MIDDLETOWN, N.Y.—Pilates Oasis studio officially opened in downtown Middletown with a ribbon cutting on June 13, bringing a pilates approach grounded in the method’s original lineage to the city’s historic district.
Tysan Lerner, co-owner and founder of the studio, started learning pilates when she was 22 after a back injury as a dancer. She found the help of then-80-year-old pilates instructor Kathy Grant, who was a direct student of Joseph Pilates, the creator of the exercise method.
Lerner described pilates to The Epoch Times as a holistic approach to body training, in which coordination, strength, and flexibility are integrated with breathing and mindfulness.
Pilates Oasis sits at 23 Center Street, beside the same parking lot as the city Department of Motor Vehicles and across the street from the Thrall Library. The business occupies two floors, the first floor being an open movement studio for mat classes and other events and the second having a group reformer room and a private training room.
Reformer pilates is a variant that uses spring-loaded machines to enhance pilates training. The equipment is often used in a group setting with an instructor.
The business offers 50-minute classes between 7:15 a.m. and 10:20 a.m. and between 3:30 p.m. and 7:20 p.m. Schedules fluctuate depending on the day. Lerner said Pilates Oasis has four instructors, including herself.
The ribbon-cutting ceremony was well-attended, with the studio floor full of local leaders and prospective and current students. Visitors to the event had access to free food provided by Lotuswood Organic Wellness Farm; free acupressure and tea from Northern Medical Center; and free mini facials from La Vita E Bella Expressions. Pilates Oasis gave out free mini reformer classes to anyone who stopped by.
Middletown Mayor Joseph DeStefano told The Epoch Times that he thinks that the business fits well with the downtown area and has an inviting look and feel.
“It’s a great addition to downtown,” DeStefano said. “I see some of the people early in the morning that, after their classes, they’re going to the coffee shop for a cup of coffee, and it feeds on each other. Businesses feed on each other.”
Lerner decided to open her studio in Middletown after teaching in New York City for years and running an online pilates business starting in 2014. She said the online business did very well during the COVID-19 pandemic. But working online during the pandemic left Lerner feeling burnt out and showed her that people were missing a sense of community, so she decided to open her own studio.
Based on her experience living in New York City, Lerner predicts that Middletown will soon be booming.
“I see how quickly Middletown is growing, the downtown area, and I’ve seen this in [New York City], in many neighborhoods in the city,“ she said. ”So I know, it’s going to feel like overnight that we’re going to have a pilates studio, we’re going to have a yoga studio, we’re going to have a gym, we’re going to have more restaurants, more shops, more cafes.”
Lerner and her co-owner and husband, Zenon Dolnyckyj, soft-opened the studio in February. Lerner said they were really scared at the beginning, as they were not sure whether they would attract enough members, and the announced opening day was canceled by a snowstorm. She reported that the business is now growing rapidly, and that multiple classes now have waitlists.
Dolnyckyj told The Epoch Times that the studio will also be used for hosting speakers and workshops. He gave the example of a previous partnership with a local business that sold journals to hold a pilates and journaling combo event. At the end of June, a doctor will give a talk at the studio on metabolism and how to optimize it.
Stella Ibanez, 58, a retired police officer from New York City and one of the founding members of the studio, said she thought that the ribbon-cutting ceremony was really great and shows that the city is improving.
Ibanez said she enjoys the mat and reformer classes and is still quite new to the field of pilates. She said she likes that the classes are very basic and instructional and that she would recommend the classes to everyone, of any age.
