Things to Do in Canandaigua

The top-level Pilates, GyroMovement, and cardio equipment at Pilates Plus rivals that of a high-end health club, complete with a full-service spa. It's the instructors, however, who use their years of training and unbridled passion for fitness to foster the tight-knit, motivational community of a small gym. Whether conducting yoga classes or doling out healthy tips at the nutritionist-run, onsite café, the staff goes out of its way to make fitness a convenient part of its patrons' lives. The spa's therapeutic massages, facial peels, and waxing treatments make for great post-workout rewards, and the heat from the infrared sauna sinks more deeply into skin than in traditional saunas to further encourage weight loss or make popsicles easier to drink.

At Prana Yoga, students gather beneath the wings of swans, which float across the studio's wall toward the inspirational quote "Let the beauty of what you love be what you do." Here, such wisdom surfaces from within as minds clear and muscles strengthen. During the signature Vinyasa flow class, the temperature rises to loosen tight muscles and oust squatting toxins. Students match deep, relaxing breaths with a series of ancient poses as teachers, such as studio cofounder Carrie Herscovici, circulate the room, lighting candles and gently adjusting bodily alignment. Drawing from her training with power-yoga superstar Baron Baptiste and Indian sage Senthil Kumar, Carrie inspires her students to surmount both physical challenges and mental unrest, strengthening the body while bringing peace to the mind. In addition to leading classes, she donates 10% of the studio's profits to charity and operates a clothing boutique that helps shoppers integrate yoga into their everyday lives and bow-tie collections.

When viewed through the wall of mirrors at Bikram Yoga Rochester, the studio's wood-paneled ceiling and walls seem to go on forever. In 105-degree heat, a team of experienced instructors leads students through intensive yoga poses that systematically engage the entire body. Students can watch themselves twist and bend during 90-minute classes selected from the studio’s schedule. The temperature of the steamy studio space is engineered to soothe muscles, loosen joints, and encourage detoxification, and provides a challenging setting for students to launch bodies into modifiable postures that accommodate all skill levels from novice to expert and even pregnant women. In addition to yoga, Bikram Yoga Rochester also employs a certified holistic health and nutrition coach, massage therapist, chiropractor, and acupuncturist.

Atman Yoga Studio's Enrique A. Fulchi—a native of Lima, Peru, and a devoted yoga instructor—guides students through 90-minute classes that aim to strengthen the body, increase flexibility, and open the mind. The Vinyasa flow class caters to all experience levels and replaces yoga's traditional spinal-alignment exercises—duct-taping tetherball poles to the back—with a steady series of back bends, inversions, and balancing poses supported by steady breathing exercises. The Ashtanga flow class accommodates more practiced yogis, and private sessions with Enrique help to deepen practice with focused tutelage. In all classes, Enrique may modify postures with props to better match students' goals and heighten the realism of their Shakespearean soliloquies.

The consortium of professional instructors at Fred Astaire Dance Studios, which was cofounded by the legendary toe tapper himself, shepherds students of all ages and skill levels through lessons that span the style spectrum. Low-pressure private sessions allow enthusiastic teachers to fine-tune individual students' techniques and form, using their expert eyes and mechanical dancing shoes preprogrammed to do the Charleston. Patrons can learn how to cavort through classic waltz and fox-trot romps or swivel through the modern steps of salsa, swing, or samba. For dancers hoping to hoof it up in a social setting, the group practice parties provide a one-night extravaganza of instruction, demonstrations, and amateur firewalking.