We were lucky to catch up with Andrea Tutt recently and have shared our conversation below.

Andrea, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

In the summer of 2022 I got a call from a friend with a photo of a commercial studio rental, ready to go. I know one thing right away, act now. I had been searching for over a year for ‘that’ spot. I needed what most Pilates studios would desire; room for multiple reformers, prop storage, and good natural light. What this place provided on top of all that was a neighborhood of brand new independent shops, a great urban resurgent vibe, and a hopping deli/coffee shop below. This is it. I called. I connected. Two hours later I saw the newly built out space, like a blank canvas, with stunning historic windows pouring in the summer mid day light.
I must have gone pale. Or looked faint because the landlord asked if I was ok. The truth was I was terrified. This was it.

Two weeks later I dropped off the deposit and stood in this same beautiful, empty space. I took this photo. (included in submission) and shared on social media for the first time that my business finally had a home. It’s incredible to stand in an empty room and feel the potential of what will be. To know that the dream of holding space for connection, community, and joy is the foundation of a vision that would fill these walls.

I had more risky jumps before opening my doors to the public. I shared my dream with the bank who agreed to loan me the biggest amount I’d ever seen. I ordered 9 humongous Pilates reformer machines and an even bigger cadillac and hoped to god they would be able to get them up the stairs and through the doors (more on that crazy day later). I built a website, and branding, and opened social accounts. I started sharing my opening party details. One year ago.

It’s incredible how much you can grow and learn and change in one year. It’s been a wild, and risky ride. I can’t say that the risk is gone, but the connection started immediately, the beautiful community continues to develop and deepen, and the joy is unstoppable. Sometimes it really is about putting all of yourself into something special. I’m starting to feel the glow.

Andrea, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I started dancing later in life, late for a serious dancer, and that was defiantly me. I was committed from the first class. As I grew in my community it become clearer and clearer how much I had to work to catch up. It was the friends I made and the environment of love they created that kept me going. And I kept going until I had grown out of that space.

I moved away for university and struggled to find a new studio home. I found different places of connection, but one in particular that brought me back to myself – Pilates training . I studied for three years under Margo McKinnon in Toronto, and fully certified under Body Harmonics’s top tiered comprehensive program. I had found a new home within myself, and a practice I was passionate to share with others.

I continued to learn and teach and learn some more. Year long yoga certifications, retreats, teaching teachers, and eventually Feldenkrais somatic education, all while moving to two different countries, crossing the globe and back, and starting a beautiful family.

Mothering and working and moving and rigorously learning requires stamina. I changed communities often. I always found ways into community through the next studio. I’d look for the next space that brought people together in an honest and trusting environment to pursue a deeper relationship with themselves through movement. This is what has carried me through. This is what has taught me who I am and what I am here to share.

I am most proud of the diversity of training I have developed. The spread of my background from professional actor and dancer, to Pilates training, yoga certifications, and life long learning as a Feldenkrais/Bones for Life somatic educatorI feel like I have access to most people I encounter. I love working with the whole person (body, mind and soul) and feel that my various background gives me many tools to connect and establish meaningful rapport.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Starting a small business is everything. And anyone who’s close to anyone who has done this really understands what I’m talking about. You put your name on the line, and your family on the line, and at the end of the long and longer days the whole thing stops with you. When you get up in the morning, so does your business. When you go to sleep, so does your business. So when you stop caring for yourself and work 10-14 hour days, the business is what gets fuzzy, and the rest of your life does too.

I remember a moment I was putting together a open house and was borrowing catering gear from a friend. I got to her place way later then I’d said, ragged, under slept, and hadn’t eaten more that crackers in the car all day. She looked at me and asked if I was having fun. “You’re doing it!” she said. I just looked at her and started crying. I remember saying, ‘honestly, I don’t even want to do this anymore”. And I left, and set up the open house, and served the drinks and showed our amazing studio off, and then packed it all back up and came home.

This is the reality. You will go further then ever before. You will get bone tired, and then continue for another 6 hours. You will redesign your own capacity and then go further.

But the other truth about anyone who’s close to anyone who owns a business is that when your sweat and tears are mixed in with this, so are you. Deeply. You love it with you soul.

How’d you meet your business partner?

One of the most extraordinary aspects of creating a space is that you are opening up a portal to the heart of what you find nourishing. And the magic of this is that the people who resonate with that heart space will come.

Rebecca came into the Pilates studio in the early days. She was also on a soul journey of discovering what path would bring her closer to herself. She’d studied yoga and other movement modalities and was looking. I knew I’d met a pure heart the moment I met her. She came with honesty, and continues to hold that up as the first offer in everything she does with the studio.

Honesty brings trust. Rebecca was the first person I asked to trade at the studio (light work for free classes). We aligned immediately on the intensions of the space, and the aesthetics of the studio. Most importantly we agreed on the values of acceptance and love as the driving forces behind the development of the business. Faster then I could keep up, the next thing I knew she was organizing social, planning gatherings, connecting community, celebrating students, and seriously saving my life. To find a business partner is like searching for a needle in a haystack. It is serious alchemy that we found each other. I cannot image Attune with out her.

Contact Info

• Website: www.attunemove.com
• Instagram: @attunemovement
• Facebook: Attune Movement and Pilates