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From Scottish Ballet to Pilates Studio Owner: How Elise Built Precision Pilates in Less Than a Year
- Naomi Di Fabio
- Jul 23
- 4 min read
Elise grew up dancing. From a young age she trained with Scottish Ballet - the kind of physical education that shapes not just how you move but how you understand your body, what it's capable of, and what it costs.
What it cost Elise, eventually, was her hips.
The demands of dance training are cumulative. Years of specific, repetitive movement patterns take a toll in specific, predictable places, and for Elise, that place was her hips.
She needed something that could work with her body rather than against it. Something that could strengthen and mobilise what dance had tightened and compressed.
She found Pilates!
The practice that changed everything
What Elise discovered wasn't just a way to manage her hip pain. It was a different way of thinking about movement entirely.
"It allowed me to strengthen and stretch my hips in ways that dance alone couldn't," she says. "Helping me move more freely and without discomfort."
But it was more than physical relief. Pilates changed how Elise understood her own body - the relationship between strength and mobility, between control and freedom. For someone who had spent her whole life being told exactly how to move, it was a revelation to find a practice that asked her to understand why.
She practised for around two years before the thought became inevitable: she wanted to share this with other people.
Choosing where to train
When Elise started looking into Pilates instructor training, she heard the same name more than once.
"I kept hearing wonderful things about Naomi, both as an instructor and about the quality of her courses."
I love hearing this. The people who'd mentioned my name to Elise weren't trying to sell her anything, they were just telling her what they'd experienced. That's the only kind of recommendation that actually means something.
She completed her Reformer Pilates certification in June 2025, then her Level 3 Mat Pilates qualification shortly afterwards. Within months, she had both.
"Training with Naomi was an incredible experience. Her knowledge, teaching style, and genuine passion for helping her students succeed are second to none. From day one, she welcomed me into her wonderful Pilates community with open arms."
Teaching before owning
After qualifying as a Pilates instructor, Elise did the right thing. She went and taught.
Not straight into her own studio. Into someone else's, to gain experience and build her confidence in a real room with real clients. It's a step that gets skipped more often than it should: the rush from certificate to business without the unglamorous middle bit of learning what it actually feels like to teach when you're the one responsible for the class.
For Elise, that time mattered. It gave her something no qualification can fully provide: the felt sense of being a teacher.
And then an opportunity came along.
Precision Pilates
The vision was clear from the beginning. Not just a Pilates studio, a specific kind of studio.
"From the very beginning, I wanted Precision Pilates to feel different," Elise says. "My vision was to create a boutique studio that was welcoming, personal, and community-focused. Smaller class sizes meant I could really get to know my clients, provide individual attention, and create a space where everyone felt comfortable, supported, and part of something special."
On 5th October 2025, less than four months after completing her Reformer qualification, Precision Pilates opened its doors.
The response was immediate. The boutique approach landed exactly as Elise had hoped. Clients valued the intimate atmosphere, the personal attention, the sense that this studio existed for them rather than for volume.
By April 2026 , just six months after opening, the studio had expanded into the upstairs space. Reformer capacity increased to six beds. A dedicated Mat and Barre studio opened alongside it.
From an idea to a two-floor, thriving studio in under a year.
What ongoing support actually looks like
One of the things Elise mentions that I find most meaningful is this: she still gets in touch when she has questions.
"Even now, Naomi is always there whenever I have a question, no matter how big or small. Her support has continued long after I completed my training."
This matters to me. The relationship doesn't end when the assessment is submitted. The instructors who build something real are the ones who keep learning, who stay curious, who seek out new perspectives, who bring fresh ideas back to their clients rather than teaching the same class on repeat.
Elise does this deliberately. When she travels, she visits studios. Not as a tourist but as a professional. She watches how other instructors teach, how spaces are designed, what choices other studio owners make. She brings it back.
That's what it looks like to be a genuinely developing practitioner.
What Elise's story tells us
Elise came to Pilates because her body needed it. She trained because she wanted to give others what it gave her. She built a studio because she had a clear vision of what it could be.
None of that happened by accident. It happened because she took each step properly: practised before she trained, taught before she opened, learned before she led.
If you're reading this because you love Pilates and you've been thinking about teaching it, Elise's story isn't unusual. A significant number of the instructors I train come from movement backgrounds - dance, yoga, fitness - who found Pilates and couldn't imagine not sharing it.
What they all have in common: they didn't wait until everything felt perfectly aligned before starting. They started, and the alignment came.
Ready to take the first step?
If Elise's story resonates, if you recognise the feeling of wanting to share something that's changed how you understand your body, we'd love to talk.
Fearless Fitness Training Academy offers Level 3 Reformer Pilates and Level 3 Matwork Pilates instructor training across the UK and online.
Or if you're in Scotland and looking for a boutique Reformer Pilates studio, go take a class with Elise at Precision Pilates.
Fearless Fitness Training Academy delivers YMCA Awards accredited Pilates instructor training across the UK, in both in-person and live online formats, led by Naomi Di Fabio.
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