movement.design.lab

07/21/2025

In the Flow! 😜🌊

For the past two weeks, I’ve loving my new temporary home at . I’m grateful to join all the incredible practitioners here in such a beautiful and calm space.

While it’s still TBD on how long I’ll be teaching in SLC, I’m making the most of my time here! sees clients Tuesday/Thursday mornings and I’m seeing clients all day Mondays + Tuesday/Thursday afternoons.

After years of having a maximalist studio with ALL. THE. TOYS, I’m enjoying the mental challenge of having a minimalist set up. We’ve been rocking the GYROTONIC Pulley Tower and Pilates Chair duo. I’m definitely feeling the adage that necessity breeds creativity. It’s also making me think hard about what I want my next teaching space in Colorado to really be.

✨🤓✨

07/11/2025

The joy of hitting pause. 💙🎉🤸‍♀️

It’s been 11 years of owning Movement Design Lab. Five years as 1,100 sq ft and then six years as 2,700 sq ft. As I weathered my PhD, the pandemic, and two babies, the studio started to become an unruly beast that I knew I needed to change.

I didn’t want to keep owning such a large studio and my husband and I have wanted to move back to Colorado for YEARS.

I’m so grateful to finally hit pause. I can now exhale, examine what worked and what didn’t, and focus on what I want my next chapter (and location!) to be. 💙

06/11/2025

04/14/2025

GREAT NEWS! 🍾🎉

Movement Design Lab was voted as Best Gyrotonic Studio & I was voted as Best Kinesiology Practitioner in City Weekly’s Best of Utah Body & Mind all thanks to YOU!

I say it often, but I’m just so grateful for our amazing MDL community. You make our studio a truly special place and we wouldn’t be here without your support all of these years. Thank you! 🙏🏼💙

04/11/2025

Please join us in welcoming Tara to the Movement Design Lab Team! 👋🏼

I’ve known Tara for years and couldn’t be more pleased to have her join us. She’s an incredibly kind soul with a skillful eye for teaching movement. She is warm & welcoming and loves helping clients find joy within their own movement.

Tara is a Certified Gyrotonic trainer, dancer, and mental health therapist who brings a unique integrative approach to movement and healing. She first discovered the Gyrotonic method while seeking relief from chronic hip pain after years of professional dance. She was immediately drawn to its three-dimensional holistic nature that left her feeling both free and grounded in her body. For Tara, the Gyrotonic method brought more strength, fluidity and expressiveness to her movement. With her BFA in Dance and a Master’s of Social Work, Tara brings a rich, multidimensional understanding of both physical and emotional wellness to her teaching.

Since becoming certified Gyrotonic Trainer in 2015, Tara has shared her love of movement with a diverse range of clients, always striving to create an inclusive, trauma-informed space rooted in compassion and curiosity. She believes that when we feel more at home in our bodies, our entire perspective on life can shift. Whether working with dancers, athletes, or those new to movement, Tara aims to foster joy, creativity, and empowerment through every session. Outside the studio, she works as a therapist and oncology social worker—and at home, she’s guided by her orange tabby, Mylo, who reminds her to stretch and rest daily.

We’re thrilled to have Tara join our team! Tara is available for private lessons Monday & Tuesday mornings. Please send us a DM if you’d like to book a session with her.

💙🤗🌀

04/04/2025

I’ll be honest, I love birthdays. Time isn’t guaranteed & I loving taking a moment to reflect on all that happened in the prior 365 days. As someone who is very goal oriented and is always making moves for my next big adventure I sometimes forget to pause and feel the good in the present moment.

Over the next few weeks I’ll be posting about some of the changes that occurred this year and are still in process. But before I do, I want to pause and say thank you. Thank you for another year of Movement Design Lab. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I’d one day be celebrating my 11th year of business.

I would not be here without you.

Thank you for support, friendship, & business these past 11 years.

I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again, we have the kindest & most genuine clients I know. You are my favorite people. It’s an honor teaching & connecting with each of you. I’ve seen many in you through both challenging times and joyful times as you have also seen me in mine; yet through it all we’ve had a blast. Thank you for being the light that keeps me so passionate about teaching movement.

You make our studio an incredible space to teach, move, & just be.

THANK YOU!

🥳🙏🏼💙🎉🎂

01/17/2025

It’s that time of year again! We would love your vote in the Best of Utah Body & Mind reader’s poll. For each category winner, City Weekly publishes a short bio. As a small business, it’s a great recognition. If you love all that we do here at MDL, we would appreciate your vote!

Please vote for us:
Best Pilates Studio
Best Gyrotonic Studio
Best Kinesiology Practitioner: Bre Dumke Helfrich, PhD
Best Reiki Practitioner: Laura Blakely, MFA, OT

To vote, you must sign in with your email, zip code (you don’t need to be local to vote!), and you must vote for 5 separate categories for your ballot to count. Scroll through for our community suggestions!

Thank you for your time & support!
💙🙏🏼🌀

10/22/2024

Are you a movement or wellness professional looking to join forces with a team of like-minded individuals?

We’re looking to add another wellness professional to our team! Join us!

