Our Teachers
Our teachers are the foundation of our community, and deeply passionate about what they do and their craft. Each comes from a unique movement background and has years of experience and training professionally and personally in their own movement journey — from physical therapy to contemporary dance and CrossFit. Many have trained and worked with some of the world’s most innovative teachers in the movement field.
Matt Bernstein - FOUNDER
I started teaching at CrossFit Steamboat in 2008 after receiving my BS in Kinesiology and have taught thousands of people how to move. I founded Ape Co for one simple reason: to remind everyone that you are much more capable in your body than you think is possible. I wanted a home where everyone could have the same breakthroughs that I had and do it together in the community. I believe Movement is the key to a happy, healthy, and alive life!
I was formerly a professional firefighter and ski patroller, trained actors including Oscar Isaac (Star Wars, Dune) and Jake Lacy (The Office, White Lotus). I taught Ido Portal’s US seminars and events as a lead teacher, worked for CrossFit HQ, and am currently a student of Marcello Pallozo’s Human Movement Studies Program. I am happily married and have 3 crazy moving kids.
In my free time I love to climb, ski, move, camp, work on my land in the mountains near Ward, CO, and share this beautiful life with my family. Ape Co and the people here have changed my life in so many ways, and I’m so thankful.
Dr. robert adams
Robert is inspired by how the body moves. He loves to work with the body’s individual parts and explore how it can move together as a whole. He is a Doctor of Physical Therapy and has over 10 years of teaching experience. Robert was first introduced to Ape Co in 2016 through his love of hand balancing and has been hooked ever since. He loves combining his experience as a physical therapist and movement teacher to create individualized progressions for skills and movements in his classes and one on one with students. Robert also uses is background as a physical therapist to work with injuries and proactively help students to prevent getting injured in their training. He also uses his knowledge of the body to inform how to progress exercise variations to help his students work through plateaus.
daniel flores
Daniel is truly an Ape Co original. He began as a student back in 2016 and has evolved along with the community ever since. He has been teaching since 2019 and is always working to refine himself as a leader.
He is a deep thinker and a passionate, creative practitioner. He originally began his movement practice as a way to break into dance as an adult and is very drawn to the world of creative movement. He loves to tinker with concepts and create ways to approach self-treatment of injury, build catalysts to exploration, and live an example that a physical life is a way to thrive in our complicated and challenging world.
When he’s not overthinking what to write in his bio, he loves to cook, engage in enriching conversation, and get lost in his search for the perfect playlist curations.
Jacob Robertson
Jacob started as a childhood tri-athlete and eventually formed a life around extreme sports including BMX biking and high level, competitive snowboarding in both racing and freestyle. The dream of becoming a professional was cut short after a series of minor, yet illuminating, injuries that left Jacob seeking something more sustainable. Through the movement practice he has not only healed those injuries but has rendered his scoliosis largely irrelevant, made himself stronger, faster, and more connected than he ever was in team athletics, and more prepared for what major physical change life throws at him next.
Jacob studied psychology in college and is now fascinated with the potential that somatic psychotherapy has towards healing. He has a goal of opening a practice that bridges the gap between psychotherapy and the movement practice: helping individuals understand the innate duality of the two departments but through a connected lens that leads to immense growth and integration. As that goal remains in development, Jacob is committed to growth through learning, practicing, teaching, and living a lifestyle of movement.
misha lantslov
One of my earliest childhood memories is learning that left and right are distinguished by which way the stereo dial turns to change volume. Since then I have been captivated by music, movement, and creative expression.
My curiosity about the mind led me to a degree in psychology and 7 years of teaching in public and private educational systems. The deepest experience I gained was working as a one-on-one cognitive trainer for 100+ hour programs. I used progressions of memory and attention exercises to help transform people’s ability to focus on and manipulate information.
Meanwhile, I continued my explorations in artistry and athletics: writing, music, backpacking, races, and visual arts - always fueled by a sense of discovery and a desire to understand.
My aim as a teacher is to make learning accessible and fulfilling. In the context of movement practice, I aim to develop students’ kinesthetic intelligence. Through organizing strength, harnessing flow and fluidity, and realizing our embodiment, we cultivate the athlete-artist within. This process is challenging yet playful. One moment: the tensile coordination of pull-ups. Another is the fluidity and coordination of dance-like forms. I work with anyone willing to learn and practice. Any skill level is a perfect starting point.
Outside of movement I have a therapeutic bodywork practice, collaborating with deep wisdoms of the body that generate the healing process. There, the focus is on restoring movement, flow, and vitality. For my clients it is an exploration into the roots of dysfunction and pain, and the journey toward ease and wholeness. I work with injuries, chronic pain and discomfort, rehabilitation of muscular and fascial systems, and their neuromuscular connections.
The science and art of bodywork intimately informs my movement practice and each contributes to the other. To train and play sustainably is to become your own bodyworker, your own trainer, your own teacher, your own source of knowledge. There is a creative force behind the inspired movement, behind the healing process, behind physical and cognitive expression - it is within everyone, awaiting activation.
shaughn drummond
For as long as I can remember, when people asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, my response was “I just want to do what I love and teach other people how to do it.” While my passions changed throughout the years, from one specific activity to the next, I never really knew where that deep desire would land me. From ballet, to Irish step dance, to drumming, to track, to basketball, to volleyball, to weightlifting, the canvas of that young vision felt dull. When I found ApeCo and furthermore expanded my journey as a teacher there, it started to fill in the colors of what that far-off but very vivid dream felt like as a little girl. The connection. The support. The relatability. The individuality. The merging of so many things I love. The growing community. The knowledgeable teachers. The resources to grow. The conquered obstacles. The ones ahead that I know I can get through now. My canvas is now colorful and it inspires me, and while it’s not complete, knowing that this journey isn’t over… is the best part. Every individual’s journey is different, and my goal is to get to know you and what makes you unique in mind and body so that I can deliver the best tools I know to help you bridge the gap from where you are to where you want to be. Adaptability is the name of the game, resilience is the reward. With ten years of experience as a personal trainer and fitness instructor, and a certification in clinical hypnotherapy, I have a great appreciation for the undeniable connection between mind & body. I draw on my knowledge of the physical body, the nervous system, and the subconscious mind to deliver a whole-system approach to help you enjoy the journey of achieving your goals.