owner, Banyan & Nomad

Hometown: Bucharest,Romania
​BS in Anthropology, MS in Occupational Therapy, OTR/L

Training
• Pelvic Floor Rehabilitation: Lindsey Vestal, OT Pioneers, Kegels that Work, In their Hands

•OT Pioneers Functional Pelvis Level 1

• Herman & Wallace: Pelvic Floor Level 1

• LSVT BIG Parkinson Disease Intervention Program

• Yin & Restorative Yoga Certified with Masako Miyakawa

• MBSR Level 1 Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Brown University

• Romana Certified Pilates Instructor level V

• Kathy-Ross Nash Pilates Professional Advanced Teacher Program

• Lifestyle Redesign For Older Adults

Continuing Education
• Presented Thesis on Pilates as a Functional Tool for Home Program with a youth with Cerebral Palsy  at the AOTA (American Occupational Therapy Association) conference 2018
• The Red Thread Certification with Kathy-Ross Nash
• Anatomy Trains Seminar for Movement and Strength Trainers,  F.A.M.I. (functional anatomy for movement and injuries) Mount Sinai Hospital
• Sari Mejia Santos, Cynthia Shipley, Kathy Ross-Nash, Cynthia Lochard, Mejo Wiggin, Jerome Weinberg, Lori-Coleman Brown, Marjorie Oron, Anthony Rabara


Get To Know Me
• Favorite Pilates Apparatus: Cadillac
• Favorite Pilates Move: Balance Control on Reformer
• How Pilates Changed My Life:

Using my body more efficiently and safely, whether navigating airports or doing tricks on a trapeze bar. Meeting and collaborating with like-minded people in the worldwide Pilates Community.

• What I have learned from my students: Collaboration is key to successful advancement of their journey into the art and science of Pilates.

• Favorite Song: Calypso Rose - Leave Me Alone
• Favorite Quote: "Find a way" - Diana Nyad

Senior Instructor, Banyan & Nomad

Hometown: Lake Tahoe, California

  Zoom Only

Training
• Romana Certified Pilates Instructor level V
• Kathy-Ross Nash Pilates Professional Advanced Teacher Program
• Fluent in Portuguese & Spanish
• Instructor at the international Pilates Training Center formerly known as True Pilates

Continuing Education
Workshop taught by Norma-Jean

• Pilates transitions for maximum flow
• Right to bare beautiful Pilates arms
• Pilates for the runners feet
• Pilates traditional endings
• Pilates to help with neck and shoulder issues
• The Pilates mermaids

Sample of Workshops attended by Norma-Jean
• The Red Thread Certification with Kathy-Ross Nash
• Continuing Education with: Sari Mejia Santos, Cynthia Shipley, Kathy Ross-Nash, Cynthia Lochard, Mejo Wiggin, Jerome Weinberg, Lori-Coleman Brown, Marjorie Oron, Anthony Rabara

Get To Know Me
Norma jean has been teaching Pilates for 23 years. She grew up in California and was a competitive swimmer and alpine skier, and aspired to a career as a professional dancer. After an injury, she found Pilates to be so effective in strengthening her body that she was, despite her injury, able to achieve her dream of becoming a professional dancer.
Currently, Norma jean resides in Oakdale Minnesota, where she teaches out of her Private boutique studio. She continues to  travel and teach internationally.
Norma jean‘s experience has included working with disabled vets, from which she learned just how effective the Pilates method could be at helping them return to a better life. She has also helped professional athletes, stuntmen and dancers recover from injuries, and improve their craft.  Norma jean has spent thousands of hours on continuing education with some of the world’s best Pilates instructors.  She is very skilled when it comes to effectively using the science of Pilates to reach her students goals.

Senior Instructor, Banyan & Nomad

Hometown: Portugal

Training
Nuno, a native of Portugal, has a background in Mechanical Engineering.

After a slow recovery from spine surgery, Nuno’s PT suggested trying a Pilates session. One session is all it took for Nuno to realize that Pilates focused on the same postural muscles that protect the spine from the injury he had suffered, and thus the practice of Pilates would help overcome the body’s imbalances and compression that lead to spinal or other joint problems.

Realizing the dramatic changes in his body in so little time, he left his engineering career in early 2006 to become a Pilates Instructor, moved to The Netherlands and began the Romana’s Pilates Certification Program at The Pilates Studio The Hague, under the tutelage of Master Teacher Marjorie Oron and Jane Poerwoatmodjo.
After working in New York for a time he decided to travel around the world teaching Pilates at Certification Centers and various Pilates studios in Sydney, Oxford, London, Champaign and Miami.

This experience allowed him to work alongside multiple teacher trainers and enabled him to work with clients of all levels, from professional athletes to people who are recovering from injuries, and those who just wish to improve their health and fitness levels so they can live their best lives.
In 2014 he moved back to New York, a place he definitely calls home.

Continuing Education
In 2006 he moved to New York to study at True Pilates under Joseph Pilates protégé Romana Kryzanowska, her daughter Sari Santo, and granddaughter Daria Pace, and was invited to teach alongside them.

Get To Know Me
Trilingual in English, Portuguese and Spanish