates, the method uses the mind to control the muscles, and centers on core training, breath and balance. Pilates' practice soon became very popular in the professional dance community.
A formal professional dancer, 38-year-old Shea was earning a Bachelor's Degree in Dance and English Literature from SUNY Purchase back in 1989 when she first studied Pilates with Master Trainer Bob Leikens. She was getting her Master's Degree in Dance Education from New YorkUniversity in 1994 when she trained to teach the method herself.
"I was training my professors and friends at the time to pay the bills," says the once aspiring actress and dancer. "I later decided that maybe it was time to give up show business and do what I know and love just as much."
Shea has studied with the best in her field: internationally recognized Pilates instructor Ellie Herman, John Friend, the creator of Anusara Yoga, and Jen Daly and Chantal Deeble, Master GYROTONIC instructors. She began training her own teachers in 2004 because she felt there was a lack of qualified instructors in our area. She offers a 600-hour comprehensive Pilates certification course packed with lectures, self practice, apprenticeship and testing. She also offers shorter courses, certifications and workshops on specific apparatus for personal trainers and physical therapists who want to broaden their expertise.
Boasting a staff she's hand-picked and hand-trained, Shea says she has been able to single-handedly bring a Manhattan-style practice to our outer borough.
"What was once an elite form of exercise for athletes and dancers and people who wanted to perfect their bodies ha s become mainstream," she says. "That's a beautiful thing. Our clientele's bodies and energy levels have changed drastically. Pilates and yoga practice has changed the way they look and feel, inside and out."
She's witnessed women who have tried every weight loss alternative drop dress sizes and enhance posture and presence. Beyond that, she has rehabilitated patients recovering from an array of conditions, from rheumat oid arthritis to scoliosis and osteoporosis.
"I've had clients who were so ill they couldn't swallow food," she explains. "Today, they have gained such core strength they can eat better and perform basic functions."
She says it's that one-on-one training that helps achieve the mental and physical goals she set out to accomplish.
"Maybe you can't afford to do it all the time," she explains. "But even once in a while, a private session will make all the difference."
She also expanded her studio earlier this year to accommodate a new entourage of equipment and services The Willow's rooms feature wall-to-wall, state-of-the art equipment: Cadillacs, reformers, springboards, Wunda Chairs, barrels, towers and the like. The center also offers an array of affordable group apparatus classes, along with daily mat classes centered on just about any movement and practice you can think of: hot yoga, Vinyasa, Pilates for all levels and Physioball. Her long list of clients can sign up online to reserve a coveted spot in those sessions. Men and women of all ages and shapes-from beginners to advanced-pass through the doors each day.
For those who prefer to train in the privacy of their own homes, Shea also offers in-home instruction. She even boasts celebrity clientele-from film and TV stars, to the casts of Broadway shows-as well as professional athletes and even members of the U.S. Coast Guard.
Just as she was the first official Pilates studio on Staten Island, Shea is also the first to offer GYROTONIC training. The exercise system was created by a former dancer, Juliu Horvath, who was prone to injuries. Horvath called it a sort-of "yoga for dancers." It employs fluid movements derived from swimming, yoga, gymnastics and Tai Chi.
Shea offers private sessions on the GYROTONIC "Cobra" apparatus, and has upcoming workshops in GYROKINESIS (the mat version of the GYROTONIC method).
"Pilates is a more linear method of movement and the apparatus has some limitations that the Cobra exceeds," she says. "GYROTONICs is more circular and continuous, and the apparatus is limitless. The movements flow continuously and strive to decompress the joints while strengthening muscles." She says it is genius what the method can do for your body. "Surely Joseph Pilates would have enhanced his own equipment to this degree had he lived this long."
Because she wanted her "center" to balance all elements of divine living, Shea added Chiropractor and Holistic Nutritionist Dr. Marina Shafir to her staff. From basic chiropractic adjustments to acupressure massage and trigger point therapy, Dr. Shafir is on hand. She also prescribes a special body cleanse that Shea herself used to shed the last of her baby weight after the birth of her third child two years ago.
"It's a 3-week cleanse that is totally vegan. You eat a lot of fruits and veggies, take vitamins and drink protein shakes." She dropped the excess weight, and so have many of her clients and staff members who've taken the program. Shea also opened a little boutique to supplement a centered life, stocked with books and meditation CDs, mats, apparel and even a workout DVD of her own called "Power Principles."
She is currently working on her first book called Divine Alignment. She also knows a thing or two about the search for the perfectly aligned center. The single mom of three kids aged 2 to 8 knows what it's like to juggle family life and the business world.
"People come here to The Willow to unwind, get centered and recharge, and maybe even make a few friends," she says. After all, the willow tree is the symbol of resilience.
The Willow Center for Divine Alignment , 629 North Railroad Avenue, Staten Island, 718.351.0011, www.thewillowstudios.com
