MEET STEPHANIE ROSS-RUSSELL
A life in movement
From principal dancer to fascia-informed educator. Thirty years of training, injury, recovery and teaching that led here, to Lagos.
The thread that connects everything.
In 2015, Stephanie began studying fascia, the connective tissue system that envelops every muscle, bone, nerve and organ in the body.
She became a certified FAMO Fascia Movement® Practitioner, and later a Senior Educator for art-of-motion, among the first teachers in the UK to bring this practice to students.
"Fascia science reframes Pilates, Yoga, breath and movement not as separate disciplines, but as different ways of working with the same integrated system."
This understanding now runs through every class, retreat, and course she teaches.
1980s–1995
London.
Where it began.
I grew up in London and trained as a contemporary dancer at the London Contemporary Dance School, graduating with a BA (Hons) in Contemporary Dance.
I joined the London Contemporary Dance Theatre as a principal dancer and was a founding member of the Richard Alston Dance Company.
In 1995 an ankle injury brought my performing career to an end. What followed was not a retreat from movement, but a deepening of my relationship with it.
I became fascinated by how the body works, how it compensates, how it heals, and how it can be strengthened without being broken.
I retrained as a Pilates instructor at the Alan Herdman Studios in London and at the same time also qualified as a Sports Massage Therapist at the London School of Sports Massage, with Mel Cash.
1996–2011
Lisbon & The Hague.
A learning and teaching path.
My Anglo-Portuguese heritage - mother Portuguese, father English - meant Portugal has always been home. Love took me to Lisbon, where I worked in the city’s leading Pilates studio for over twelve years and began teaching personal training alongside group classes.
In 2003 I encountered Yoga (specifically Iyengar-based Dynamic Hatha Yoga with Carlos Rui Ferreira, a student of BKS Iyengar) and what began as curiosity became a lifelong dedication. I ran my own Yoga studio in Lisbon for two years.
In 2009 my family and I moved to The Hague, where I trained intensively in the Classical Authentic Pilates Method with Catarina Palma, and was invited to teach at her top-tier studio.
2011-2026
Oxford.
Community, and a turn towards fascia.
Then came Oxford, where for fifteen years my husband Tiago and I built a community of students who came back week after week because they genuinely felt the difference in their strength, their posture, their energy, and their everyday lives.
It was during these years that my path took the turn that now shapes everything I teach.
Since 2015 I have been studying fascia and I became a certified FAMO Fascia Movement® Practitioner (formerly Slings Myofascial Training®), the first teacher in the UK to do so.
Today I am a Senior Educator for art-of-motion ↗, the birthplace of FAMO, teaching Anatomy Trains in Motion and FAMO® courses internationally and forming part of the art-of-motion educator training team.
2026 →
Lagos.
An arrival.
In 2026 we came home to Portugal, opening the MOVE Studio in Lagos, where we now live.
This chapter feels like an arrival: a larger space, a warmer climate, and a community that is growing in every direction, both locally, and online across the world.
Whether you're in the Algarve or anywhere in the world, there's a place for you here, at the MOVE Studio, in an online class, or come and find us.
PROFESSIONAL DANCE • EDUCATOR OF EDUCATORS • FASCIA • PILATES • YOGA • BREATH WORK
Credentials
- Founder, Movement For Living Well
- Senior Educator, art-of-motion FAMO & Anatomy Trains in Motion
- Certified FAMO Fascia Movement® Practitioner
- LPF (Low Pressure Fitness) Certified Trainer
- Psychological Fitness Specialist®
- Anatomy Trains in Motion 1 & 2, Michael Watson
- Myofascial Training, CPM Karin Locher
- Certified Yoga Instructor, CPY Lisbon
- Certified Pilates Studio & Mat Work Instructor, Alan Herdman
- Certified Sports Massage Therapist, LSSM, London
- The Great Yoga Wall® Instructor
- BA (Hons) Contemporary Dance, LCDS
- Scholarship Award, SUNY Purchase University, New York