Business & Tech
New Pilates Studio Opens
The Moving Joint moves into Mar Vista, hoping to get Pilates enthusiasts to practice close to home.
The Moving Joint, a new Pilates and yoga studio had its grand opening in Mar Vista on Saturday. The studio, co-owend by Allyson Buell-Marchand and Stephanie Cross is located on Venice Boulevard and Beethoven Street. It features an 1100 sq. ft. studio with four Pilates reformer machines for group Pilates and yoga classes. In the back are two smaller rooms, one for private and semi-private Pilates classes and a treatment room for massage, cranial sacral and chiropractic treatment.
Boell-Marchand says the opening was well attended with as many as 200 people coming by over the course of the afternoon. Guests enjoyed free 15-minute sessions with an instructor the machines in the main room. They also got special deals on classes. In the later afternoon celebrants enjoyed catered food and music from the band “Bill” and singer Becky Stark of “Lavender Diamond.”
Levi Brewster designed the studio space which features sustainable building practices, reclaimed wood flooring, low VOC paints and art glass windows by Jim Piechowski between the rooms. Out front, Christy Wilhelmi, Mar Vista local and Patch columnist designed cheerful window box plantings using native species.
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Boell-Marchand, who lives just a few minutes away in Venice said she and Cross had private Pilates practices for many years and decided to combine forces to open the studio. They heard from friends in Mar Vista that there was a need for a Pilates studio in the neighborhood. “Now that we’ve started it,” she said, “people are coming in and saying, ‘We were waiting for this!’”
Classes begin on Monday, Feb. 6. The studio offers private, semi-private and small group Pilates sessions on the Pilates equipment as well as larger classes of Pilates mat and yoga. There are some reformer classes specifically for pre-natal, post-natal, senior citizen, all men’s classes, and back stabilization classes.
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Yoga and Pilates group classes are open to drop-ins, but private and semi-privates must be booked in advance. The studio’s website will go online this week and it will soon be able to take online bookings.
The studio offers discounts to people who walk and bike to class and to new moms.
The Moving Joint is located at 12813 Venice Blvd., 424-228-5348, www.themovingjoint.com.
