Meet the staff
Led by Esther, our highly-skilled instructors come from diverse backgrounds, each bringing their unique expertise to create a truly holistic approach to movement and wellness.
Our state-of-the-art facility offers a serene and welcoming environment where clients can feel comfortable exploring new movement possibilities. We invite you to become a part of our tight-knit community and experience the life-changing benefits of the Gyrotonic Method for yourself.
Esther
Esther opened Village Gyrotonic in 2000. She is an authorized Master Trainer for the Gyrotonic Method and Pre-Trainer for the GYROKINESIS® Method. As a Pre-Trainer, she is qualified to conduct teacher training prerequisite courses in both methods. As a Master Trainer in the Gyrotonic Method, she is qualified to conduct teacher training courses. She is a certified instructor of the following Gyrotonic specialized equipment: Jumping-Stretching Board, ARCHWAY™ and GYROTONER®. She expands her knowledge with regular continuing education training courses.
Esther completed the Tom Myers Anatomy Trains course for Movement Professionals as well. She has taught Gyrokinesis classes for The Martha Graham School professional training program.
After leaving a successful corporate career to pursue a spiritual path, Esther became a Hatha and Ashtanga yoga instructor. She tried the Gyrotonic Method in hopes of improving her Chaturanga Dandasanas. What she discovered was an invaluable tool to create a more balanced life between mind, body and spirit. Based upon yogic principles, the Gyrotonic Method creates a more physically balanced and aesthetically beautiful body by teaching one how to access and move from the energy body (chakras), which enlivens and moves the physical body. Healing, joyous and playful, the exercises inspire continuous self-discovery as the body evolves into a more perfect vehicle for the expression of one's soul.
Esther is also a meditation teacher and a Mystic Therapist, an alternative hands-on healing technique.
Jamila
Jamila has studied the Gyrotonic Method since 2013 and has been a certified Gyrotonic trainer since 2015! She is certified in the Gyrotonic Level 1 Program, the Archway and Jumping-Stretching Board specialized equipment, Gyrotonic for Dancers, and Gyrotonic Applications for Juliu’s Wrapping System, as well as Pilates Mat (Equinox). Jamila is a freelance professional dancer and Cyr wheel artist. Practicing the Gyrotonic Method has kept her injury-free!
Jamila strives to help her clients find more joy, clarity, and efficiency in their movement both during their sessions and in their daily lives by helping them to strengthen their weak spots and lengthen their tight ones! She has worked with clients from all walks of life, including high-level athletes and dancers, seniors, and those recovering from spinal disc and other injuries. She encourages clients to set goals we can work towards - anything is possible!
Mariana
From Rio, Brazil, Mariana brings a deep and diverse background in movement, with over 30 years of experience spanning dance, physical theater, yoga, and notably, the Gyrotonic and Gyrokinesis Methods. She finds great value in the GYROTONIC EXPANSION SYSYEM®, an accessible practice rooted in breathwork that has positively affected her life and those she's worked with. Mariana's unique journey within these disciplines is not just an exploration of movement, but a testament to the power of mindful practice.
Desiree
Desiree has a professional dance background as a dancer on Broadway & National tours. She has a degree in dance and psychology from Santa Clara University. Desiree has been teaching at Village Gyrotonic for 11 years and has worked with clients of all levels, from elite professional athletes to those with challenges such as Herniated discs, pre and postnatal, joint replacement, surgery recovery and arthritis. She has over 25 years experience specializing in body movement. "I love the Gyrotonic Method because it is literally for every body."
Malia
Born and raised in California, Malia discovered the Gyrotonic method in 2017 while attending UCLA getting her BA in dance and Spanish. She was hooked on the holistic movement practice immediately. Malia received her Gyrotonic Level 1 certification in 2019 and since then completed certifications in Gyrotonic Applications for Dancers Level 1 and Level 2, Jumping- Stretching Board and Archway Specialized Equipment, and the Gyrokinesis Method.
Malia has taught in many places all over Manhattan including Gyrotonic studios, dance schools, and a physical therapy office, where she worked closely with the doctors to tailor sessions with her patients for their specific recovery needs. When she is not teaching, Malia dances with One Day Dance company shooting film projects, working on live performance works, and teaching floorwork contemporary movement.
