Ken Pilates is a queer, Afro-Latinx-founded movement studio in Hoboken, NJ. Built from a second bedroom during the pandemic into two studios, a proprietary three-format method, and a forthcoming NYC flagship.
Ken Pilates is the Hoboken movement studio founded by Kennyth Montes de Oca (they/he) — a Rutgers-trained dancer, Afro-Latinx ballroom alum, and NPCP-certified Pilates educator who opened the studio from his second bedroom in 2020 and built it, with husband and co-founder Matthew Cunningham, into two Hoboken locations and a planned Manhattan flagship.
Kennyth Montes de Oca didn't set out to build a business. They wanted to dance.
Born in the Dominican Republic, Kennyth moved to the United States at sixteen and graduated from Union City High School in New Jersey — a school whose alumni now include two of the instructors on their own studio roster. They earned a BFA in Dance from Rutgers Mason Gross School of the Arts in 2018 and went on to work as a professional dancer and choreographer in New York City, training in Pilates on the side under Kim Gibilisco at Polestar Pilates and earning NPCP certification in 2020.
Performance was the dream. The choreography, the worldbuilding, the directing. But dance doesn't pay what it takes to live, and Kennyth's path as an Afro-Latinx performer in New York wasn't designed to be easy. They found chosen family in the ballroom scene, where they came more fully into their queer identity — and, as they tell it, got kicked out once they started focusing more on their new business than on the floor.
That new business was Ken Pilates.
When the pandemic hit in 2020, Kennyth and their partner Matthew Cunningham — a software developer, now husband and co-founder — moved from Chelsea to Hoboken. Kennyth rebranded their instructor handle to @KP, began teaching Pilates on Zoom, and as restrictions lifted, started seeing clients in person in the apartment's second bedroom. "Out of survival," Kennyth says. "Not a dream."
Matthew helped take the business out of the bedroom. Today Ken Pilates is two Hoboken locations — a group-fitness studio at 706 Grand Street and a private, appointment-only studio at 706 Washington Street — with an equipment roster (Cadillac, Springboard towers, Reformers, PowerPlate, HigherDose infrared PEMF mat) no other Hoboken studio offers, and a trio of proprietary class formats built around the Springboard, not the reformer.
The studio is shaped by what Kennyth didn't find in the rooms they trained in. "Pilates lately is white-girl-coded," they say, "and it's intimidating for anyone who doesn't fit that model to walk into those studios — even white girls who don't fit the body type the industry sells." Ken Pilates is designed, deliberately, to be the studio that feels built for the people boutique fitness forgot.
That sensibility shows up beyond the mat. Kennyth serves on the Hoboken Arts Advisory Committee and the board of the Hoboken Business Alliance. The studio regularly hosts community fundraisers, including an End Period Poverty drive. The apprenticeship pipeline has intentionally cultivated instructors of color.
Ken Pilates has been featured in PopSugar, Hoboken Girl, Sweats + The City, The Stute, BuyBlack.org, and Jersey Digs. A Manhattan flagship — Flatiron/Union Square — is actively in development.
The Second Bedroom
How a pandemic move from Chelsea to Hoboken became a two-studio business, told by the co-founders who built it together and got married in 2026.
Pilates Wasn't Built for Us. We Built It Anyway.
What classical Pilates looks like when a queer Afro-Latinx founder redesigns the room.
Ballroom Taught Me to Run a Business
What chosen family in the ballroom scene gave a Dominican kid who grew up in Union City.
The Springboard Studio
Why Ken Pilates bet on the one piece of equipment no other boutique brand led with.
The Hoboken Pipeline
Building a majority-BIPOC apprenticeship pipeline, including two instructors from the founder's own high school.
From @KP on Zoom to a Manhattan Flagship
A five-year founder arc most boutique brands would envy.
"It was never a dream of mine to be a business person. I just wanted to perform."
"This is beyond me. It's about the Ken Pilates community."
"Pilates lately is white-girl-coded. The studio I wanted didn't exist, so we built it."
"I'm not reinventing the wheel. I just have a lot of movement information in my body, and I'm a giving person."
"It helps me sleep at night knowing I can be part of someone's journey."
For interviews, photography, commissions, speaking, and story pitches:
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p>"This is beyond me. It's about the Ken Pilates community."