01 — OUR STORY
I spent twenty years photographing music.
Then I built a Pilates studio
Rolling Stone, BrooklynVegan, Spin. Everyone from bands playing to forty people to the biggest names in the industry.
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It's heavier work than it looks. Two decades of carrying equipment left me with neck pain, back pain and bad knees. Pilates is what fixed it — and not just the pain. I felt stronger than I had in years.
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Then the pandemic stopped live music, and it became clear I wasn't going back to it. I've always liked bringing people together and helping them feel stronger, so opening a studio didn't feel like a leap.
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Greenpoint happened by accident. Williamsburg was meant to be first, but I found a space in an old building on West Street with real character and fell for it.
02 — WHY THE PRIVATE ROOMS EXIST
wanted somewhere to train alone, without training at home.
I'm a people person, but I'm also an introvert. Some days I want to work out by myself, at my own pace, without a room full of people.
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I wanted a reformer at home. New York apartments being what they are, that was never happening. And working out at home doesn't work for me anyway — booking something is what makes me actually go.
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So I built the thing I couldn't find. Private rooms with a reformer and a screen, inside a studio. Train on your own, then walk out into a room with people in it.
03 — HOW RED LIGHT STARTED
It started with my cat
Charlie had arthritis. I went looking for something that might help him and found red light therapy, so I bought a panel and started using it on him. Then I started using it on myself.
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We both felt better. I was hooked.
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That was three years ago, and I spent them working out how to bring it into a class, paired with reformer work rather than sitting in a booth on your own.
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I'm proud of this one.
04 — THE MUSIC NEVER LEFT
It's in the playlists we run in class, the photographs on the walls, and the socks I design.
Bad Girl Grips came out of the same instinct. Grip socks are required in every studio in the city. There's no reason they have to be boring.
Dana's Music Photography
05 — WHAT KEEPS ME GOING
I didn't come from fitness. I learned how to run this the hard way, and I'm still learning.
What makes it worth it is the team I've built and the people who walk in nervous and come back three times a week.
Dana Distortion Yavin
Founder