Teachers Sharon Gallagher-Rivera & Carol LeMaitre

ABOUT US

ABOUT OUR PROGRAM CREATORS

CAROL LEMAITRE is the founder and director of Sanchez Street Studios, a thriving Pilates studio in San Francisco since 1995. In 2006, she co founded the Pilates Education Lab–a comprehensive teacher training program–with Sharon Gallagher-Rivera. Carol’s audio mat classes are available through Balanced Body and iTunes and she now offers a full library of recorded Mat and MELT classes. Her writing has appeared in Balanced Body Coreterly. She has been teaching workshops for teachers since 2005.

Carol began her Pilates practice in 1985 at St. Francis Hospital’s Dance Medicine Department. Pilates was so successful at healing her back injury that she was able to return to her career as a professional dancer. Later, Carol started her formal training with Jennifer Stacey and completed it with Ellie Herman, going on to complete the Masters Program at the Pilates Center of Boulder. In order to better serve some of her more injured clients, Carol studied the Janda Method of Neuromuscular Reprogramming. She is an advanced MELT instructor studying exclusively with Sue Hitzman. She has also been greatly inspired by her studies with Eric Franklin, Kathleen Stafford Grant and Cara Reeser. She has completed Cara Reeser’s Heritage Program. Carol has been leading international retreats since 2015.

SHARON GALLAGHER-RIVERA is the Owner of Internal Fire Pilates & Wellness in San Rafael, CA and is also Co-Creator of Pilates Education Lab Teacher Training Program. As a seasoned instructor, mentor and bodywork and rehabilitation specialist, she is committed to enhancing the well-being and resilience of her clients across all physical states and abilities.

Sharon started as a young gymnast and a multi-sport athlete, earned her BA in Politics and Performing Arts from USF in 1992, and then spent decades performing, both commercially and with contemporary dance companies including Printz Dance Project for many years. Initially trained by Ellie Herman, she began teaching Pilates in 1999 and taught at various studios in San Francisco and Marin, including Sanchez Street Studios, owned by Carol LeMaitre (now her teaching partner and co-creator of Pilates Education Lab).

Sharon has been blessed to learn from many gifted teachers over the years, including direct learning workshops with Pilates Elders and 2^nd Generation Teachers. Aside from years of weekly classes with Jennifer Stacey, M.S., she earned a Master’s Certificate with the renowned Pilates Center of Boulder, whose leaders learned directly from Pilates elder, Romana Kryzanowska. Sharon enriches her Pilates practice with continued study of healing and bodywork techniques as well as complimentary movement systems.

Her students are her greatest teachers, yet Sharon was deeply influenced by her studies with Stephen Coleman, L.Ac., (blending the work of Lauren Berry, Swedish Massage, Rolfing and Feldenkrais), Jayne Edwards (Neuromuscular Rehabilitation work of Vladimir Janda, M.D.), Sue Hitzman (creator of the M.E.L.T. method), Dr. Eric Cobb, Creator of Z-Health (Neuroscience for movement training), as well as Erik Franklin and Jean Claude-West.

After Lululemon Athletica selected her as a Global Ambassador for 2010-11, she was honored to be selected by PilatesAnytime.com as their “Next Pilates Anytime Instructor 2012”, winning a feature story in Pilates Style magazine. Sharon is a NCPT Certified instructor and has modeled for Ellie Herman’s books, ‘Pilates for Dummies’ and ‘Pilates Wunda Chair’ as well as Ellie’s DVD of Advanced Mat. She appears in Jordan Matter’s book, ‘Dancer’s Among Us’ as well as Lois Greenfield’s ‘Moving Still’.