Ashley Steele is the owner and director of Body Axis Studio. Raised in Northern California, Ashley moved to New York City where she was a professional modern dancer and performer for many years. Through her dance training, she discovered the practice of Pilates and fell in love with its streamlined efficiency of strengthening the body, while increasing flexibility and quality of movement.

Ashley received her Pilates Certification through the Kane School of Core Integration in 1999 and has been teaching on the apparatus since. She has taught in various studios throughout New York City, Amsterdam and the Hudson Valley. Known for her ability to identify sources of structural strengths and challenges, Ashley’s style of teaching draws from a range of somatic movement practices including Yoga, Neurokinetic Therapy (Level 1 certification) and study of Anatomy. She takes further inspiration from her studies with Dr. Kathy Dooley’s Immaculate Dissection course, workshops in Body Mind Centering with Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, studies in Alexander Technique and many other modalities that she has been exposed to over the years.

For Ashley, the beauty of Pilates is its ability to support a comprehensive foundation for movement. She believes it is as much about cultivating vitality and awareness in her students as it is about balancing mobility, strength, and physical function. Her goal is to help her students develop a greater physical awareness, and a sense of ease, liveliness, and grace. Ashley’s intuitive eye, verve and open communication have helped innumerable students achieve a more integrated axis of mind, body and spirit.