Still Water StudioYoga & Pilates · LlandaffLlandaff

Teachers

Four teachers. Find the one who suits you.

People stay with a studio because of a teacher, not a timetable. Each of the four has their own page here: their training, how they teach, the classes they take and what they help with privately. Read them, pick one, and the schedule will tell you when they teach.

Eleri Hughes, a Welsh woman in her late forties with long grey-streaked hair tied back, in a soft sage linen top, seated cross-legged in a bright studioYoga, the beginners' course, anxiety

Eleri Hughes

500-hour yoga teacher, breathwork and trauma-informed training. Here since 2018

12 classes a week; quiet, exact, never rushes the end

Opened the studio in 2018 after fifteen years teaching in church halls around Cardiff and a long training in India and Devon. Eleri teaches the hatha and yin classes, the beginners' course and most of the Sunday workshops, and is the reason the end of every class here is five minutes of stillness that nobody cuts short. She also teaches the staff of two local hospices, which shapes how she teaches everyone else.

  • Hatha, slow flow and yin
  • The six-week beginners' course
  • Private sessions for nervous starters
  • Sunday restorative and breathwork workshops
Book with Eleri
Sam Driscoll, a man in his late thirties with short dark hair and a beard in a plain grey t-shirt, standing beside a Pilates reformer in a pale studioMat and reformer Pilates, sport

Sam Driscoll

Classical Pilates certification, sports rehabilitation diploma. Here since 2019

10 classes a week; precise, dry, counts in a low voice

A former physiotherapy assistant and club rugby player who found Pilates through a back injury and trained classically in London. Sam teaches the open and strong mat and reformer classes and most of the men who come here, and is the teacher the physios in Llandaff send their runners and cyclists to. He will tell you where your pelvis is in a voice you will hear in your sleep.

  • Open and strong mat Pilates
  • Open and strong reformer
  • Pilates for runners, cyclists and rugby
  • Private sessions for sporting injuries
Book with Sam
Nia Bevan, a woman in her early thirties with dark curly hair in a cream wrap top, standing by a studio window with a bolster under her armPregnancy, postnatal, gentle Pilates

Nia Bevan

Contemporary Pilates, pregnancy yoga diploma, trained with a midwife. Here since 2020

8 classes a week; warm, unhurried, remembers the babies' names

Came to the studio as a pregnant student in 2019 and joined as a teacher the following year after training in pregnancy yoga and contemporary Pilates. Nia teaches the pregnancy course, the postnatal classes and the gentle mat classes, and does the private pelvic-floor work that nobody else in the area seems to offer. Her mother is a physiotherapist, which shows.

  • The six-week pregnancy course
  • Postnatal Pilates with the baby
  • Gentle Pilates for backs and new mothers
  • Pelvic floor privately
Book with Nia
Ruth Mackay, a woman in her early sixties with short white hair in a navy long-sleeved top, seated on a mat with a hand on a singing bowlReformer, backs, the over-sixties, sound baths

Ruth Mackay

Thirty years of Pilates teaching, reformer certification, sound therapy training. Here since 2018

9 classes a week; calm, authoritative, the one who fixed your back

Taught Pilates for thirty years, the last seven here, and runs the reformer room and the Wednesday over-sixties class. Ruth is the teacher people are sent to for a back or a knee that has been through the system, and the one who trained in sound therapy and now fills the studio once a month for the Sunday sound bath. She has no plans to retire and we have no plans to let her.

  • Reformer foundations
  • Mobility and gentle yoga for the over-sixties
  • Private reformer sessions for backs and knees
  • Sunday sound baths
Book with Ruth
  • 34classes a week, none over fourteen
  • 4teachers, each with their own page
  • 410regulars on a pass
  • 4.9average rating

Training and care

What stands behind the four of them.

Trained, insured, registered

Every teacher holds a recognised teaching qualification (500-hour yoga, classical or contemporary Pilates, reformer certification), is insured to teach, first-aid trained, and DBS checked because teenagers and vulnerable adults come here.

Consent, every class

Teachers ask before any hands-on adjustment, every class, every time, and the coin on the mat means not today. All four have done trauma-informed training; Eleri teaches it.

Specialisms that are real

Nia trained with a midwife for pregnancy work; Ruth has thirty years on the reformer and a sound therapy diploma; Sam has a sports rehabilitation diploma; Eleri has breathwork and hospice training. Nobody here teaches outside what they trained in.

Physios, GPs and midwives

We work with two physiotherapists in Llandaff and Canton and take referrals with a note; we report back if you want. We will also say when it is a physio you need and not us.

A pregnancy yoga class with three women in their thirties seated on bolsters in a bright studio with a teacher

Choosing

If you are not sure which teacher, say what you want and we will say who.

A bad back and nervous of groups: Ruth, privately, then her Wednesday class. A runner with a hip: Sam. Pregnant: Nia, the course. Never done any of it and would rather learn slowly with others: Eleri, the beginners' course. Want to be worked: Sam's strong Pilates or Eleri's strong flow. Want to stop: Eleri's yin, Ruth's sound bath. Email what you want in two lines and whoever reads it will tell you honestly, including when the answer is a class that costs less.

Book a class, or ask

Your first class is £8. Read the first-visit page, then come.

Any gentle or open mat class, mats and props provided, the teacher told you are new, and the kinder version of every pose offered without being asked. Book in the app, send the form, or walk in ten minutes early; the desk is open half an hour before each class.

Book a first classThe first visit