The Pilates LAB owner and principal teacher, Beth Elkins Wales, was originally a dancer, teacher and choreographer. Beth holds a B.A. in Dance Performance and Mind Body Techniques from Empire State College and co-directs nimbus dance with her husband, architect Brad Wales.

Elkins Wales has been teaching Pilates since 2001. She mentored in Buffalo with Patricia Farkas-Sprague at Body One Studios and is a graduate of Core Dynamics Pilates in Sante Fe, New Mexico.  Beth studied with former Core Dynamics’ Director Michele Larsson and current CD owner Kevin Bowen. She has attended seminars with Pilates elders Kathy Stanford Grant, Ron Fletcher, and Lolita San Miguel, as well as master teachers Brent Anderson, Eric Franklin, Rachel Taylor Alpers, Debora Kolwey, Suzanne Gutterson, and Julian Littleford, among others.

Ms. Elkins Wales was invited to teach Pilates at the Human Movement Conference in Santa Fe for the past four years.  From 2010-2012, she was on faculty of Canisius College and taught Mat Pilates to many athletes through their Dance Department. She has worked with the Inferno 18u Softball Team and the Pre-Professional figure skaters at the Jamestown Skating Club. Beth has taught Master Dance and Pilates classes at the University at Buffalo’s Dance and Theater Department.

Beth was on the faculty of Chautauqua Institution’s Dance Department for five years, where she served as Ballet Mistress to the pre-professional Festival Dancers, under the direction of Jean-Pierre Bonnefoux. She taught at the American Academy of Ballet, Buffalo Inner City Ballet, Neglia Conservatory of Ballet, and for Pick of the Crop’s Seedling Company. Beth was the Director of the Chautauqua Regional Youth Ballet from 1996-2000.  

Her specialized movement experience began in high school at the Center of Ballet & Dance Arts in Syracuse, New York and continued at the schools of Boston Ballet, Milwaukee Ballet, and at the New York State Summer School of the Arts in Saratoga Springs, NY. She danced professionally for the Milwaukee Ballet; BalletMet in Columbus, Ohio; and Toronto’s Xing Ballet. In Buffalo she performed with Neglia Ballet Artists, Pick of the Crop Dance, Janet Reed & Dancers, and Buffalo City Ballet.  Beth and Brad founded nimbus dance in 2005, with dancers Jennifer Golonka and Kerry Ann Ring, to address current event issues in site-specific venues, such as the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, the Burchfield-Penney, Silo City (with Torn Space), Asbury Hall, and Gallery 164.

Ms. Elkins Wales is currently furthering her movement studies by pursuing a Cancer Exercise Specialist Certification.  She is also on the international team of Core Dynamics Teacher Trainers and The Pilates LAB is a Core Dynamics Teacher Training studio.