Markella Kefallonitou
Pilates Instructor - Dance Specialist
About Markella
Markella is a BASI Pilates instructor and faculty, a dance specialist and an Onassis Foundation Scholar.
Markella holds a BA degree in Dance Education specialising in ballet, Limon and Release techniques. She moved to New York City to study alongside the Merce Cunningham Dance Company and she was awarded a Certificate of Accomplishment in Cunningham Technique. She danced professionally for independent contemporary choreographers in New York City before retiring to pursue a career in education.
Having a passion to support dancers, Markella moved to London to study dance science at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. She specialised in flexibility training and she was awarded an MSc in Dance Science by City University. At the same time she completed her BASI Pilates Comprehensive training and later became faculty for BASI Pilates.
Markella works at the Royal Ballet School in London. She is the Pilates instructor at the Lower School and she is a member of the multidisciplinary Healthcare Team. She collaborates with the Royal Ballet School Training and Access team where she teaches Pilates for the Intensive Courses, Video on Demand, as well as Body Awareness and Conditioning for the Affiliate Training and Assessment Programme (ATAP). Markella also teaches Pilates at Central School of Ballet in London. She is part of the Health and Wellbeing Team that supports the students' dance training. She also works with the Widening and Participation team to offer Pilates classes specialised for dancers in the Spring and Summer Courses.
She teaches the BASI Pilates Global Comprehensive and Mat Programmes nationally and internationally. Her passion is to help dancers maximise their performance potential and enjoy an injury-free career. This led her to create the Advanced Education Certification Course ‘Dance Conditioning with Pilates’ for Pilates instructors who are interested to specialise in teaching dancers.
She also teaches her original workshops ‘Foot - our base of support’ and ‘When and How to stretch - the benefits of different stretching techniques’, both appropriate for dancers and the general population.