Robert Carruthers and Ashleigh Berry

Pilates Practitioners

Rob completed his degree in Exercise Science and Physiology in 2011 in New Zealand. After graduation, he moved to France to work a ski season and then onto London. There, he fell into teaching fitness-based Reformer Pilates classes in some of central London’s most popular studios, managing a number of them. After 12 months, he retrained for Clinical Pilates, to better focus on injury rehabilitation and began working in several physiotherapy clinics, and supported the medical staff at the Brentford Football Club. he also started to explore the exciting new world of Functional Neurology, training through the AMN Academy.

Upon moving to Melbourne in 2016, Rob was mentored by Industry Leader Bruce Hildebrand before opening up Movementality with Ash. Over the next 7 years, Rob refined his teaching focus to specialised in lower limb health and function, acute injury rehabilitation, and athletic conditioning. He still works happily with anyone in need though, and maintains an active interest in Functional Neurology, of which he does select sessions on demand. All of his sessions utilise a blend of top-down and bottom-up movement strategies, to ensure there is a healthy blend of cognitive and reflexive work, keeping clients minds and bodies limber! These intentional training decisions have catapulted Rob to the forefront of the Australian Pilates industry, regularly presenting across local and national education platforms.
 
Ash attended ballet class from the age of five and continued her dance training for another 16 years, completing her Honours in Dance at WAAPA in 2009. She worked as a dancer, choreographer, and teacher throughout Australia and Europe. She had dappled in Pilates but it wasn’t until she met Rob in London that she began pursuing it as a career. In 2016, they moved to Melbourne, and Ash completed her comprehensive training - together they founded Movementality a year later. Ash has since also completed her Graduate Diploma for Clinical Somatics and is a trained Dance Movement Therapist (DTAA Prov, Prof.).

During their 7 years running Movementality in Melbourne, Ash & Rob built their national reputations as industry thought leaders. In 2021, Ash joined the Australian Ballet School’s Health Team as a conditioning specialist and in 2023 she presented her research on Pilates in pregnancy for the Pilates Association Australia Conference. She has also presented for Microsoft, Myotherapy Association Australia and Tensegrity Training.

Ash blends her dance knowledge from working in her own body for 30 years, with her Pilates and Somatic Movement Therapy training to facilitate sessions for people that tackle chronic pain, injury rehabilitation, nervous system regulation and profound physical and emotional healing through movement.
 
During the 2020 COVID lockdowns in Melbourne, Rob and Ash leveraged the strong Movementality brand to create Movementality Education, a place for affordable yet world-class Pilates professional development. Since then, it has grown in to a national workshop series, run across different studios in Australia, blending in-person and online delivery methods to ensure anyone can access. All works are also recorded and uploaded for access anywhere, anytime. Keeping the workshops affordable while also ensuring the pracitioners are paid well, and still facilitating a community spirit has been a tricky juggling act, but one that has furthered their reputation as thought leaders in the Australian Pilates Industry.