Welcome to Downtown
Downtown Yoga & Pilates is naturally light-filled, open and peaceful. We encourage you to come to classes because you enjoy it, because you want to be pain-free, you want to stretch, be strong, increase mobility, improve balance, and to feel the best you have ever felt. Our studio welcomes everyone and our experienced, and dedicated instructors will make each class the highlight of your day. We provide everything you need so you can travel light – herbal tea, fruit, lockers, props and mats, filtered water, towels and shower with natural essentials.
MEET OUR INSTRUCTORS

Georgia Cato
Iyengar & Prenatal Yoga

Georgia Cato
Iyengar & Prenatal Yoga
Georgia has been practising Iyengar Yoga for over 12 years. In Georgia's classes, you can expect a focus on alignment, occasional use of props to access and make progress in the full range of yoga poses. She wishes people to share her love of movement and to leave her classes feeling more mobile, happy and physically and mentally lighter.
Georgia is passionate about all things pregnancy and birth and is a Birth Support Doula – trained with Rhea Dempsey. She is passionate about active, positive and conscious birth and supporting pregnant people through the amazing transformation that parenthood brings forth. She encourages her clients to enjoy their pregnancy and to feel the empowerment obtained through knowledge and understanding of the process of birth.
Georgia's own experience of actively birthing her son demonstrated to her what an incredible tool the breath & yoga postures are for birthing.

Georgia Herford
Senior Pilates Instructor

Georgia Herford
Senior Pilates Instructor
Georgia is our Senior Pilates Instructor. She has completed comprehensive STOTT PILATES instructor training, a Breathe Certificate IV in Pilates, a Certificate IV in Fitness and the Breathe Diploma of Clinical Pilates. She has also studied Posture and Flexibility with Kit Laughlin.
After her years of training in classical and contemporary dance with a Bachelor of Arts (Dance) from Deakin University, Pilates was a natural evolution for Georgia, and teaching Pilates has been her full-time career since 2005.
Georgia specialises in Clinical Pilates, in her classes, you'll benefit from her 13 years experience and an emphasis on form and technique.

Lori Campagnolo
Pilates, Barre & Functional Fitness

Lori Campagnolo
Pilates, Barre & Functional Fitness
Lori was always sporty and active as a child, yet did not find a love of Pilates and Fitness until later in her adult life. She was wondering how she could possibly improve her energy levels and get the most of life. Firstly, by visiting a nutritionist, who encouraged altering her diet to include natural, whole foods. Secondly, she indulged in the world of exercise. With the help of a Strength and Conditioning Coach she smashing out chin ups quicker than she could say ‘Is training 7 days a week enough?!’ Not long after, she tried reformer Pilates. The rest they say, is history!
Lori has completed her Cert IV in Pilates and Fitness in 2015 and is dedicated to continually learning and challenging herself. She is driven by the thought she may be able to improve other’s lives as she did her own. Lori firmly believes in trying new things, getting out of her comfort zone and, most importantly, having a laugh whilst doing so.

Anita Del Testa
Iyengar Yoga

Anita Del Testa
Iyengar Yoga
Anita began practising yoga in 2002, initially to help her manage her back pain. Her yoga practice began to heal years of back issues but also had a huge transformative effect on her life which led her to train as an Iyengar teacher. She began attending classes with Senior Teacher Peter Scott in 2006 and commenced teacher training with him in 2007. She continues to study with Peter and Sue Scott and is fully qualified at Junior Intermediate Level 1 teacher.
Anita enjoys teaching as she sees how the power of yoga can transform her students’ lives, releasing them, like it did her from a lifetime of stored tension and pain. Anita returns biennially to the Ramamani Iyengar Memorial Yoga Institute in Pune India to study with the Iyengar family.
Anita is also a member of the BKS Iyengar Association of Australia Events Committee.

Courtney Holm
Pilates

Courtney Holm
Pilates
I was first exposed to pilates back in 2001 when I was a ballet dancer. We learned a very classical pilates style and I found it incredibly beneficial for my ongoing back and hip pain.
Coming from a family of Physiotherapists and Occupational Therapists, I was also frequently exposed to my mother’s physiotherapy and pilates practice. Eventually, I left the ballet world to focus on my main passion; fashion and textile design. Studying to become a fashion designer, I continued my pilates practice along-side my studies and found it helped give me the physical and mental strength I needed to work full time and study full time.
After graduating from my degree, I decided to become a certified pilates instructor as a complimentary career parallel to my fashion business. Specialising in clinical pilates, I studied my Certificate in Pilates, Certificate IV in Fitness and Certificate IV in Allied Health Assistance (Physiotherapy) at Breathe education in 2013.
I teach clinical and group reformer classes. With my love for fresh and functional exercises blended with the classic pilates style, you can expect an upbeat workout, focus on breathing and fine tuning technique. I am very hands-on and detailed and love helping clients achieve their goals whilst ensuring proper form for optimal results and injury prevention.

