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.
Jacob Robertson
Jacob’s movement journey started with team athletics and eventually became a life around extreme sports including skateboarding, 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. In college he studied psychology and what started as a fascination with the human mind quickly became a more holistic drive after discovering Ape Co (Boulder Movement Collective at the time).
Since discovering the movement practice he has not only worked through the injuries from his active youth, but has rendered his scoliosis largely irrelevant, made himself stronger, faster, and more connected than he ever was in team athletics, and most importantly, he’s found a way to meet change with more capacity and less resistance.
Jacob’s work is now shaped by a mix of influences including ATG, Feldenkrais, Hakomi and his background in nutrition. He’s deeply interested in sharing what he’s learned through his experiences, helping people overcome limitations, and build capability, whether that’s through strength, recovery or simply paying closer attention.
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.
Titus Bowen
I’m a movement teacher with over ten years of experience, specializing in strength training and injury prevention through a general movement practice informed by Ido Portal and Charles Poliquin’s principles. Helping students build a foundation of connective tissue and strength through gymnastic and barbell movements.
Harrison Goldwyn
I discovered the "Generalist" movement practice in 2014, sparking a decade-long obsession with the potential for adult physical development. My journey began in the worlds of rock climbing, surfing, and gymnastics, but it was the pursuit of a coherent philosophy—one that bridges the gap between technical discipline and creative exploration—that truly defined my path.
Since 2022, I have studied under Marcello Palozzo, integrating a parkour-rooted perspective that unifies hyper-analytic conditioning with urban climbing and environmental interaction. My practice is a continuous rebalance between ambition and physical reality, shaped by my years of getting injured, rehabilitating, achieving what I'd thought impossible, and then repeating the cycle...
As a teacher, I am dedicated to joining students in the process of directed growth. My own experiences have given me a "conservative yet optimistic" perspective on training: I believe in a culture where practice serves as a tool for self-observation. I love working with curious movers to explore what is possible through consistent, mindful effort.
Leah Woods
Leah is a movement artist and teacher who is passionate about accessibility, creativity, and community. She holds an M.F.A. in Dance and Performance from the University of Colorado, Boulder where she received her secondary emphasis in Somatics for her studies in the Alexander Technique, the Feldenkrais method, and BodyMind Centering. After growing up studying West African Guinean dance, Flamenco, and Middle Eastern dance, she attended Mills College in Oakland where she studied dance as an undergrad. Leah enjoyed an extensive performance career for over 11 years in the SF Bay Area where she performed, and taught fitness & yoga professionally. She is an enthusiastic student of Tom Weksler who combines Contemporary dance, Acrobatics, Martial Arts, and Contact Improvisation, as well as a member of Ido Portal's movement culture movement. She is passionate about health, wellness, and longevity and draws from her extensive movement background in Pilates, GYROTONIC®, Yoga, strength training, and dance in her classes.
Naomi Iverson
Naomi is passionate about helping people discover what their bodies are capable of. She loves the science behind strength training and enjoys breaking down the “why” behind each movement so students can build real understanding alongside real strength.
Naomi grew up playing sports—starting with swimming as a kid, earning her black belt by age 13 in several martial arts (including Mixed Martial Arts and Lameco Eskrima stick fighting), and playing varsity volleyball in high school. After moving to Boulder, she dove into the worlds of climbing and yoga, continuing her lifelong curiosity about movement.
Naomi believes strength isn’t just about lifting heavier—it’s about unlocking a way of moving that feels powerful and free. The world is yours to play in, and strength gives you the freedom to explore it.
Avery (Ryder) Turner
I feel like I’ve always wanted to foster a world with more movement and physical play. I can vividly remember, in third grade, having clear ideas for teachers and administrators about how to make the school day more enjoyable for “us” children by increasing opportunities to move and play while learning.
Early on, my fascination with movement showed up as a kind of fitness obsession—doing push-ups in my room, going on long runs, and testing physical limits in any way that was accessible. I was the friend people came to in high school and college if they were interested in personal training. Running parallel to that was a love of live performance, especially theater and dance. I remember being blown away by the incredible physicality of both Cirque du Soleil and Blue Man Group and knowing some place deep that I wanted to experience that kind of magic making as a performer.
It wasn’t until I found contact improvisation shortly after my undergraduate studies that something truly shifted. It cracked open my prior conceptions about movement and physical dialogue. I pursued it with a kind of fervor, and that path led me into somatic work, contemporary dance, and eventually an MFA in Dance. During that time, I studied movement languages including House, Hip-hop, contemporary modern, Ballet, and Ghanaian dance, and performed professionally.
What once felt like separate threads began to braid together into something more coherent. My work has been shaped by a genuine love of teaching and sharing the joy of physical expression, by fatherhood, and by an ongoing interest in how people of all ages—especially parents and their children—can find connection, play, and meaning through movement.
My practice has always lived at the intersection of intensity and curiosity. How far can I push my limits and boundaries? And how can movement, especially creative and improvisational movement, be a kind of living, almost mystical practice? I continue to explore how strength, coordination, and awareness can come together, not just to improve performance, but to expand how I and others experience and move through the world.