Lauren
Lauren was first introduced to the Gyrotonic Expansion System because of a spinal injury while dancing professionally with the Martha Graham Dance Company. Immediately she saw and felt the potential in her body for healing and much more, and as a result Lauren became certified in the Gyrotonic Method in 2012. Since then she has completely the Level 2 Program 2 and Jumping-Stretching Board courses, as well as Gyrotonic Applications for Juliu’s Wrapping System with Debra Rose. She is also certified in the Gyrokinesis Method.
Lauren still performs as a freelance artist, and has worked as adjunct faculty in dance at Long Island University and Marymount Manhattan College. Lauren is always seeking to expand her knowledge and self to better serve her clients, and is very excited to have begun a 2 year certification process in Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy.
Emily
Emily was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and was raised both on the East Coast and in Zurich, Switzerland. First introduced to the Gyrotonic Expansion System at the age of 15, her passion took hold after she graduated from SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance and moved to NYC to work as a dancer and choreographer. She currently lives in Brooklyn and choreographs under POGO Dance Projects.
Emily is an Authorized Gyrotonic instructor as of 2018, and is additionally certified in the Gyrokinesis Method, as well as the specialty equipment Jumping-Stretching Board and Gyrotoner. She has completed Pre and Post Natal Applications and Applications for Dancers Level 1 & Level 2. Emily is also certified in TRX Suspension Training®.
Gyrotonic and Gyrokinesis work help her feel at home in her body, and she seeks to empower others to feel the same through its movement methodology.
Ursula
Ursula Verduzco is a Dancer, Choreographer, Singer, Actress, Writer and Educator. A Healing Arts and Ritualist guide, a Sound Healer and Energetic Voice Healer, as well as a Reiki , Somatic Touch Therapy and Craniosacral Practitioner. Born in Mexico and residing in NYC since 1997, she has been teaching for the last 20 years and exploring the Gyrotonic Method since the year 2000. She is also certified on the Jumping-Stretching Board, Gyrotoner, and the Archway specialty equipment.
Her knowledge of all these forms of connection with the Self and the Universe, inform her teaching. Her approach is based on bringing together the mind, body, emotional and spiritual realms, for a wholesome life experience.
She has worked with clients from a wide range of age groups and backgrounds, including dancers and athletes in search of enhancing their physical potential, women during and after pregnancy who look for ease and connection to themselves and bodies, the elderly, as well as those recuperating from surgeries and/or injuries, including people new to conscious movement, or returning to a physical practice.
Promoting and committed in her teaching, to breath, rhythm, strength, flexibility and articulation.
Olga
Olga was born in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. She has a degree in Early Childhood Education from State Pedagogical University. She began practicing Hatha yoga before moving to New York in 1997. While exploring different styles of yoga, including Kundalini and Naam, she decided to undertake formal training and certification. With yoga as her foundation, she went on to study Pilates (certified in 2005), Gyrokinesis and Gyrotonic (certified 2007, 2019).
She uses a therapeutic hands-on approach based on close observation of her client's body, and verbal cues to foster good health and an increase in strength, stamina and self-awareness, therefore reducing the possibility for injury.
Working extensively with physical therapists at rehabilitation facilities, she has helped not only clients suffering from lower back ailments or shoulder, neck or joint pain, as well as those needing posture alignment and those pre/post-hip surgery, but also individuals navigating health conditions brought on by Parkinson’s disease or recovering from cancer. Her goal with each person is to discover the method that will alleviate pain and improve their health and well-being.
She enjoys her field immensely and embraces any occasion to expand her knowledge. She maintains her personal movement practice and continues to study, delving into functional anatomy in addition to associated studies concerning dance therapy, the Feldenkrais method, Alexander technique, Zero Balancing (ZB), Open Source Forms (OSF) and Kinesiofitness.
She is certified in both the Gyrotonic Level 1 and 2 Programs and has taken the following continuing education courses: the Gyrotoner specialized equipment; Gyrotonic Therapeutic Applications for Hip Replacement; Therapeutic Applications for Pelvic Girdle; Applications for Shoulder Girdle; Applications for Scoliosis; Psoas Principles; and the Gyrokinesis Breathing Course.