Vanessa Luckx Pilates Shiatsu Do In-Meridian Stretching
Founder of KokyuDo
Founder of Happynes't
From an early age, Vanessa has been interested in movements, as she started taking ballet classes at the age of 5 (and then modern, and then contemporary), and practiced swimming on a competitive level.
In 2000, her passion for dance led her to join the professional program at SEAD-Salzburg Experimental Academy of Dance for 3 years. She had the opportunity to study under the guidance of great teachers, dancers and choreographers such as Libby Farr, Janet Panetta, Mia Lawrence, Ori Flomin, Chrysa Parkinson, Jason Beechey, Neil Greenberg, Gus Solomons Jr, Frey Faust, Natascha Eyber, etc.
At the same time, she also discovered many other techniques that broadened her horizon: Pilates, Yoga, Shiatsu, Alexander and Feldenkrais Techniques. It helped her to improve her dancing skills, to understand the body, to correct misalignment she suffered. So she decided to join the BASI Program in 2003 and took The BASI Comprehensive Teacher Training Course with Rael Isacowitz, the founder and director of BASI Pilates, among others.
After completing the certification, she went back to Brussels where she started teaching Mat Pilates in 2003 (at a time when almost no one knew about Pilates in Belgium), in parallel to her dance career.
Already influence by dance movements, Yoga and physiotherapy, she wanted to complement her knowledge; so she started to study Shiatsu with Kawada Yuichi Sensei in 2007. Shiatsu and Traditional Chinese Medicine helped her to grow as a teacher and as a person, improved her abilities to correct her students, deepened and opened her understanding of the human being, and introduced her to Oriental philosophies.
She is now not only a Pilates teacher, but also a shiatsu practitioner, and a Do In/Meridian Stretching teacher. As a Pilates instructor, she focuses on Mat Pilates, allowing her freedom and flexibility to develop her unique way to teach, working a lot on the proper breathing, the pelvic floor and a proper use of the center.
She also introduces people to meditation, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shiatsu through workshops.
With devotion, she tries to help her clients to discover and develop awareness, harmony and energy, to go beyond their limits, to explore and develop the potential of their bodies, wether be physical or energetic.
Her 20 years of experience is built upon the contact with hundreds of students and clients from different backgrounds and from all over the world: athletes, office people, pregnant women, teenagers, people recovering from cancer, from burn out/depression, people suffering from spinal deformation (Spina-Bifida), and lately blind people.
And her experience is also built upon sharing, quality that characterizes Vanessa: sharing with her clients, sharing with professionals, with others teachers, and challenging herself with different and new experiences.
In september 2016, she has created a technique she named Ki Free Flow©. Ki Free Flow technique© is a combination of Pilates exercises, self-massage, and Stretching, through the eye of the 5 elements of the Traditional Chinese Medicine, through the eye of the 5 seasons and its corresponding meridians.
After a first trip to Kyoto in August 2015 (and many more to come afterwards), she felt a very strong connection with the city. A place where her body, mind and soul were one. A place where her heart could feel at home. So, in December 2018, she moved to Kyoto to open a new Yoga & pilates studio called Happynes't. Her motivation is not only to offer extremely high quality classes, but also to create a strong and unique community. A community made up of individuals, each with a vibrant personality and unique path, brought together by a common passion, open mind, open heart, and curiosity.

Born 09.22.1976

