Bodycraft Studio: a place where listening is at the heart of each and every Pilates session.

Bodycraft Studio, a neighborhood gem, is located on the bustling corner of 9th Street and 6th Avenue in Park Slope, Brooklyn. We have specialized in teaching One on One Private Pilates sessions for over 25 years.

Founded in 1997 by owner/teacher Lana Halvorsen, Bodycraft celebrates the uniqueness, complexity and beauty of everyone who walks through the door.

Lana has created a space that is a sanctuary for movement and healing.

At Bodycraft, we train our teachers to listen to the wisdom of the body and to allow each individual person to share their unique story with us.

About Lana:

Lana brings over 40 years of movement and science education to Bodycraft.

Born and raised in Northern California, she credits her extensive training in ballet as well as being raised playing in the redwood forest, to her thoughtful and intuitive approach to teaching.

Lana’s Pilates training began in 1989 at her alma mater, California Institute of the Arts, and continued in New York where she was certified through Deborah Lesson and the Physical Mind Institute in 1995. Lana being ever curious has had many influences over the years. Most prominent has been her study of Infant Developmental Movement and Embodied Yoga with Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen as well as years of anatomy classes with Irene Dowd. Lana’s movement and body/mind education includes multiple trainings in Core Align, Gyrotonics, Yamuna Body Rolling, Cranial Sacral Therapy, and Myofascial Release. Most recently, Lana embarked upon a 600 hour coaching program centered around embodiment, trauma, pleasure and relationships.

Explore training with Lana

In collaboration with her husband and life partner J. Granelli, who joined the Bodycraft team in 2008, they’ve developed a light touch method infusing the approaches of both cranial sacral and myofascial techniques. Lana and J. use this listening and release method in their Pilates sessions at Bodycraft.

Together they continue to collaborate, teach and run Bodycraft where they enjoy mentoring young Pilates teachers interested in the art of teaching, listening and healing.

Lana offers monthly mentoring sessions for Pilates teachers.

J and Lana host workshops sharing their light touch work during the year.

“I came to Bodycraft to address the effects of back and ankle injuries from years of playing soccer and rugby. The work I’ve done with a variety of Bodycraft instructors, including the founders J. and Lana, has been challenging, insightful, and fun. It has helped me unlearn the physical habits stemming from my injuries, and has made me stronger and more resilient, giving me better physical awareness, balance, and coordination. “

Pat R.

Instructors:

J A Granelli

A native of Northern California, J. has lived in Brooklyn for the last 34 years. Trained as a Jazz musician, J. came to Pilates through his wife, Bodycraft founder Lana Halvorsen as a way to manage his body and maintain good posture and alignment. After years as a student J. became certified by Kelly Kane at the Kane School in NYC.

He has studied extensively with master anatomists Irene Dowd and Amy Matthews as well as Upledger Cranial Sacral technique and Mayofascial Release Techniques with John Barnes.

J. is dedicated to the integration of mind and body as a way to feel grounded, stronger and sane in our ever more complicated world.

Mia Martelli is a New York City-based artist/teacher. Since 2019, she has provided Pilates services to clients of all ages and abilities through private consultations and fun, creative classes. Her background as a contemporary dancer exposed her to many somatic forms such as Alexander Technique, Feldenkrais, and Body-Mind Centering, all of which contribute to her layered, sensory-based approach to fitness. Mia’s work at Bodycraft Pilates, under the direction of Lana and J., has honed her intuitive and therapeutic gifts as a teacher. She enjoys creating a container to see clients – precisely put by Joseph Pilates – “return to life” through movement.

Mia continues to enjoy dancing, creating, and surfing. Pilates is the foundation that makes all of this possible.

Luciana Achugar has been a Pilates and Movement teacher in New York City since 1999 and was one of Bodycraft’s first Instructors. Luciana was born in Montevideo, Uruguay and graduated from the California Institute of the Arts with a BFA in Dance in 1995. Her teaching is grounded in an experiential and intuitive relationship to knowledge, anatomy and movement . Luciana trained with the PhysicalMind Institute and the Kane School as a Pilates teacher and is also highly influenced by diverse modalities such as Alexander Technique, Klein, Release, somatics, and her own choreographic research, and most importantly the years spent learning from every student

Luciana continues to teach and to make dances for which she received many accolades including two NY Bessie Awards for Choreography, a Guggenheim Fellowship and an Alpert Award. Most recently, in 2024, she graduated from Bennington College with an MFA in Dance.

