Instructors

MAUREEN SHER, Studio Owner
Gyrotonic®, Gyrokinesis® and Pilates Instructor

Maureen established Asheville Pilates in 2001, having moved to the United States from her native South Africa five years earlier. In South Africa, she served as an actors' agent and personal manager for several years. She also assisted the country's top consultant to professional and training dancers in body conditioning techniques.

Upon moving to the US, Maureen received Pilates certification through Core Dynamics Pilates in Santa Fe, NM, and she's also a certified GYROTONIC® and GYROKINESIS® instructor. Maureen continues to extend her training, which to date includes GYROTONIC® Level 2, Jumping Stretching Board specialty equipment, Applications for Dancers, Applications for Hip Replacements, as well as the Therapeutic Applications for Scoliosis, Shoulder and Pelvic Girdle Dysfunctions.  She has been a reflexology practitioner since 1989.

Maureen is passionate about guiding clients to developing increased strength, grace and coordination, as well as pain-free easy and functional movement. She firmly believes that igniting a greater sense of well being allows for a more spirited and enlivened experience of life!

MEGAN HIILLMAN-HAMMER, MFA
Pilates Instructor

Megan (Bascom) has been an active mover, athlete, and performer her whole life. She began with climbing trees and swimming in the ocean under the Florida sunshine. She competed as a majorette, swapped her baton for jazz and ballet shoes, added running in high school, and made the switch to fully pursue dance in college. She received her BA with honors from the University of South Florida in Dance Studies, focusing on Dance Injury and Prevention. After moving to New York, Megan received her Pilates certification through the Kane School of Core Integration. She is also a certified TRX Suspension Training instructor.

Megan has had a passion for movement and kinesiology for as long as she can remember and enjoys sharing her knowledge with clients to help them better understand exercises and how the body moves. She loves variety and has experience working with clients ranging from teens, athletes, professional dancers, stay at home parents, working professionals, models, injured clients with limitations, retirees, and a blend of everyday people who just love Pilates! She employs a healthy use of imagery to enhance the understanding of action, pattern and sensation. Megan is a choreographer and dance educator and recently received her MFA in Dance from the University of Michigan after many years of performing and choreographing in New York City. Her experience as a lifelong mover and professional dancer provides her with a detailed kinetic sense, allowing her to facilitate a thorough movement experience and workout for each client.

LESLIE MYERS
Gyrotonic® and Gyrokinesis® Instructor

A New York City girl, Leslie relocated to her husband's native Asheville together with her family in 2006. During her 20+ year career as a dancer and teacher in NYC, Leslie performed and toured the United States and abroad. She was a company member with Rioult Dance New York, Pearl Lang Dance Theatre, Graham 2, Richard Move, and others, and has appeared in film and television. Her dance teaching includes The Martha Graham school, The Ailey school, Barnard College, Marymount Manhattan College, LIU Brooklyn campus, and numerous workshops and master classes. She was a faculty member of the Neighborhood Playhouse for the Theatre, and has worked with the Actor’s Studio Master’s degree students.

Leslie fell in love with the GYROTONIC EXPANSION SYSTEM® while recovering from an injury and knew this was her path. Leslie brings her many years of teaching experience, her focus on the details, her passion and joy of movement, and a healthy dose of humor to every client. Whether an experienced mover or someone just starting out, Leslie’s gentle teaching can help everyone experience the joy and freedom in movement towards the goal of renewed health.

KATHLEEN McCORMICK
Gyrotonic® and Pilates Instructor

A 23-year career as a flight attendant left Kathleen with chronic low back problems which were helped in part by therapy, treatment, and rehab, but which always returned, usually with a vengeance. She discovered the Gyrotonic Expansion System® in New York in the ’90s and found that it offered her a way to stay flexible and move freely in much less pain.

After early retirement from the airlines, she studied with renowned Master Trainer Sebastian Plettenberg in New York, attaining her Gyrotonic® certification in 2009 and then eventually certifying in Pilates as well. 

Teaching Gyrotonic® and Pilates allow Kathleen to combine her interest in fitness and movement with her love of teaching and coaching.  She strongly believes balance, connection, and strength are important AND achievable for everyone no matter their age or fitness level. Kathleen enjoys imparting her knowledge with lots of laughter and good spirit!

When Ruth was in utero, the pediatrician told her mother she had an active little dancer inside.  Ruth is a born mover; her life has been about her own dance training and performing, and her life work has been helping people connect to themselves through movement.

RUTH ALPERT
Gyrotonic® and Pilates Instructor

Ruth’s interest in bodywork and movement grew out of her desire to find a solution to the chronic pain and injury she sustained as a dancer.  Since 1976 she has been studying and teaching various somatic modalities.  She has been greatly influenced by the work of Lulu Sweigard (Release Work), Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen (School for BodyMind Centering), Susan Klein (Klein Technique), and Emilie Conrad (Continuum).  

Ruth has been a certified practitioner of the TRAGER® Approach since 1987.  She was trained in the Eve Gentry lineage of Pilates by Michele Larsson in 1992 and has been an Associate of Core Dynamics Pilates Teacher Training program, now under the ownership of Kevin Bowen, since 1998.  She holds the NPCP (National Pilates Certification Program); additionally, she is certified as a GYROTONIC® Method teacher since 2003 and graduated in 2007 as an Alexander Technique teacher from the Alexander Alliance Southwest. A long-time trainer of trainers, Ruth leads workshops in technical aspects of movement, including experiential anatomy which is one of her special skills.  

