As the years passed I continued my studies and dance training, and went on to start my own business, opening up my first dance studio in 1986. As my business and passion grew in tandem, I yearned to expand my knowledge and training further. During this period, I put my head down and started my study of Pilates. This was something new and exciting, and outside of my dance world but in numerous ways related. When I attained my certification, I started working on exciting ways to incorporate the technique into my training and classes and I went on to open up my Pilates studio a few years later, in 2003.

For years, I juggled the busy life of a studio owner and a mother raising her family but I entered a new chapter when I met my mentor (of nearly two decades), master dance teacher Paula Morgan. The work she was doing was captivating, and it produced results in dancers that just left me speechless. I spent years under her tutelage, following the beautiful life path of becoming certified in my mentor’s technique. The Paula Morgan Technique is a gift that continues to give and it has opened many doors for me throughout my career. The combination of my diversified training and continued studies has allowed me to help dancers and personal clients greatly improve their mobility, strength, recover from past injuries and chronic physical pain. It brings me the deepest level of joy to share my life’s work (GFT) with dancers, teachers and clients and see them become empowered with this knowledge and training.

Although my life has been very rewarding and full, it didn’t come without its share of setbacks. It is amazing how one or two events in a person’s life can change everything. Whether it’s an illness or injury, it can weigh very heavily on your physical, mental and emotional well-being.

At the age of 26 when my first born was a busy and curious two year old, I experienced the first of those setbacks. I was in my house, going about my day-to-day, and I bent down to pick up one of his toys. In what felt like a split second, I was on the living room floor in excruciating pain, I had herniated a disc in my lower back. To make a long story short, I spent the next 12 weeks in the middle of the living room floor with my mom attending to me and everything else that needed to be done. My son was shipped off to spend time with his other set of grandparents so I could focus on resting and healing. Everything during this period was agonizing. I had to crawl to get to the bathroom, my hair was washed in a bedpan by my mother because of my inability to move, and unfortunately, I was in the early stages of my second pregnancy during all of this. Fast forwarding a few weeks, I was transferred to a nearby hospital, to learn that I had lost the baby.

The process of healing was a long one but eventually I was able to sit up in a vehicle without too much pain. I then went to see an amazing naturopathic doctor, who helped me through my recovery. At this point, I had lost most of the muscle mass in my body and had to rebuild from the ground up. This was absolutely crushing for me at the time, my entire life revolved around movement. Life moved on, and with it came more successes and more setbacks. Fast forward further to running three studios simultaneously and continuing my training, I found myself burning the candle at both ends and I landed myself an injury after a weekly hot yoga class. No one is invincible, and we all have our limits. Looking back, the history of my non-stop wear and tear on my body, and old school dance training from my childhood was probably a big contributor to the injury. The new injury would come and go but it never really let go. Over the years the pain compounded due to overcompensation. In 2019 I was diagnosed with severe arthritis, just having entered my 50’s, I couldn’t believe it. I had myself signed up for bi-lateral hip surgery (both hips at the same time) just as Covid-19 reared it’s ugly head and all non-essential surgeries were postponed. Things were delayed but eventually got back on track, and I was able to secure a surgery date.