Harriet Garfinkle…

…is the owner and sole teacher at Woodside Pilates.

Her interest is in moving the body from the functional core.

Come experience the joy of being alive in your body.

Harriet has been a student and a teacher of movement all of her adult life. Harriet danced professionally in the San Francisco Bay Area between 1975 and 2005 with many notable companies (including TALLGIRLS, KADEKA Dances for Kids, Anne Bluethenthal, Deborah Slater, Betsy Kagan and Martin Kravitz) and choreographed over 15 plays, along with teaching creative movement.

In 1985, under the tutelage of Ed and Linda Avak, Harriet received her certification in the FM Alexander Technique. She was lucky enough to be exposed to the wonderful teaching of Walter and Dilys Carrington.

Harriet is proud to have staged the movement for the original stage play, Purple Breasts, a play about one woman's struggle with breast cancer, which toured internationally to much acclaim.

She began her studies in Pilates in 1995 after a spiral break to her right fibula in a skiing accident and she her did her first Pilates training through Jennifer Stacey. In 2001, Harriet plunked down a reformer in her garage and deemed it Woodside Pilates.

From there, Harriet took over 17 workshops with master teacher and Pilates elder, Ron Fletcher and got a teacher certification through his company.

Harriet completed two years of coursework and certification with Eric Franklin who teaches functional anatomy through imagery.

In 2008-2009, she completed yet another certification with Marie Jose Blom of Long Beach Dance Conditioning combining Pilates, dance medicine and post rehab.

Harriet also is trained in the Core/Align system, both with Tom McCook and Nancy Myers.



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