Emily Fennell

Emily was introduced to Pilates over 15 years ago to enhance her ballet training. She studied Pilates, anatomy and kinesiology, as well as strength and conditioning while dancing at the Harid Conservatory, Bolshoi Ballet Academy, the Royal Danish Ballet, and Cleveland Ballet before receiving her Comprehensive Pilates certification from Power Pilates. She takes an intuitive approach to tailor each session to her clients particular needs. While teaching therapeutic strengthening movements at BodyCraft, Emily emphasizes muscle activation and alignment. Her goal is for clients to gain greater body awareness, muscle balance, and control.

Tricia Heywood

Trish is a passionate and dedicated Pilates instructor whose journey to teaching was deeply personal and transformative. Initially discovering Pilates as a vital component of her health treatment during her cancer recovery, Trish experienced firsthand the profound restorative and strengthening power of the practice. This foundation now serves as the core of her teaching philosophy. Beyond rehabilitation, Pilates has been a significant support in keeping Trish strong so that she can continue to pursue a love for high-energy sports like skiing and kiteboarding. Having taught for the past three years, Trish finds immense joy and reward in guiding others toward their own strength and mobility goals. She believes wholeheartedly that each body is unique, approaching each session as an opportunity to learn alongside her clients, ensuring personalized and effective instruction for all.

Teresa Tai

Teresa discovered Pilates after years of desk work and fell in love with the practice as she began to experience positive transformations – not only in her posture and core strength, but in her relationship to her body entirely. Her passion for intentional movement naturally blossomed into a desire to share it with others.

Today, Teresa teaches with warmth and compassion, treating each session as an opportunity to guide clients in an exploration of movement grounded in Classical Pilates principles. She is passionate about empowering each individual to connect with movement through awareness and intention, and to ultimately move through the world with more ease and confidence.

Testimonials

“Bodycraft is the oldest–that is, longest running–Pilates studio in Park Slope, and it’s certainly one of the best. Owner/founder Lana Halvorsen has been deeply immersed in movement therapy and fitness for over thirty years. Her experience and talent inspires physical therapists, chiropractors, and clients to speak her name in the kind of tone that conveys the deepest level of professional respect. I’m a veteran massage therapist/bodyworker myself, and I recommend her and her whole team without reservation.”

-Stuart Garber, Massage Therapist

“Lana is the soul of integrity as well as the most remarkably gifted practitioner of the Pilates Method…ever. My personal experience, as well as that of virtually every patient I have referred to her in her many years of practice, reflects this assertion.”

–Bill Walsh, Chiropractor

“I have wholeheartedly recommended my patients to Lana Halvorsen for over a decade. A gifted healer, Lana’s sensitivity and long-time experience make it possible for me to confidently refer even my most difficult cases, of all ages and conditions, with beautiful and reliable results. Several years ago, I, too, began to work with Lana, and can personally attest to the relief of symptoms her unique method has achieved.”

-Rachel Koenig, Aurora Healing Arts

“In addition to being a gifted movement expert, Lana takes tremendous pride in the work done in her studio. She guarantees that all Bodycraft instructors are at the top of their game. She is a brilliant teacher and every session is a new lesson and a fresh experience of learning more about the human body.”

–Cristiana K. Collins, PT, PhD, NCS

Pat R.

“Bodycraft is a calm healing refuge. I’ve been working with J for years, and in that time the strength, stability and flexibility I’ve developed has helped me withstand the effects of stresses and arthritis. I walk out healed, focused and stronger every week.”

Zan J.

“Bodycraft is far beyond a Pilates studio- it is a place of healing, growth, alignment, strength led by truly gifted body experts who guide you to deeply embodied self discovery. Whatever it is that brings you in, you will leave transformed by their nuanced instruction, getting the real gift of learning how to care for yourself outside of their beautiful space. I send anyone in pain, discomfort or simply desiring a future of physical ease to this magical place.”

Anna W.