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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20260918T170000
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SUMMARY:Studio Love Grand Opening Introduces a New Club
DESCRIPTION:Studio Love Grand Opening welcomes the community into a new women-owned Pilates\, yoga and social wellness club in Groton on Friday\, September 18\, with drinks\, bites\, live music and dancing from 5 to 8 p.m. and an official ribbon cutting at 6 p.m. \nBut founders Annie Chapman and Maggie Skinner are opening something they hope will be more than another place to squeeze in a workout. \nThe mother-daughter team has designed Studio Love around Pilates\, yoga\, meditation and mindful movement\, but also around something that can be surprisingly difficult to find in fitness spaces: a place where people actually want to stay. \nTheir philosophy is summed up in five words: \nLove is the root\, not the reward. \nA Mother and Daughter Build Their Own Studio\nChapman and Skinner aren’t newcomers to the local wellness community. \nBoth have spent years teaching yoga and Pilates\, and Studio Love brings their experience together at 70 Bridge Street in Groton. \nChapman is an E-RYT 500 yoga teacher whose training includes 300 hours through the Baptiste Institute and an additional 300 hours of Recovery Yoga training. \nSkinner combines yoga and Pilates training\, including 300 hours of Baptiste teacher training and comprehensive 800-hour Pilates teacher training. Her background also includes ballet and a particular interest in anatomy. \nNow mother and daughter are putting those experiences under one roof. \nStudio Love describes the new business as a “love letter to the community that raised us.” \nThe September 18 grand opening is the community’s first big invitation inside. \nThe Idea Starts With Changing How People Think About Exercise\nPlenty of fitness businesses promise results. \nStudio Love is asking people to reconsider what a result actually means. \nIts philosophy explicitly rejects exercise as punishment for what someone ate or as a transaction undertaken to earn a different-looking body. \nInstead\, Chapman and Skinner describe movement as a form of self-care and a way of making your body a more comfortable place to live. \nStrength still matters. \nSo do mobility\, balance\, endurance and proper technique. \nBut the goal isn’t to make people feel that the person walking through the door needs to be fixed before beginning. \nThat distinction influences how Studio Love describes nearly everything it offers. \nThe studio says its classes are intended for different ages\, body shapes\, backgrounds and experience levels\, including complete beginners and people returning to exercise after time away. \nPilates Goes Beyond the Mat\nPilates will be one of the major pieces of Studio Love. \nThat includes Reformer Pilates\, using the familiar sliding carriage\, springs\, straps and resistance system that allow exercises to be scaled in dramatically different ways. \nA reformer can add resistance to make a movement more challenging. \nIt can also provide assistance. \nThat’s one reason Pilates equipment can be useful across such a wide range of experience levels. \nStudio Love also incorporates Tower Pilates\, expanding the exercise possibilities through spring-loaded equipment and attachment points. \nFor people who prefer the simplest version\, mat Pilates remains part of the program as well. \nThe emphasis throughout is on controlled movement\, alignment\, mobility and functional strength rather than simply moving as quickly as possible. \nThere’s Plenty of Yoga\, Too\nYoga at Studio Love ranges from energetic to deliberately slow. \nAt the more athletic end are heated power and vinyasa-style practices. \nOther classes slow things considerably through approaches including slow flow\, restorative and yin yoga. \nThat gives members the ability to choose a practice according to what their body needs that day rather than treating every visit as another maximum-intensity workout. \nSome people may come to sweat. \nOthers may come because they’ve spent eight hours sitting at a desk and would simply like their back to forgive them. \nBoth belong. \nMeditation and Breathwork Are Part of the Club\nStudio Love’s definition of wellness extends beyond exercise. \nMeditation\, breathwork and other mindful practices are incorporated alongside Pilates and yoga. \nWorkshops and specialty programming can take that further\, with the studio planning experiences such as Yoga Nidra\, sound-focused practices\, guest instruction and educational workshops. \nStudio Love has also connected with Heartfulness\, an international nonprofit meditation organization\, to help interested members access complimentary Heartfulness Meditation experiences with trainers. \nIt’s another indication that the word “wellness” isn’t being used simply as a fashionable substitute for “fitness.” \nThe studio is trying to create a broader practice. \nWhy Call It a Social Wellness Club?