Pilates instructor Caitlin Cook remembers the moment she knew movement would be a part of her life forever.

“When I was nine years old, I tried to quit dancing,” she said. “My friend was taking cello lessons, so I was like, I’m going to take cello lessons. I was terrible, and I didn’t like to practice, and I just wasn’t into it. I remember being in the car with my mom and I said, Mom, I have to go back to dance. That was it for me.”

A career in dance led Ms. Cook to Pilates, which she has been teaching on the Island since she moved here in 2008. Her studio, Body Snack, now has a permanent home at 510 State Road in West Tisbury, former home to marijuana dispensary Fine Fettle.

In her new space, Ms. Cook has begun to host various classes with and without equipment for different experience levels. There’s enough floor space to work with eight people at a time.

Ms. Cook moved to the Island full time in 2008. — Jeanna Shepard

“This really is the first time I have rented my own space where I have my own door, so it feels like my space that I could do whatever I wanted with, and that is very powerful,” she said.

Ms. Cook grew up in Cambridge and as a child spent her summers on the Vineyard. She was introduced to Pilates during her first semester as a dance major at SUNY Purchase College. It was a required class for her degree and came at a key moment as she was injured and couldn’t dance.

Pilates and dance quickly became support systems for each other. Ms. Cook graduated from college classically trained in ballet and modern dance, and continued her dance career in New York City and California. She also became certified to teach Pilates under the Eve Gentry and Romana Kryzanowska style of Pilates.

“I really appreciate the core principles of the technique of Pilates, like breath, centering, precision, alignment, coordination, flow and energy,” she said. “I like taking those principles and holding them in line with whatever movement is happening so that people can realize it’s not what you’re doing that matters as much as how you’re doing that.”

“Pilates takes me back to keeping a focus on myself in some ways and so it centers me, and it reminds me how to breathe,” she added. “It’s helped me to live in a more positive frame for my life.”

New studio is the former home of Fine Fettle. — Jeanna Shepard

The new studio has been a longtime dream finally achieved, she said.

“Here I have an opportunity to present myself and the work that I’ve done up to now and put it into something that is transferable to other people,” she said.

In addition to Pilates and teaching dance, Ms. Cook is a certified Zero Balancing practitioner, which focuses on energy flow throughout the body. She is also an avid surfer.

One of the best parts about being an instructor is the transfer of knowledge between student and teacher, she said.

“I continue to learn from my clients all the time,” she said. “I don’t think that there’s ever a moment where you could stop learning. So what [Pilates] creates is this beautiful environment for learning.”

Ms. Cook wants Islanders to know that Body Snack welcomes everyone of all levels.

“I’m very into helping people to work on their alignment and how they’re doing the exercises, so I have a big attention to detail,” she said. “But I also want people to have fun. It’s my hope that all kinds of different people can come here.”