Pilates on Brisbane's Northside
Meet your teachers
Each member of our team is dedicated to delivering the best results for our clients.
Nicole Smith
Principal Instructor
Dancing and horse-riding are natural lead-ins to Classical Pilates—and Nicole excelled in both areas, reaching her teaching exams in dance and becoming a Pony Club instructor and Dressage judge. While dancing and riding are no longer among her activities, Nicole maintains her involvement with horses, breeding and showing Arabians.
Before her career as a Pilates instructor, Nicole gained certification in personal training, group exercise and massage, and worked for many years in those disciplines.
Nicole has trained under some of the best classical Pilates instructors. As a Romana-trained Pilates Method teacher, Nicole learnt her skills under the supervision of Romana Kryzanowska and Cynthia Lochard, and studied under Dina Matty and Marda Willey. She also holds comprehensive certification by Peak Pilates, is certified by Clare Dunphy, and studied under Alison Percic.
Knowing the importance of maintaining her skills and updating her teaching techniques, Nicole attends workshops and seminars, and participates in on-line forums with other instructors. Her clients benefit from the subtle changes in her instructing that come from Nicole’s continuing education.
Studying under the guidance of Jay Grimes and his team at Vintage Pilates LA is Nicole’s next major goal.
Nicole’s love and enjoyment of Pilates are evident in her teaching and she is keen for her clients to learn Joseph Pilates’ original method of body conditioning, that he called ‘Contrology’, as a complete way to fitness and health.
"Nicole is so knowledgeable and can always show me a different way to learn an exercise that I’m finding difficult."
Ashleigh Sentance
Apprentice Instructor
I discovered Pilates 8 years ago upon joining a group class just for fun! I loved these classes and I found myself wanting to know more and so joined Classical PilateStudios for private lessons.
Pilates taught me so much about how my body works and how it should work and can work better that I incorporated it into everything I did. My passion for Pilates and desire to learn more prompted my teacher (and now mentor) to suggest I start to teach others.
I have now been apprenticing with Classical PilateStudios under the mentorship of Nicole Smith since 2015 and have obtained my Mat and Reformer Certification through the Pilates Studio of Los Angeles under Melinda Bryan. I am currently studying the Full Certification which includes all apparatus as well as Anatomy and Physiology.
My desire as a teacher is to not only bring my passion and love of Pilates to my clients but to show them how truly amazing their bodies are, regardless of shape or size.
Anita Pang
Apprentice Instructor
Anita is the most recent Pilates teacher-in-training to join Classical PilateStudios. She commenced her training at the beginning of 2017 through the Australian Pilates Education Australia program (APEA). Anita teaches a range of clients under the guidance of Nicole and is well on her way to becoming a fantastic instructor.
Anita has always been an active person with a keen interest in the workings of the human body. She studied nursing and worked for 10 years as an Intensive Care Nurse in Brisbane. She also did many years of Irish and Latin dancing during her school and university years. During this time she regularly attended gym-based Pilates classes. But it was following the birth of her first child and having a constantly sore lower back that she thought studio Pilates might help. It certainly did and she found the transformation in her body remarkable. By building on her core strength and overall flexibility, her back issues resolved.
In 2011, Anita found Nicole at Classical PilateStudios and began to explore the classical approach to Pilates. She finds the classical work much like dance with its focus on flow and precision. She likes how from week to week, you build upon a core routine as the body becomes stronger and more flexible. And loves how you can walk into a class with all the stresses of life, and then after an hour lesson feel rejuvenated, stronger and ready to face the day with a positive mindset.
After many years of weekly lessons, Anita decided to take the next step and become an instructor. She has a deep love of Pilates and a great belief in its foundations for a healthy body and mind.