\nThis may be the most interesting part of Studio Love. \nChapman and Skinner don’t want everyone grabbing their keys and disappearing the moment class ends. \nThe space is intentionally designed to let people linger. \nHave some tea. \nRefill a water bottle. \nAnswer an email. \nTalk to the person you’ve been practicing next to for the past month. \nSit for a few minutes before returning to the rest of the day. \nComplimentary tea and filtered water are part of the experience\, along with small touches such as infused water and cool lavender cloths following hot classes. \nThe idea is to create some of the social connection that can disappear when exercise becomes another appointment to complete as efficiently as possible. \nThat’s where the “social wellness club” description comes from. \nThe class is only part of the reason to walk through the door. \nBeginners Get Their Own Starting Point\nBoutique fitness can be intimidating. \nEveryone else appears to know where to stand. \nThey understand the equipment. \nThey know the terminology. \nAnd you’re quietly trying to figure out which way the mat goes. \nStudio Love has created a Start Here Series specifically to address that. \nThese classes emphasize foundations\, technique and slower instruction\, with room to ask questions and learn how things work. \nFrom there\, classes are organized partly by the experience someone wants. \nThe Power Series is faster and more athletic. \nThe Flow Series uses continuous\, intelligently sequenced movement at a more moderate pace. \nThe Restore Series slows things down with an emphasis on recovery\, mobility and relaxation. \nThe Feature Series is reserved for workshops\, pop-ups and specialty programming. \nThat structure gives someone a more useful question than simply\, “Do I want yoga or Pilates?” \nThe question becomes\, “What do I need today?” \nThere’s Even a Blind Date\nNew members can try Studio Love through something called the Blind Date Membership. \nIt’s a 14-day introductory program providing 55 credits and two guest passes. \nThe idea is to give someone enough freedom to experiment before deciding what they actually like. \nTry the reformer. \nTake a mat class. \nBring a friend. \nTry something else. \nStudio Love’s regular memberships operate on the same credit philosophy. \nRather than buying a membership that locks someone into one particular kind of class\, members receive monthly credits that can be spent across different Studio Love experiences. \nA Reformer class currently uses 15 credits. \nA mat class uses 10 credits. \nA workshop uses 15 credits. \nDrop-in classes are also available for people who don’t want a membership. \nThe Studio Is Designed to Grow With Its Members\nStudio Love says its schedule will include morning\, midday and evening options. \nMore importantly\, Chapman and Skinner aren’t treating the opening schedule as permanent. \nThey plan to add and adjust class times and formats according to what members actually use and request. \nThat’s a small but meaningful difference between opening a business with a predetermined formula and opening one intended to become part of a community. \nIf the 10 a.m. class fills and another time doesn’t\, they can respond. \nIf members want more restorative work\, the schedule can evolve. \nIf workshops prove popular\, there can be more of them. \nThe grand opening is the beginning rather than the finished product. \nThis Is Also Becoming a Yoga School\nStudio Love already has its next major project scheduled. \nBeginning in January 2027\, the studio will become home to Sangha Yoga School\, offering a Yoga Alliance-registered 200-hour yoga teacher training program. \nThe six-month program runs through June and combines monthly in-person training weekends at Studio Love with Wednesday evening online sessions. \nAnd it’s considerably broader than