We are currently a team of 5 movement teachers with an incredible community of clients. We all love anatomy, geeking out, and helping individuals find joy in their bodies, strength and pain free movement.

If you are a Pilates or GYROTONIC teacher, physical therapist, occupational therapist, or massage therapist and you’re looking for a space for your own wellness practice, we’d love to talk with you about joining us here at Movement Design Lab. We have over 2,500 sq feet of beautiful, naturally lit space with vaulted ceilings and all the Pilates and GYROTONIC toys you could want. We also have a private treatment loft which is perfectly set up for physical therapy, massage, acupuncture or even nutrition consulting or wellness coaching.

If any of this excites you, please send me a DM. Let’s chat. 💙🤓

06/03/2024

📣 Heads up! Registration for Soma & Psyche ends tonight! 📣

I first met fellow Gyrotonic Teacher eight years ago at a Gyrotonic Archway training course. While we came into this work from different movement backgrounds, Melody and I became quick friends. I was immediately drawn to her quick intellect, humor, and admired her interdisciplinary career path as a therapist and a movement teacher.

It was then that I first suggested I host her at MDL for a workshop teaching other bodyworkers the interplay between movement and psychology. As a biomechanist, I am not an expert in psychology. However, I would be remiss if I wasn’t aware of how emotions or past trauma can impact our movement and the way our bodies physically feel. This is why I am so excited for Soma & Psyche.

This is the workshop that I’ve been wanting Melody to teach for years.

If you are a fellow movement teacher, physical therapist, body worker, or movement nerd who wants to elevate your practice, enhance your client interactions, and/or better understand the interplay between emotions and movement, look no further.

Soma & Psyche is for you.

Melody will be presenting several important topics such as:

☑️ embodied movement
☑️ interpersonal relationships
☑️ impact of trauma on the body & movement
☑️ empathy
☑️ self care
☑️ preventing burnout
☑️ mastering interpersonal dynamics
☑️ personal boundaries

If you are curious about any of the topics Melody will be teaching, I strongly urge you to join us.

Registration ends tonight!

Class will be taught this upcoming Saturday & Sunday, June 8th & 9th. The workshop will be taught hybrid style so you can join us either in-person or via zoom (or both!). The workshop will also be recorded so you can easily catch the replay if you can’t make it live. And for those of you who are fellow Pilates teachers, Soma & Psyche also provides NPCP CECs.

I hope you’ll join us. I know this course will be an incredible weekend of learning & growing.

🧠💙🤓

06/01/2024

One of the most beautiful pieces of this work is that it’s a means to connect.

It provides connection with ourselves and connection with each other.

There’s something so valuable about moving for the sake of moving. Having time and space to feel & move & notice.

Similarly, it’s also a means to connect with each other. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve laughed with clients over how damn hard figure 8’s are on the Gyrotonic handles (IYKYK!) or held the hands of clients expressing how emotionally exhausting chronic pain can be. Teaching movement and working with bodies is one of the best ways to really show up for one and other and provide support.

This is a big reason I’m excited to attend Soma & Psyche next weekend with . As much as I’ve studied anatomy, biomechanics, Pilates & Gyrotonic, I haven’t had the opportunity to take a course truly exploring the impact of the emotions on the body and ways to hone my interpersonal skills as a teacher.

I hope you’ll join us next weekend! Registration ends Monday! Visit the link in our bio for course details & registration.

💙🧠🤓

05/27/2024

🎉🌀Exciting news!🌀🎉

We’ll be hosting GYROTONIC® Master Trainer, Adrianna Thompson, this June for the GYROTONIC®Jumping Stretching Board Refresher and a day of GYROTONIC® Master Classes!

is on elf the few Specialized Master Teachers in the world authorized to certify new teacher in both the GYROTONIC® and GYROKINESIS® Methods. She was fortunate to work extensively with founder, Juliu Horvath privately at White Cloud in NYC in the 1990’s and has been teaching the GYROTONIC® Method for over 20 years.

The JSB GYROTONIC® Jumping Stretching Board Refresher will be taught June 14th-16th. This course is fluid in that the curriculum can focus on any requests that students may have. All attendees must already be GYROTONIC® JSB Trainers. 

Following the JSB Refresher Course, Adrianna will be staying for an extra day to teach two GYROTONIC® Master Classes on Monday, June 17th. Each class is open to anyone who’d like to spend two hours moving with the GYROTONIC® Pulley Tower and getting creative with props. Given that Utah does not have a resident GYROTONIC® Master Trainer, this is a great opportunity to learn from one of the best.

If you’d like to join us for either course, please send us a DM. Be sure to save your space soon as space is limited & only two spots remain for the JSB Refresher!

05/24/2024

Congrats to on completing her Level 1 Gyrotonic Certification earlier this month with Sylvia Frosali of hosted by !

Victoria joined us last fall as a Gyrotonic Apprentice and has been working diligently on learning the material and teaching clients as much as she can. With her MS in Exercise Science and as a professional dancer with , Victoria has an amazing ability to understand movement and is already becoming an incredible teacher.

Victoria’s rate is for private lessons is currently $55 per hour but will be going up in August. If you want to learn the Gyrotonic method, be sure to take advantage of her current pricing! DM us to book!