About Gio

Giovanna (Gio) Gamna was born and raised in Italy. She came to the US in 2005 to follow a dream and enrolled into the SUNY Dance Conservatory at Purchase, NY. Since her graduation in 2009, she has danced professionally as a freelancer in NYC, and still is, after the birth of her son Elio in 2018. 

She got her comprehensive Pilates Certification in 2013 through Balanced Body university, studying with master teacher Lesley Powell. As a mom, Gio is also passionate about pre and postnatal exercise, recovery, and support. She holds a Pre and Post-natal Pilates certification by Little Bridge Pilates in New York City. 

As a teacher, Gio is patient, articulate, and creative; she strives to make “PILATES” easy to follow, accessible, and free of any type of unnecessary frill.  She aspires to use imagery as a way to channel physical sensations, and has one goal in mind - to make her clients, her fellow class takers, and her friends, feel better in their body, in their lives, and throughout their day. 

Her Zoom classes have been running since the beginning of the lockdown of Covid-19; they tailor to everyone, taking into account the seasoned practitioner as well as the beginner, the injured as well the athlete, and offer modifications to make class either more manageable or more challenging for those who attend. 

Gio uses intelligible, user-friendly sequences that target all areas of the body. They generally revolve around a weekly topic and sometimes use a prop that can be easily found in any household. 

Throughout class, she uses breath as a way to tune in, calm the body, and unwind; class moves slowly and, throughout the use of clear instructions, Gio will help the student achieve a clean, efficient, and strong form. Such form will not be foreign to an individual but easily relatable in the contexts of everyday life.