DerBoghossian, owner and an instructor at Eleven Eleven Pilates, said the day after her grandma died last year, she went to the second floor of the Hamilton coffee shop True West to think and get space.
As she was sitting there on the Fourth of July, watching the parade below move through the rain, she noticed a space for lease across the street.
“I saw the space, and it was beautiful, and it just kind of felt like it was meant to be,” DerBoghossian said. “[My grandma] had just died. We were super close. I knew I needed to find my next venture.”
She said the idea for a Pilates studio had already been percolating for some time and seeing the empty storefront was her sign to go for it.
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
The name was even more of a sign, though.
Superstitiously, DerBoghossian said when she was growing up she learned that when the clock hits 11:11, you make a wish.
“You think of something positive and wish for better health or something good,” she said.
While she was visiting her hometown in California, five days after choosing the name, she walked with her mom up to their rental car where a “very tattooed man was waiting.”
On his neck was the tattoo 11:11.
“I’m like, ‘What does that mean for you?’” DerBoghossian said. ”And he goes, ‘Oh, it means you’re at the right place, at the right time, doing the right thing.’”
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
The doors officially opened 11 weeks ago, and since then, she’s had 45 to 60 classes per week.
DerBoghossian’s doesn’t have run-of-the-mill Pilates equipment, though. Hers is the third studio in the country and the only one in Ohio to have state-of-the-art Reform RX machines.
She said the company she bought them from, based out of Ireland, hired Ferrari to design and engineer them with the same fundamentals of a traditional reformer, but elevated.
“They’re smoother, they’re sleeker,” DerBoghossian said. “It’s an easier, user friendly experience. They don’t have the creeks of the wooden machine and springs. There’s just a lot more you can do with them.”
Also lining the wall of her studio are six smart machines with a self-guided option for people to track their progress and go at their own pace “like a Peloton.”
DerBoghossian said the smart machines are the first of their kind.
“I know that [my studio] is different than anyone’s I’ve ever been in, and I know that it’s a little more special, and it really is meant for people to come in and just get the best experience they can,” DerBoghossian said. ”I tell every class I teach, I say, ‘If someone hasn’t told you they’re proud of you yet, I am. I’m proud of you for being in here, for trying this and for choosing yourself.’"
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
The five monthly membership options range from $119 to $269 depending on the amount of classes offered. The class pack for 20 sessions is $500 and the 10 session option is $270.
She added that while Pilates is not an inexpensive thing to do, “once you get into it, it’s amazing for you, the benefits far outweigh whatever the cost is.”
DerBoghossian’s studio is open from 5 a.m.-noon and then 5:30-8:30 p.m. Monday and Wednesday.
Tuesday and Thursday from 6 a.m.-noon and then 5:30-8:30 p.m.
Fridays from 5 a.m.-noon and then 4:30-6:30 p.m.
She said one of the instructors is the athletic director at the nearby Spooky Nook Sports, another one’s been in fitness for 40 years and another is a cross country coach.
“I just have this wonderful, wonderful staff, and I think that there’s plenty of room for us to be here, along with with anyone else in the Pilates community, and I’m just generally excited and happy to be here,” DerBoghossian said.
She said the beauty of her studio is that someone can walk in for the first time with zero experience, and the person next to them could have been doing it for 12 years.
She’s had high school football teams come in to train as well as people with Parkinson’s disease.
“We’re able to modify [positions and workouts] on this huge spectrum and really come and meet everyone where they’re at, but then challenge them a little bit further,” DerBoghossian said.
In the future, she said she’ll use her outside seating and yoga area to host social events with other vendors to build more of a community.
WATCH VIDEO ONLINE
Find this article at journal-news.com to see video inside Eleven Eleven Pilates and hear from the owner.
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