X2O Pilates Studio Opening In Danville

DANVILLE, CA — Get ready to sweat, Danville. X2O Studio, a boutique pilates studio owned by Danville couple Ellen Piccolotti and Dexter Hart, is opening its second location on 7 Railroad Avenue in Danville this Saturday.

The studio, which already has a thriving location in Los Gatos, offers small, 45-minute classes on specially-designed XFormer machines. “We consider it more to be strength training on a machine, so it’s a lot of moves that you recognize from the gym - leg presses, bicep curls, tricep kickbacks - but it’s all done based on the machine, so it’s a tension-based workout,” Piccolotti told Patch in an interview. “You can transition between moves really quickly on the machine…it’s a very seamless flow. It’s high-intensity, low-impact.”

The machine provides a cardio workout, but does not tax the joints in the same way, making the workouts popular with people recovering from surgery, suffering from back issues, coming out of a pregnancy, or more. Each room has just 11 machines, leading to a more personalized workout session led by a trainer.

“It’s a very hands-on workout, so it’s almost like having a personal trainer work with you even though you’re in a group setting. We’re going to make sure your form is correct, we’re going to help you get into the proper positioning, and really interact with you the whole time,” Piccolotti said.

In the beginning, the studio plans to offer four 45-minute sessions a day, and plans to increase to eight a day like the Los Gatos studio does. From Sunday until next Wednesday, classes will be free, and can be booked on the x2OStudio app.

Piccolotti and her husband both worked in tech before eventually quitting to run X20 full-time. For a while, she was working for an Indian company, and had some time in the middle of the day due to the time difference. She used it to teach pilates.

“I started teaching at a brand new studio in San Francisco, and I got to see how that owner put it together from the ground up, and I said I actually think this is something I’m interested in trying,” she said.

The couple crunched the numbers, and figured out they could make it happen. They eventually opened their first studio in Los Gatos in March 2020. The pandemic meant they couldn’t truly begin operations until 2021, but it didn’t take long for the unique style to catch on, leading to classes selling out regularly.

“We decided it was time to branch out and try a different location,” Piccolotti said. “We thought an X2O could do well [in Danville] based on the people we saw around - like-minded people into fitness, very family-oriented, community-oriented people in Los Gatos.”

To help get the new Danville location off the ground, Piccolotti, her husband, and their two-year-old daughter packed up and moved to Danville last year.

The new location will offer a number of pricing options, including two classes for $30, one month of unlimited classes for $119, and one class for $39. For full pricing and more information about the workouts, visit x2Ostudio.com. The studio will celebrate a soft opening on Saturday, and a grand opening likely later this month. Classes can be booked on the app.

Piccolotti said the workout leads to both physical health and community. “It’s such a tough workout, but it’s also a small group, so if you come enough, you’ll start to get to know some of the neighbors who come at the same time as you, and we’ve seen a lot of friendships and relationships develop between clients in Los Gatos,” she said. “A workout like this will help you build strength, and also gets people into a really good, healthy habit mindset. You can tell a lot of client’s attitude towards working out changes.”