Markella Kefallonitou

Markella is one of Central’s Pilates instructors and a member of the multidisciplinary Health and Wellbeing Team. She is a BASI Pilates instructor and faculty, a dance specialist and an Onassis Foundation Scholar.

Markella holds a BA degree in Dance Education specialising in ballet, Limon and Release techniques. She studied alongside the Merce Cunningham Dance Company in New York City and she was awarded a Certificate of Accomplishment in Cunningham Technique. She danced professionally for independent contemporary choreographers in New York City before retiring to pursue a career in education. She holds an MSc in Dance Science from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance where she specialised in flexibility training. At the same time she completed her BASI Pilates Comprehensive training and later became faculty for BASI Pilates.

As BASI Pilates faculty, Markella teaches the BASI Pilates Global Comprehensive and Mat Programmes nationally and internationally. Driven by her passion to help dancers, she created the Advanced Education Certification Course ‘Dance Conditioning with Pilates’ for instructors who are interested to specialise in teaching dancers. She also teaches her original workshops ‘Foot - our base of support’ and ‘When and How to stretch - the benefits of different stretching techniques’, both appropriate for dancers and the general population.

Markella also works at the Royal Ballet School in London. She is the Pilates instructor at the Lower School and she is a member of the Healthcare Team. She collaborates with the Royal Ballet School Training and Access team where she teaches Pilates for the Intensive Courses, as well as Body Awareness and Conditioning for the Affiliate Training and Assessment Programme (ATAP). Markella continues to teach the general population at The Pilates Clinic in Wimbledon, and she is proud to be part of the BASI Pilates UK team and the BASI Pilates community worldwide.