Ruth has an alter-ego as an Appalachian Flatfoot dancer since 1977.  She has taught workshops, danced with old-time Appalachian string bands, busked (street performed) in various cities in at least 6 states, and is a National Champion in Senior Buck Dancing, in 2013 and 2014, and Grand Champion at the Appalachian String Band Festival in Clifftop, WV in 2019 and 2023.  

LYNN HOCKER, LMT/BFA
Gyrotonic® and Gyrokinesis® Instructor

Lynn is a movement geek. From surfing, to bellydance, to Gabrielle Roth’s 5Rhythms practice …the quest for integrating mind/body/spirit is a fascinating one for her! Lynn’s philosophy is that anything we want to do, feel, or experience has to come through our body. Therefore, having a body that is healthy, moves well, is relatively free of pain, and supports us is an incredibly empowering achievement.

Lynn brings decades of personal and professional exploration as well as knowledge to each modality she teaches using curiosity as a driving force to create and deepen her experiences and understanding in the Gyrotonic® Method, dance, and Biodynamic CranioSacral Therapy – her favorite tool for self exploration.

Lynn was a professional dancer in Atlanta and New York before moving to Sarasota, where she graduated from the Sarasota School of Massage Therapy in 1995. In 2011 she became a Certified Biodynamic CranioSacral Therapist. In 2012 she met David Leventhal of the Mark Morris Dance Group of Brooklyn, NY and received her initial training in Dance for PD®. Following her experience with Dance for PD® she created PD in Motion, a weekly dance for PwPD and taught for seven years in Florida. She became certified in the Gyrotonic® Method in 2012 and a certified Gyrokineses® instructor in 2017. Movement is her passion and she looks forward to working with you.

BETH SALMAN
Pilates Instructor

Beth [she/her] is a BASI Pilates comprehensively certified instructor who believes deeply in the power of mindful, joyful movement for everyone and every body. A lifelong curious mover, Beth stumbled into Pilates in the late ‘90s and instantly fell in love with how it made her body feel and how it helped her move through her other activities with more ease, strength and efficiency. After careful consideration, she chose to do her instructor training with BASI Pilates. The organization’s vision “to preserve the classical repertoire and the essence of Joseph Pilates’s philosophy while supporting and encouraging evolution based on experience and scientific knowledge,” combined with their emphasis on passion, compassion, and excellence resonated with her values.

Beth continues to expand her knowledge and feed her curiosity with additional training and professional development. Sessions are a mutual collaboration built on a Pilates foundation to improve balance, build awareness, and increase strength and flexibility, emphasizing acceptance, exploration, and playfulness. She is currently interested in how functional movement combined with Pilates repertoire can support maintaining an active mind and body as we age.

Originally from Chicago, Beth studied geology in Montana and is a graphic designer who has worked with nonprofit, academic, and government organizations. When not talking teasers or typography, she’s out on a trail, mountain biking, or hiking with her husband and two dogs, occasionally picking up an interesting rock or three.

ASHLEIGH WHITTINGTON
Pilates Instructor

Originally from Longwood, FL, Ashleigh grew up dancing, performing, and indulging herself in anything creative. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Dance from George Mason University and earned the Excellence in Performance Award upon graduation. She then moved to New York City to pursue a professional dance career and while there had the pleasure of working with a number of remarkable artists for almost 7 years. Her mat and apparatus certification were completed with Bent Pilates, Inc., studying the method of the Kane School of Core Integration, in 2010 and she immediately began teaching throughout New York City.

After experiencing and seeing the vast potential for the ways Pilates and yoga can enhance one other, Ashleigh obtained her 500-hour Yoga certification from ISHTA Yoga in 2014 and also became certified in pre/post-natal mat Pilates in 2014. In addition to teaching Hatha yoga, she is certified in and has led a Trauma-Sensitive yoga practice for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault in NYC as well as closer to home throughout Transylvania County. She became a certified personal trainer through the American Council on Exercise in 2018 and currently works with older adults who are looking to get stronger, stay well, and have more energy as they age.

After years of personal health issues, Ashleigh became interested in nutrition and uses it in combination with her movement approaches to help support her clients to feel their absolute best. She obtained her Masters of Science degree from the Maryland University of Integrative Health and is a Certified Nutrition Specialist© (CNS), which is the most advanced certification for personalized nutrition practitioners. More information about her nutrition practice can be found at www.gurtlerwellness.com. 

JESSICA DAMON recently relocated to Asheville from California, where she has been teaching the Pilates Method since 2006. She was introduced to Pilates as a young adult after years of recurring, dance-related back pain. Her body responded so well to the work that she immediately enrolled in a teacher training program. One week later she crashed her bike and slipped a lumbar disc - though painful at the time, learning to teach Pilates while injured was an enormous gift that has greatly impacted her work with clients.

Jessica's approach to Pilates is non-traditional, incorporating principles from a wide range of complementary somatic & therapeutic modalities. Trained in the Dance Medicine lineage of Pilates (with Nora St. John and Naomi Leiserson) and a dancer herself, Jessica brings her strong foundation in rehab-based Pilates to each session, blending humor, play, and the body wisdom gained from her many years of dance training.

In addition to full Pilates certification, Jessica holds certifications in Pilates for Scoliosis and Perinatal Pilates and has an MFA in Dance from CU Boulder. Non-certified areas of inspiration and study that inform her work with clients include Alexander Technique, Axis Syllabus, Bartenieff Fundamentals, Body Mind Centering, Fascial Movement Training, the Feldenkrais Method, the Franklin Method, hatha yoga, Hanna Somatics, neurology, and Yamuna Body Rolling.