Bodyworks Youniversity will be hosting an Open House 2–4 p.m., Sunday, May 30, in the American Legion Hall to celebrate owner Kim Butters 20 year business anniversary. Pilates demonstrations, chair massages, children’s yoga and biofeedback scans, along with refreshments and door prizes, will be offered.

Butters was a middle school teacher in Marion County for nine years. Stress contributed to her being overweight and inflexible. “I was miserable, had low self-esteem, and trouble keeping up with my husband on hikes. A neighbor convinced me to go to an aerobics class with her. I loved it and began to pursue a more enjoyable, healthy life,” she said. She became an AFAA certified Personal Trainer and Group Instructor in 2001 and left the Marion County School system to start her own fitness business from her home.

She would soon discover Pilates, her true passion, at Barking Legs Theater in Chattanooga. “Pilates instructors seemed to have a different—a more healing understanding—of the body. I wanted that,” she said.

She became a certified Pilates instructor in 2005 and a Pilates Method Alliance certified Instructor in 2010. Butters has been teaching fitness classes onsite and online for Chattanooga State since 2001. She was invited to teach in the Sewanee community by a Sewanee alum taking her Chattanooga State Pilates Class in 2007. Butters started teaching Pilates and doing personal training in the Fowler Center two days a week and became full time in 2014. She also teaches Beginning Pilates as a PE class at the University of the South.

As the allotted time in the dance studio at Fowler quickly filled, and a waiting list for private and duet sessions began to form. Butters felt led to open her own studio. Butters met with Frank Gladu, Special Assistant to the Vice Chancellor in charge of the Village Development Project, in February 2016 to build a studio. The project received final approval from the University in early 2020 but was put on hold due to Covid.

Liza Sweeting, a University student and PMA certified Pilates instructor joined Bodyworks in 2018. When the Fowler Center closed to the public in March 2020, Butters and Sweeting continued to teach classes via Zoom and in Angel Park. Butters discovered the front porch of her home was just wide enough for two Pilates Reformers with the social distancing of 6 feet.

Since moving to the Legion Hall in September 2020, Bodyworks has added a full time massage therapist Matthew Sias, a holistic lifestyle coach, yoga and Zumba instructor Lauren Laurino, and Pilates instructor Bruce Manuel. Office Manager Susan Horton, bookkeeper Mary Lynn Sartain and social media director Isabelle Puckette help keep the business side of Bodyworks running smoothly.