Tonya Keener-Blasco
From Beauty to Strength
After four decades of helping people feel beautiful on the outside, Tonya Keener-Blasco is beginning a powerful new chapter—creating a place where people can discover strength, confidence and community from within.
For Tonya Keener-Blasco, transformation has always been personal. For 40 years, she experienced it from behind a salon chair. Her favorite moment was always the reveal: turning a client toward the mirror and hearing the joy in their voice as they said, “Oh my gosh, I love my hair. I feel so beautiful.”
Today, Tonya is creating a new kind of reveal—one that happens when people discover their strength, stand a little taller or enter a fitness studio and realize they have found a place where they belong.That vision is at the heart of BODYBAR Pilates Lake Worth, Tonya’s newest venture and the beginning of her plan to build a connected Pilates community across South Florida.
“For 40 years, I helped people feel beautiful on the outside,” Tonya says. “Now, through Pilates, I get to combine my lifelong passion for fitness with my desire to help people feel strong and beautiful from the inside out.”
Where Two Passions Meet
Growing up in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, Tonya developed an early appreciation for beauty, fashion and fitness. By her teenage years, she was carefully planning her outfits each night, paying attention to every detail—from her clothing and hair to her makeup. Even then, she understood that personal style was about more than appearance; it could influence how someone felt and carried themselves.
At the same time, fitness was becoming an important part of her life. Her love for movement began in high school and sparked a lasting interest in how exercise could help people become stronger and healthier. At just 19 years old, Tonya became a hairdresser. She went on to own multiple salons and build a four-decade career centered on making people feel seen, cared for and beautiful.
In many ways, she is continuing that work today—only in a different setting.
Pilates strengthens smaller muscles, develops the core, improves posture and alignment, and changes the way a person carries themselves. For Tonya, it provides an opportunity to bring her lifelong passions together and help people feel their best from the inside out.
Why BODYBAR
Tonya carefully researched different studios and franchise opportunities, but she kept returning to BODYBAR. Its clean, bright aesthetic appealed to her love of beauty and design. It felt modern and elevated, yet still warm and welcoming. The BODYBAR boutique also gave her a natural way to bring fashion into this new chapter by selecting activewear that helps members feel confident during their workouts and throughout the rest of their day.
What ultimately captured Tonya’s heart, however, was BODYBAR’s emphasis on community. “One of the greatest things about owning a studio is the number of lives you get to touch and the community you get to build,” she says. “That’s the part I absolutely love.”
More Than a Workout
Tonya does not envision a studio where members enter, complete a class and leave without being noticed. She wants BODYBAR Lake Worth to be a place where people are welcomed by name—where the team remembers their birthdays, asks about their vacations and may even know the names of their dogs.
“I don’t want someone to walk into our studio, take a class and leave without anyone knowing who they are,” she explains. “Those little things are what turn a studio into a community, and sometimes those relationships turn into lifelong friendships.”
Her goal is for BODYBAR to become a meaningful “third place”—the space beyond home and work where people gather, connect and feel that they belong.
Home. Work. BODYBAR.
Members will be encouraged to stay after class, talk, laugh, browse the boutique or catch up with the team and one another. Themed classes, special events and community activities will create opportunities for relationships to grow beyond a workout.
That welcome is especially important for anyone who may feel nervous about attending a Pilates class for the first time. BODYBAR is truly for everybody and every body, and Tonya and her team strongly believe that.
The studio will welcome women and men across different ages, backgrounds and fitness levels—from complete beginners to experienced exercisers and athletes adding Pilates to their training. No one has to look a certain way, be a certain age or already be in shape to walk through the doors. “There’s a place at the BAR for everyone,” Tonya says.
Teassa Blasco
Mary Michael
Family, Community and the Future
This venture is especially meaningful because Tonya will have some of the people closest to her alongside her. Tonya’s husband, Steve Blasco, is also a co-owner of BODYBAR Pilates Lake Worth, making the studio a shared family venture. Her oldest daughter, Teassa Blasco, an experienced yoga and Pilates instructor, will serve as Fitness Manager at BODYBAR Lake Worth.
