About Moving Spirit Pilates 

You Matter. How You Move Matters.

At Moving Spirit Pilates, we believe that moving well is about a whole lot more than just muscle. When we can move with ease, new possibilities emerge for what we can enjoy and accomplish in our lives. We create our Pilates and integrated movement programs with a personal focus, highlighting education and accountability with the support to maximize follow-through and optimize results. We are continually growing; building a community for fitness and movement training that is client-focused and holds whole-person wellness at its core. We support YOU in doing what YOU love best. 

The Moving Spirit Team

Our team is small but mighty! Our teachers are career Pilates professionals with decades of specialized training and experience working with clients in fitness, rehab and elite performance.

Susannah Steers
Owner, Moving Spirit Pilates
Pilates & Integrated Movement Specialist 

Susannah’s first foray into Pilates came as a dancer in Montreal in the late 1980’s. After she  moved to Vancouver in the early nineties, Pilates proved to be the best treatment for her painful knees, which had been the victims of years of misuse. Inspired by her own results, Susannah went on to certify as a Pilates teacher at the Dianne Miller Pilates Centre in 1996. Over the years, she continued her study of the Pilates method with Pilates elders and industry-leading master teachers. Seeking a still deeper understanding of the body in motion, she sought out practitioners from whom she could learn; all on the forward edge of their fields in movement, medicine, physical conditioning, bodywork and therapy. In 2016, Susannah completed a Clinical Mentorship in the Integrated Systems Model with Diane Lee, PT.   The program fine-tuned her assessment skills and taught her to identify and prioritize drivers of dysfunction to support more accurate and effective exercise intervention. Susannah is thrilled to support people in overcoming challenges, and in discovering the power, the joy and the freedom of their own bodies in motion. 

In addition to her movement work with clients, Susannah is a seasoned speaker and workshop facilitator. She provides  keynotes, teacher training and professional continuing education at Pilates, dance and yoga studios, fitness conventions, and multi-disciplinary health events. She is the co-host & co-producer of the Small Conversations for a Better World Podcast, and formerly hosted her own weekly Internet radio show, called “Alive! Bodies in Motion” on Voice America.

In 2017, Susannah co-produced the “Creating Connections” workshop with Mary Gillespie (Integral Life Coach/Retired Nursing Education Consultant). This full day workshop explored the process for connecting to self and to others in an authentic way, and introduced strategies cultivating those connections to support improved practitioner/client relationships and outcomes. These workshops are designed for Pilates and yoga teachers, fitness trainers, physiotherapists, massage therapists, nurse educators and other “helping” professionals.  (If you would like Susannah to speak, teach or facilitate a workshop at your studio/clinic/event, please contact the studio directly. )

Allison Birt
PMA Certified Pilates Teacher 
Franklin Method Educator 

After a series of injuries prompted her to reconsider a career in dance, Allison Birt transformed her passion for movement as an art into a passion for movement as medicine. In 2001, she began learning to teach Pilates from Dianne Miller, teaching in her studio (Vancouver Pilates Centre) until 2016. A perennial student, Allison has learned from and studied the repertoire of multiple first generation Pilates teachers including Ron Fletcher, Kathleen Stanford Grant, and Mary Bowen. Allison is also a Franklin Method Educator, adept at applying mental imagery techniques to embodied anatomy to create lasting positive change in the mind and body. She loves to collaborate with students to help them discover movement resolutions that will maximize their physical potential so that they can move through their lives with as much ease and joy as possible.

For more about Allison, check out  “A Conversation with Allison Birt.”