Black Cat Studio
Meet Nosara’s Top Reformer Pilates Instructors
One method, every instructor. Every class at Black Cat is taught to the same high standard.
Alex
Founder · Lead Instructor
As the owner and founder of Black Cat Studio, Alex is the core of BCS. Her journey with Pilates began in 2010 as a college credit, but quickly evolved into a passion that would shape her future. After discovering Reformer Pilates at RTR studios in 2014, she knew she had found her calling. She completed her training with RTR that same year, later adding a Balanced Body certification in 2018. Her move to Nosara that year led to further expansion of her practice, including a 200 hour yoga teacher training certification at the Yoga Collective Nosara.
While teaching various movement modalities around Nosara since 2018, Alex’s vision was always clear: create a comprehensive fitness sanctuary that delivers the strength benefits of weight training, the flexibility of yoga, and the endurance of cardio, all in one welcoming space. This vision materialized as Black Cat Studio, where she brings her extensive experience and understanding of movement to a community she loves.
Alex designed BCS to be more than just a workout space. It is where functional strength meets mindful movement, where injuries are prevented rather than managed, and where lasting transformations happen. Her mission is to empower and instill confidence in others by building functional strength, rehabilitating limitations, and helping everyone achieve their unique fitness goals.
Mariel
Instructor
With a journey that began in nutrition and expanded into biomagnetism, Traditional Chinese Medicine, massage therapy, and movement, Mariel brings a truly holistic approach to the reformer. Her 2013 studies in Par Biomagnetism in Mexico deepened her understanding of how therapy, movement, nutrition, and emotional healing interconnect.
Since moving to Guiones in 2019 to embrace the active lifestyle of surfing and skating, she has found her calling in combining all aspects of wellness. Now, as a mother to a two year old, she brings a unique perspective on movement and healing to her classes. Insightful, empathetic, and fun, her sessions combine deceptively challenging sequences with mindful awareness.
Her belief that “your body always knows” guides students to discover their inner wisdom through movement, while her diverse background ensures a comprehensive approach to strength and wellness.
Kaillie
Instructor
Kaillie moved to Nosara from Toronto in 2022, trading Canadian winters for jungle life, a trade she is happy with.
She’ll tell you her career path makes more sense if you don’t look at it too closely. She has a kinesiology degree, worked in physiotherapy, and danced professionally for the Toronto Blue Jays in college. Then came optometry: she has owned a practice, is a Registered Optician in Canada, and now trains opticians at the college level. Movement, eyeballs and teaching, all in the mix.
She certified with Black Cat in 2025 and has taught since that August. Her classes are structured and fun, purposeful without being too serious. Kaillie always has a class plan, but she’ll never let you know just how much time and thought went into it.
In class she plays feel-good, upbeat music. She has always been a runner and always will be, part of why she finds Pilates so beneficial. When she’s not at the studio or on a run, she’s with Beans, her miniature long haired dachshund.
Lauren
Instructor
Lauren moved to Nosara from Detroit over five years ago.
She’s been teaching yoga and movement since 2015, running retreats and trainings in Costa Rica and internationally, and she’s a 500 hour E-RYT. She certified in reformer with Black Cat in 2025 and has taught reformer since May 2026.
Her class is fiery and upbeat with a killer playlist to match. Quick tempos, fast beats, and the energy stays up in the room.
She loves to dance.
Monica
Instructor
Monica is from San Jose and moved to Nosara in 2026. She’s been teaching since 2020, has managed yoga studios, holds a BFA in photography, and teaches in English and Spanish.
She trained at Kala Yoga in Brooklyn and at Three Jewels and CorePower in Manhattan, covering mat Pilates, power yoga, sculpt and meditation, then reformer with Black Cat in 2026.
She likes Pilates because it makes her pay attention, to her breath, to what her mind is doing, to what her body can actually do. What she likes about the reformer is how it adapts to any body, supporting and challenging you at once. Her advice is to trust your body, and trust you’re capable of hard things.
Music is a bit of everything, chill house through Latin rap, but Afrobeats always wins.
You
Black Cat Training
Every instructor above trained in the Black Cat Method. 70+ hours, ten people to a cohort, taught in Nosara.
Top trainees audition to teach here.
“I visited Black Cat while on vacation and wow. Alex and Tanya are incredible sources of knowledge and have a laid back approach, yet refined, specific and a unique technique unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. I’ve been on the reformer for over 13 years, 4-6 days a week, and the classes use the machine, pilates rings, bands, etc, in ways I had never even considered. Their knowledge and creativity in structuring a perfect class is unmatched.”
Kasie Ricart