media
lifespan pilates in the press & more
Featured in Park Magazine
The New York Woman Keeping the Original Pilates Method Alive
Park Magazine profiles LifeSpan Pilates co-owner and Senior Master Teacher Trainer Cynthia Shipley, tracing her journey from dance to studying with Romana Kryzanowska and teaching the next generation.
The feature explores the attention, practice and teacher-student relationship at the heart of her work—and her commitment to preserving the Pilates system while making clients feel welcome at LifeSpan.
Cynthia Shipley, co-owner and Senior Master Teacher Trainer at LifeSpan Pilates.
Featured in Influential Women
Tasha Norman Featured in Influential Women
LifeSpan Pilates co-owner and CEO Tasha Norman is featured in Influential Women for a career spanning media, entrepreneurship and wellness. The profile explores her work as a media executive, publisher and business owner, and the experience she brings to leading LifeSpan Pilates.
In the accompanying interview, Tasha shares her perspective on creating opportunities, mentoring women entrepreneurs and leading with planning, emotional intelligence and adaptability.
Read More on Influential Women
Photo context: Tasha Norman at an ALM/National Law Journal awards event during her media career.
Featured in WorldHealth.net
The Pilates Equipment You’re Probably Using Wrong
LifeSpan Pilates co-owner and Senior Master Teacher Trainer Cynthia Shipley explains why Pilates is a complete system of apparatus—and why the Reformer is only one part of the practice. She explores how different pieces support strength, alignment, balance and control, and why knowledgeable instruction matters.
Featured in The Pilates Journal
Pilates in the City: What 5 Months in New York Taught Me About the Method
If Pilates had a capital, it would be New York City. Joseph Pilates opened his first studio here in 1926 at 939 Eighth Avenue. That thought echoed in my mind as I stepped into my first Manhattan studio. Over the next five months, I immersed myself in the city’s legendary Pilates scene—absorbing not just exercises, but the philosophies, lineages, and practices that reshaped my understanding of the Method.
Featured in Luxiere
Full Circle: The debut of the Gratz Guillotine in OKC
“Full Circle” is the name of an exercise done on a piece of apparatus not so well-known, called the Guillotine. Pilates originally designed the Guillotine to fit into a railroad-style New York City apartment, which had a linear layout like a train car; basically, the Guillotine was installed floor-to-ceiling, with the springs attached while in use and put away when not in use. Pilates’ protege, Romana Kryzanowska, was a ballet dancer training with George Balanchine in NYC before she met Pilates. She had an ankle injury, and Balanchine told her to see Pilates at his studio before returning to ballet class. It was the beginning of a fruitful and lasting relationship; she worked with and for Joseph and Clara Pilates for years, and after they passed, she inherited their NYC studio. Her dedication helped preserve the Pilates’ legacy: She traveled the world for six decades to educate the next generation of Pilates instructors. Kryzanowska’s daughter, Sari Mejia Santo, also had the opportunity of training directly with Joseph and Clara Pilates, and taught beside her mother for more than three decades. Daria Pace, owner of Romana’s Pilates International, is also Santo’s daughter, and joined her mother and grandmother in teaching the Pilates method.
Featured in Forbes Magazine
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell Talks About How Pilates Has Helped
You could say that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell really wanted to get to the core of things when he attended the “Forward and Up NYC 2025” conference on August 29. There, he got a Pilates session with Daria Pace, a grandmaster instructor trainer and principal officer for Romana’s Pilates International, which organized the event. He even got the Cadillac treatment—meaning that Pace guided him through various movements to strengthen his core muscles on a Pilates device called the Cadillac.
Featured in POINT+
The Interconnected History of Pilates and Ballet
Today, the presence of a Pilates reformer in a ballet company’s training facilities is commonplace, and many dancers turn to Pilates exercises to cross-train or rehabilitate from injuries. But how did Pilates become a go-to exercise method for ballet dancers? The story can be traced back to the 1930s, when Joseph Pilates met George Balanchine.
Read More On POINT+ (Subscription-based magazine)
Forward and Up RPI Conference 2025 Press Release
Romana’s Pilates International™ Presents Forward and Up NYC 2025
Romana’s Pilates International will present Forward and Up NYC 2025, a three-day conference at the Westin New York Times Square from Friday, August 29 through Monday, August31. Pilates instructors and practitioners from around the world will gather for three days of workshops, talks, training and a celebration of Sari Mejia Santo, daughter of RPI founder Romana Kryzanowska, on her birthday.
Proudly sponsored by Gratz Pilates, the preferred choice for Romana’s Pilates International, this year’s conference will include talks by grandmaster instructor trainers Sari Mejia Santo, Juanita Lopez, Cynthia Lochard and Daria Pace, as well as senior master instructors, who Romana and Sari hand-picked to uphold their work.