Our Team
Melissa Stewart-Kern: Owner of ON CORE StudioA lifelong dancer, my professional career was cut short when I sustained a severe back injury. As part of my own rehabilitative process, I experienced the transformative effects of Pilates, Yoga, and GYROTONIC® exercises firsthand. This led to my own continued study and work as a teacher in the San Francisco Bay Area for many years. In 2005, I was thrilled to open my own studio, ON CORE – Maui’s first comprehensive Pilates, GYROTONIC® and yoga studio. While I’m a strong proponent of movement as part of the rehabilitative process, I also believe that a body in motion and balance is essential to the prevention of illness and injury and ultimately, to achieving a unified body, mind, and spirit. Over the past fifteen years, I’ve been lucky to work with and be trained by some of the world’s most renowned practitioners, including physical therapist, Jane Chic, Pilates master Madeline Black, Iyengar Yoga instructors Alan and Jaki Nett, and GYROTONIC® master trainer, Keli Fine and founder Juliu Horvath. Additionally, I have a BA in Modern Dance and Psychology from Mills College in California and have completed extensive coursework in kinesiology, spinal and sacral biomechanics, anatomy and physiology. Throughout my many years of teaching, I’ve had the opportunity to work with hundreds of people at all levels – from longtime practitioners to absolute beginners. Sessions at ON CORE are fun but focused, accessible but rigorous. I believe that each person is his or her own best teacher and I work to facilitate your own highest experience. The body is transformed when aligned with the mind and spirit, and ON CORE is a safe, nonjudgmental, and open place to explore this transformation. I look forward to working with you! Melissa Martha Cotten
Martha grew up dancing Ballet, Tap & Jazz and has a fondness for the moving arts, yoga and meditation. Martha has been studying yoga since 1994, and has been certified and teaching Bikram Yoga nationally since Spring 2002. Martha also holds Pilates Mat, Reformer, Cadillac & Auxillary certifications from A Body of Work’s Integrated Teacher Training Program (ITT) studying under Jean Sullivan and Madeline Black in San Francisco, California (2005-2008). Martha has been studying GYROTONIC ® with Melissa Stewart-Kern since 2006, and is beginning her pre-training for GYROTONIC ® instructor certification with ON CORE Studio’s Virginia Holte in 2010. Martha is also an Aesthetician and Aesthetician Instructor here in Maui. She has been doing Aesthetics since 2003, and has worked at world renowned spas such as the Grand Wailea’s Spa Grande and The Waihua Spa of The Ritz-Carlton Kapalua. Martha is also the proud mother of her baby boy, Jayden, who was born in May 2009 (She went into labor right after her last Pilates/GYROTONIC ® workout with Auntie Melissa!!) Other than Yoga, Pilates and GYROTONIC ®, Martha enjoys spending time with her wonderful husband and family, traveling the world, hiking, swimming, reading, and appreciating nature. Angelika Dickeson’s passion for the movement arts has been strong her entire life She began with classical ballet training at an early age in her home country of Germany, and soon was exploring jazz and modern dance before she was 13 years old. After taking time to raise her only son, she fervently began pursuing dance once again when she moved to Maui, Hawaii in 1998. She quickly was accepted as a lead dancer in the modern, hip hop dance group, “Function,” and was a part of several public performances, including one large dance review at The Iao Valley Theater in 2000. It was after this that she experienced a minor knee injury which influenced her to give up classic ballet and modern dance. Instead, she developed an interest in Pilates and Yoga. She began studies with Anita Jackson, a renowned New York Pilates dance instructor, in 2003, and eventually continued studying with Caleb Rhodes, a respected instructor with years of experience. In 2007, Angelika participated in Ellie Herman’s Teacher Training program, and subsequently, began teaching Pilates on her own. In 2005, she began a more in-depth study of yoga with the incomparable Mirka Kraftsow, taking several intensive workshops and retreats under Mirka’s personal tutelage. She has also studied with another Maui yoga luminary, Ted Surman. Pilates ultimately helped heal her knee totally, and she has been injury-free since 2005. She attributes her healing success to intensive Pilates core work, hip alignment exercises, and the overall conscious body awareness Pilates provides. Angelika’s passion for dance has blossomed into a strong interest in healing others, which can be seen in the way she teaches her classes, interacts with students, and helps others when in need. Amy Fechter has been practicing yoga since 2003 And is passionate about studying all aspects of yoga especially the philosophy, history and metaphysical qualities. Her background is primarily Vinyasa Flow and Anusara; she has completed teacher trainings in both styles in Miami, Florida and Hollywood, California. Amy’s study of Tantra, literally meaning loom, has taught her that yoga stretches the mind and heart, that the world is free, everything is divine, that yoga is a way of living life playfully while recognizing the sacred quality of gestures, choices and relationships. For Amy, yoga is more than the beautiful asana practice; yoga is a way of engaging life with an open heart and interacting with the world with an open and humble mind. Virginia Holte is the Founder and Artistic Director for West Hawaii Dance Theatre and Guest Instructor/Choreographer for The Maui Academy of Performing Arts
A Third Series Practioner of Ashtanga Yoga, Ms. Holte is also certified in the Pilates Method. Virginia currently holds the following GYROTONIC® Expansion System Course Certifications:
Ms Holte is also an authorized GYROTONIC® Pre-Trainer and GYROKINESIS® Pre-Trainer and is a GYROKINESIS® Master Trainer Candidate. Ms. Holte’s classes are taught with care and consideration to each individual’s needs. http://www.whigyrotonic.com
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Martha grew up in Florida and ventured to Maui in 2002. She holds a Bachelors of Science, with Honors, in Elementary Education from the University of South Florida (1997) and a Masters of Education, with Honors, from Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida (2003). 
A Graduate of The Academy of the Washington Ballet in Washington, D.C. under the Direction of Mary Day, Ms Holte enjoyed a long career as a Professional Dancer with the Washington Ballet, Chicago Ballet, Indianapolis Ballet Theatre, and Guest Dancer for companies such as Ballet Internationale, Infinity Ballet, and Indiana Ballet Theatre N.W. before moving to the The Big Island of Hawaii in 1986.