learning how to lead people through poses. \nThe curriculum includes yoga philosophy and origins\, anatomy\, alignment\, Ayurveda\, meditation\, Sanskrit\, chanting\, restorative yoga\, yin\, teaching methodology and assisting. \nDaily spiritual practice and community are built into the program as well. \nChapman is the school’s founder and lead instructor. \nSkinner serves as a lead instructor with an emphasis on anatomy. \nThe program is open not only to aspiring yoga teachers but also to people who want to deepen their own practice without necessarily planning to teach. \nSangha Explains a Lot About Studio Love\nThe word sangha traditionally refers to a community devoted to spiritual practice. \nThat makes it an appropriate name for the school\, but it also helps explain the larger Studio Love concept. \nChapman describes returning to yoga following the death of her mother and needing both a safe place to land and a community. \nThat experience informs what she is trying to create now. \nExercise can be individual. \nCommunity can’t. \nA reformer\, yoga mat or meditation cushion may be the tool that gets someone into the building\, but Studio Love’s larger ambition is to make people feel that they belong once they arrive. \nThe Grand Opening Is the Easy Way to See It\nNobody needs to understand Pilates before walking into the September 18 celebration. \nYou don’t need to own a yoga mat. \nYou don’t need to know the difference between vinyasa and yin. \nAnd you’re not being asked to demonstrate anything involving flexibility in front of strangers. \nThe grand opening is a party. \nFrom 5 to 8 p.m.\, Studio Love will welcome visitors with drinks\, bites\, live music and dancing. \nAt 6 p.m.\, the official ribbon cutting will mark the opening with the Greater Mystic Chamber of Commerce and City of Groton. \nIt’s an opportunity to see the space\, meet the people behind it and find out what they’re offering without committing to a class. \nAnd for Chapman and Skinner\, it’s a chance to introduce the community to something they’ve clearly thought about beyond the equipment and class schedule. \nA New Kind of Fitness Space for Groton\nThere are plenty of places where you can exercise. \nStudio Love is betting that people are looking for something more specific. \nGood instruction without intimidation. \nChallenging movement without punishment. \nPilates without requiring someone to already understand a reformer. \nYoga without requiring someone to already be flexible. \nA quiet practice when that’s what you need. \nA sweaty one when that’s what you want. \nAnd perhaps a cup of tea and another human being to talk to when class is over. \nThat’s a considerably larger ambition than opening another workout studio. \nOn September 18\, Groton gets its first look. \nDetails\nEvent: Studio Love Grand Opening\nDate: Friday\, September 18\, 2026\nTime: 5–8 p.m.\nRibbon Cutting: 6 p.m.\nLocation: Studio Love\nAddress: 70 Bridge Street\, Groton\, CT 06340\nFounders: Annie Chapman and Maggie Skinner\nBusiness: Women-owned Pilates\, yoga and social wellness club\nGrand Opening Activities: Drinks\, bites\, live music and dancing\nRegular Offerings: Reformer and apparatus Pilates\, mat Pilates\, yoga\, meditation\, breathwork\, workshops and specialty programming\nBeginner Options: Start Here Series provides slower\, foundational instruction for newcomers and those returning to movement\nIntroductory Offer: Blind Date Membership provides new clients with 55 credits for 14 days and two guest passes\nClass Credits: Reformer classes use 15 credits; mat classes use 10; workshops use 15\nVeterans: Studio Love offers a 10% veteran discount with valid identification\nMat Rentals: $2 for mat-based classes; no equipment is required for apparatus Pilates classes\nContact: 860-530-4800\nEmail: namaste@studiolovecollective.com\nComing in 2027: Sangha Yoga School’s Yoga Alliance-registered 200-hour teacher training begins in January \nMore information is available at the Event Website link below. \n  \nFeatured image is an artistic representation inspired by the event and may not depict the actual people\, location\, or activities shown.
URL:https://thectbeacon.com/event/studio-love-grand-opening-introduces-a-new-pilates-yoga-and-social-wellness-club-to-groton/
LOCATION:Studio Love Groton\, 70 Bridge Street\, Groton\, 06340\, United States
CATEGORIES:Studio Love Groton
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