MOVA Studios set to open in Hargrave House, Acomb

MOVA Studios is set to welcome its first visitors during an open day on Saturday (May 16).  

The business will offer Reformer Pilates, Mat Pilates and Yoga, alongside a Run Club, in classes which will begin on Monday (May 18) at Hargrave House, in Boroughbridge Road, Acomb.

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It was founded by York-based Pilates instructor Ruby McTough, who will bring her years of experience in the mind-body exercise to sessions at the studio.

The studio will offer Reformer Pilates, Mat Pilates, Yoga and a Run Club (Image: MOVA Studios)

She explained: “How you feel in your body and how you feel in your life are the same thing.

“What you put into yourself, you carry back out into your day. What you put into your community, you feel inside the studio.

“We want MOVA to live in both places, and to live there with our members.”

Aside from the sessions, MOVA has been building links with independent York businesses ahead of its opening.

“What you put into yourself, you carry back out into your day” (Image: MOVA Studios)

Partners include York Gin, York Distillery, Wardrobe Angel, Bothy Botanical, Avorium and Brancusi, with MOVA members able to receive small benefits at each business.

Ruby said the partnerships were about strengthening connections rather than offering discounts.

She said: “Community doesn’t end at our front door. York is full of people putting their whole hearts into what they make.

“We want our members to know them, and we want them to know us. That’s how a studio becomes part of a place, instead of just a place inside it.”

Tom at Avorium said that York is “at its best” when independent businesses look out for one another.

He added: “That’s exactly the spirit we feel from MOVA. We’re proud to be one of their first Local Love partners.”

MOVA is offering a Founders Membership for first-time visitors (Image: MOVA Studios)

A Founders Membership is now available for those who want to join the studio from the outset.

Ruby said: “We’re starting with the people who choose to start with us.

“Whatever MOVA becomes, the founding members are part of how it got there. That story doesn’t get written twice.”

First-time visitors can try MOVA with a £35 introductory three-class pass.

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