Mary Michael will also join the team from Tonya’s BODYBAR Morgantown studio. Already familiar with the culture Tonya wants to create, Mary Michael will help bring its established spirit of connection to South Florida. She will later serve as Fitness Manager of the West Palm Beach location, expected to open in early 2027.
Tonya selected the Merchants Walk location with the surrounding community in mind. In conversations with people throughout the area, she repeatedly heard a desire for something close to home—a welcoming place where residents could enjoy an excellent workout and feel connected.
She also loved how naturally BODYBAR could become part of the neighborhood’s daily rhythm. Members could take a class, enjoy coffee, meet a friend or run an errand, making wellness an enjoyable part of their day.
“Tell me where you live. Tell me about yourself,” Tonya says. “I want to know the people we’re serving because I truly did make the decision to put our studio there with this community in mind.”
Lake Worth is only the beginning. Tonya plans to open the West Palm Beach studio in the SoSo—South of Southern—area, followed eventually by a third South Florida location.
Her goal is to give members flexibility between the studios, allowing them to attend the location most convenient for their schedules. “My vision isn’t simply three Pilates studios,” she says. “It’s one BODYBAR community across South Florida.”
Beyond the BAR
Tonya’s vision for connection extends beyond the studio doors.
BODYBAR Lake Worth plans to offer themed classes, book clubs, complimentary mat Pilates classes, community events and opportunities to participate in local run clubs. Private sessions will also be available in a dedicated room.
The studio will provide a place to celebrate through private events, birthday parties, bachelorette parties and other special experiences.
Through local partnerships and shared activities, BODYBAR hopes to collaborate with the people, organizations and businesses that make the Greater Lake Worth area special.
Tonya does not want BODYBAR simply to operate within the community. She wants it to become an active part of it.
Be Part of BODYBAR From the Beginning
BODYBAR Pilates Lake Worth is expected to open in early November, but community members do not have to wait until opening day to become involved.
The studio will initially offer its Precision and Performance class formats, with five additional formats introduced gradually to provide members with different ways to challenge, strengthen and restore their bodies.
Founding Memberships are available throughout the presale period and offer special savings for those who join before the studio officially opens. Founding Cheers Unlimited members can take up to two classes per day, while the Speakeasy Founding
Membership includes eight classes per month. Both options are designed to give members the flexibility to build Pilates into their routines.
Founding Members will also be invited to participate in Founders Week—the week before opening—when they can visit the studio, meet Tonya and her team, and experience a workout.
Memberships will not be charged until the official opening day. Anyone who participates during Founders Week and decides BODYBAR is not the right fit will have an opportunity to cancel before being charged.
For the first 45 days after opening, new visitors will also be invited to experience their first BODYBAR class complimentary.
The most important first step is to join BODYBAR Lake Worth’s email list. Subscribers will receive opening announcements, invitations to complimentary classes and events, studio news, membership information and boutique updates.
Community members can visit the BODYBAR Lake Worth website, download the BODYBAR app, call or email the studio, scan the magazine’s QR code or stop by and introduce themselves.
After four decades of helping people recognize their beauty, Tonya is ready to help them recognize their strength. “I want people to walk out feeling stronger, healthier, happier and more confident from the inside out,” she says. That is the purpose driving Tonya Keener-Blasco’s next chapter—one shaped by beauty, strengthened by movement and built around community. And with opening day approaching, Tonya cannot wait to welcome Lake Worth to the BAR.
Become a Founding Member before opening day, join the email list and be among the first to experience BODYBAR Pilates Lake Worth.
Discover more of Tonya Keener-Blasco’s journey, along with additional information about BODYBAR’s classes, memberships and growing South Florida community, in the extended version of this cover story on our website.
A Welcome from Greater Lake Worth Living
Greater Lake Worth Living proudly welcomes Tonya Keener-Blasco, her team and BODYBAR Pilates to the Greater Lake Worth community.
Connect with BODYBAR Lake Worth
Owner: Tonya Keener-Blasco
Location: 8776 Lantana Road, Lake Worth, FL 33467
Opening: November 7
Telephone: (561) 698-0034
Email: Lakeworth@bodybarpilates.com
Instagram: @bodybar_lakeworth
Facebook: BODYBAR Pilates – Lake Worth
Website: bodybarpilates.com/studios/florida/lake-worth/
