Trainers
At AVIVA PILATES, the quality of our trainers is one of our highest priorities. We encourage our trainers to learn new styles, expand their knowledge and obtain new certifications. We strive to give our customers the best possible experience using the leading techniques available.
Aviva Abrams
With 22 years of Pilates and Fitness experience, Aviva Abrams is an industry expert. Aviva has over ten certifications in various fitness modalities including Pilates, TRX, Power Plate, Yoga (Ashtanga, Vinyasa, Restorative), Barre, Reiki, Tupler Technique Treatment for Diastasis Recti, Pink Ribbon Program Rehabilitation for Breast Cancer and ViPR.
Her Pilates journey began as a client in 1999 after a near-fatal car accident. Aviva was fortunate enough to have a friend that recommended Pilates as part of her rehabilitation. It was extremely beneficial for her recovery, and she fell in love with the entire method. Aviva decided to pass this knowledge on and help people feel good within their bodies. That is when she began her health and wellness career.
Aviva began her fitness education in 2001 when she completed her Yoga certification with the Center for Yoga which is grandfathered into the RYT certification program. She then went on to get her Stott Pilates education in their home base studio, which is in Toronto, Canada. After completing the full repertoire, she began her career teaching in the high-end boutique Pilates studios in the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan.
She spent over ten years honing her craft in Michigan, and created her signature class “Belly Tone”. Aviva then moved to Miami in 2011 to take her career to the next level. She decided to obtain a second Pilates certification with the National Pilates Certification Program (NPCP). After teaching at numerous locations here in Miami, she opened AVIVA PILATES LLC in 2017. Now the studio has expanded and relocated to the Downtown Miami Shores, Florida.
Kristina Vecsesi
Pilates & Yoga Instructor
Kristina is a Miami native with roots in Hungary. She has been in the field of movement and health for 20 year teaching Yoga and Pilates. Her passion for Pilates stems from it’s basic principles of keeping the body strong and stable to both prevent and rehabilitate injury. Kristina’s enjoys programing both private and group classes. She using different sequencing and modalities of movement to ensure the lesson is both challenging and restorative.
Ryan DeAlexandro
Pilates & Ballet Instructor
Ryan Nicolas DeAlexandro was born and raised in Akron, Ohio where he studied ballet at the University of Akron Dance Institute and the School of American Ballet in NYC. He continued to work for many prestigious companies including Smuin Ballet, Ballet Memphis, Company C, Verb Ballets, Ballet Palm Beach, and Dimensions Dance Theatre of Miami. He channels his passion to guide others to their fullest potential so that they may realize their goals.
Pilates has always been part of Ryan’s cross training to increase body awareness and to ensure a long and healthy dance career. In 2016 Ryan found his passion for STOTT PILATES® and began his journey to becoming a STOTT PILATES® Certified Instructor. He is committed to sharing his passion for movement and exercise by supplying a knowledgeable and welcoming environment where clients can achieve their health and fitness goals. Ryan has been teaching Pilates in South Florida for the past four years, including working at the top local studios, where he has continued to inspire clients to have a strong understanding of their body and wellness. His unique approach to STOTT PILATES® is enhanced by his strong background in ballet and his disciplined training. He has the distinct ability to aid clients in reaching their long-term goals; his individual approach will keep clients engaged and wanting more.
During Ryan’s dance career, he has suffered multiple injuries. Due to the constant toll that ballet takes on a male dancer’s body, in 2017 he suffered from a debilitating back injury and was told that surgery was necessary. Prior to surgery, he continued using Pilates to improve his day-to-day lifestyle. Post-surgery, Pilates was crucial to his rehabilitation. Because of his commitment to using Pilates to rebuild his foundation, Ryan was back dancing fully and performing within two months of the operation. He has experienced first-hand life-changing benefits from his Pilates training and uses this experience to improve his physicality in the gym, to avoid injury, and to continue to stabilize and mobilize his body without pain through dance. His personal experience of the benefits of Pilates inspires him to enlighten and help clients to reach their highest physical potential. He is excited to be a part of the AVIVA PILATES team!
Mariana Scotti
Yoga Teacher
A native from Argentina and a Miami Resident since 2001, Mariana truly believes in the power of community that’s why as a PE Teacher and lyengar Yoga Certified Teacher her focus has always been on creating spaces where people can feel safe, empowered and included.
As a Miami Shores resident, Mariana has partnered with different community organizations to bring the lyengar Yoga practice to key landmarks in the Village such as the Brockway Memorial Library, C. Lawton McCall Community Center and YouFit and now at AVIVA PILATES studio.
Mariana loves teaching beginners, especially adults and older adults so they can feel more open, flexible, stronger, release tension and connect to their inner self. Her classes are well sequenced and challenging, always starting with poses that warm up and prepare the body for the more difficult asanas or poses.
Mariana creates a safe space so that her students can feel secure and grow. She encourages her students to really focus on the different poses and the energy each asana creates.
She founded the first ever lyengar Yoga Festival in Miami where she created a community of more than 100 practitioners who had the opportunity to experience the teachings of ten Certified Iyengar
Yoga Teachers from South Florida.
Mariana looks forward to sharing her love of Iyengar Yoga with AVIVA PILATES clients and our Miami Shores community.