Lara Richardson
Pilates, Barre & Functional Fitness

Lara Richardson
Pilates, Barre & Functional Fitness
Lara was first introduced to pilates at 15 by her ballet teacher to help in recovering from a back injury. Lara completed her Cert IV in Pilates and Fitness in 2015 and a Diploma of Clinical Pilates in 2017. She has experimented with many training methods over the years from Crossfit and marathons to Muay Thai and enjoys a disciplined approach to exercise. Lara loves to learn and is always on the lookout to find new courses and workshops with industry leaders to expand her knowledge and stay up to date.
In a class with Lara, you can expect a fun atmosphere where you will be pushed to work hard. Lara keeps an open dialogue with plenty of laughs and is dedicated to modifying and accommodating all clients no matter the class. Lara loves to trigger point so you will likely get into the habit of trigger pointing before and after class when you train with her.

Christina Traychevska
Pilates & Functional Fitness

Christina Traychevska
Pilates & Functional Fitness
Christina holds a Breathe Education Certificate IV in Pilates, a passion she pursued after completing a Bachelor Degree in Interior Design. In her classes, you can expect to be challenged through a wide variety of movements, drawing from both classical Pilates exercises and more contemporary dynamic movements. With her background in Crossfit and love of all things movement and mobility, Christina will get you working hard, moving freely and feeling good. Your hard work will be rewarded with a beautiful stretch, letting you leave long, strong and (hopefully) smiling.

Teresa Valentini
Pilates & Functional Fitness

Teresa Valentini
Pilates & Functional Fitness
Teresa Valentini is a Pilates, Barre, and fitness instructor from the US. As a classically trained dancer with over 20 years of technique and performance experience, Teresa knew from an early age that moving was her passion. After completing a Bachelor's Degree in Exercise Science and Kinesiology at the University of Illinois, Teresa relocated to San Francisco, where she taught Pilates Mat and Barre classes. It was there she began to develop a deeper appreciation for equipment-based Pilates, and shortly after, completed the 600 hour Fletcher Pilates Program in Half Moon Bay, CA. During her time on the west coast, she also completed training through Yogaworks, Barre Pro, and Pilates Proworks.
After a few years of living a relaxed and colourful life in Cali, Teresa said goodbye to San Francisco and headed to Australia in search of sunshine and warmer summers. Since relocating to Melbourne, Teresa has designed and delivered teacher training programs for barre and Pilates, both for Australia and abroad. She is currently completing the Doctor of Physiotherapy program at the University of Melbourne.
We love Teresa's radiant positive energy, and it comes across in her teaching. When you go to her classes, you can experience the precision and quality that comes from her decades-long training in Pilates and physical fitness.

Maud Leger
Yoga — Flow & Yin

Maud Leger
Yoga — Flow & Yin
For Maud, Yoga is an essential life-long practice that maximises our potential, helping us to find, to understand and to share the truth of who we are.
Maud believes in a continuous and holistic practice that incorporates: embodied movement (Asana), meditation, breath (Pranayama), Ayurveda (ancient holistic medicine, encompassing Nutrition, Mind and Lifestyle), self-enquiry (Svadhyaya). She practices daily.
Maud teaches Asana, Pranayama and Meditation to allow people to feel connected to their essence. With a lifelong passion for movement, she is interested in the physical practice of Yoga and the transformative and healing effects of intentional movements of the breath, and of the body on the mental, emotional and physical health.
Maud is yoga teacher certified RYT E-200 and RYT 500 by Yoga Alliance. She practises since 2010 and teaches since 2014. Her mentor is Adam Whiting and her main teacher is Rod Stryker.
Through everything she does, Maud hopes to empower people.

Christy Champoise
Slow Flow & Yin Yoga

Christy Champoise
Slow Flow & Yin Yoga
A local to the west coast of Canada, known for its alternative lifestyles and outdoor enthusiasts, Christy has always been very interested in health and wellness. It was this interest which introduced her to Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine which she studied from 2015-2019. It was during her studies that she turned to a regular Ashtanga practice which transformed her practise to such a degree that her passion to teach surfaced. Christy completed her training at Moksana Yoga Centre in Victoria, Canada in 2010 and has taught in Melbourne since her move to Australia in 2011. Christy is currently practising Karma Yoga, working as a Volunteer Coordinator for the non-profit Cultural Yoga Project, which offers yoga and community to refugees and asylum seekers. Christy teaches Vinyasa, Hatha, Yin, Yoga Nidra and Meditation. Her teaching is highly influenced by the teachings of Sri K Pattabhi Jois in the lineage of Ashtanga Yoga. Throughout the past 15 years, Christy has studied with Gregor Maehle, Monica Gaucci, Greg and Tracy Cooper, Amanda Stead, David Swenson, Mysan Sibdo, Simon Borg-Olivier, Harmony Slater, Norman Sim and Channa Dassanayaka. Her class styles aim to offer ways of achieving balanced strength and mobility to improve performance, thus leading to better physical and mental health. Yoga to her is about overall freedom for body and mind with the opportunity for self-reflection and continued growth.