Get stronger.
Understand how.

Hanna Denham is the founder of Art in Flexion, a Medical Exercise Specialist, Certified Personal Trainer, Group Fitness Instructor, and hand balancing contortionist based in San Diego. With 17 years of experience in fitness and movement education, she brings an understanding of anatomy, strength, flexibility, and body mechanics to her coaching.

Performance has been part of Hanna’s life since childhood. Her work has evolved into hand balancing and contortion, and she continues to develop her practice through training with experienced coaches in Southern California and abroad. Her experience as both a performer and a teacher shapes how she guides students through challenging skills.

Hanna built Art in Flexion around the belief that understanding your body changes how you train. Her classes connect each exercise to its purpose: which muscles are working, how the joints move, and how strength supports flexibility. She teaches students to recognize their own movement patterns and build control through deliberate, consistent practice.

Her coaching spans handstands, active flexibility, contortion, strength, posture, and alignment. Whether a student is building a foundation or refining an advanced skill, Hanna adjusts her instruction to their starting point and goals. She wants students to leave with practical knowledge they can use in their own training and everyday movement.

Alongside teaching advanced strength and flexibility, handstands, and private sessions, Hanna creates opportunities for students to explore performance through live shows and films. For her, progress includes confidence, curiosity, and the freedom to express yourself through movement.

Jess Ordon is an ACE-certified personal trainer, pole performer, and instructor who has trained at Art in Flexion since 2017. She holds both a BA and an MA in Theatre Arts, with a background in acting, script development, and teaching playwriting to children.

When Jess took her first pole class in 2016, she had no formal dance or gymnastics training and did not consider herself naturally flexible. Through years of strength and flexibility work with Hanna Denham and Ken Taylor, alongside her own consistent practice, she built the skills that now inform her teaching.

Her performance experience includes regional, national, and international pole events, including Skripped Down in Toronto, Haute Velour in Chicago, and Original Sin in St. Petersburg, Florida. At Exotic Generation USA 2022, she won both the Old School New Face category and the Overall New Face Division. She also performs with CatHaus Revue in San Diego and teaches pole at Dollhouse Fitness in Encinitas.

At Art in Flexion, Jess teaches beginner strength and flexibility, abs, Upper & Lower Conditioning, and Flexible Floor Flow. Her own experience of starting from scratch shapes her emphasis on learning skills step by step and building strength alongside flexibility.

Cora Bercasio has been part of Art in Flexion for more than eight years. Her training spans mobility, flexibility, contortion, and hand balancing, with a particular interest in how exercise can counter the postural habits and movement patterns that develop in everyday life.

In 2020, Cora stepped away from training for a year while undergoing breast cancer treatment. Returning meant relearning skills and rebuilding her strength and flexibility. With support from Hanna Denham and Ken Taylor, she regained her previous abilities and went on to surpass them.

That experience gives Cora a personal understanding of progress, setbacks, and the patience involved in beginning again. She openly shares what she has learned from both her successes and her challenges, and believes that training has a place at every stage of life.

Cora teaches intermediate strength and flexibility at Art in Flexion, helping students connect their foundations to more demanding skills. In her own practice, she continues exploring contortion and handstands on pedestals, bringing the perspective of an active student to her coaching.

Allison Wu is a certified personal trainer whose movement interests span pole sport, strength training, flexibility, and beach volleyball. She first joined Art in Flexion in 2017 to improve her flexibility for pole dancing, then expanded her practice to include handstands and chair stacking.

Having started without a strong sports background or natural flexibility, Allison understands how much a consistent practice can change what feels possible. Her years as an Art in Flexion student and her experience competing in pole sport inform her approach to strength, mobility, and body awareness for athletic performance.

Allison became a mother in 2025. She trained through pregnancy and returned to the studio with her daughter, an experience that inspired her to create a place where mothers could continue their own movement practice while bringing their babies along.

At Art in Flexion, Allison teaches Flourish & Bond, a class for moms and babies. She brings her experience as both a trainer and a mother to a welcoming environment where moms can rebuild strength, reconnect with movement, and spend time with other mothers.

Ken Taylor is a movement educator and Holistic Health Practitioner whose background brings together martial arts, flexibility, fitness instruction, and bodywork. He began studying karate in 1973, later exploring tai chi and kung fu. An early kung fu instructor introduced him to massage, sparking a lifelong interest in the relationship between movement and hands-on care.

Ken began formal massage studies in 1975 and spent decades practicing and refining his skills. In 2000, he completed 100 hours of professional training at Mueller College, followed by more than 1,000 additional hours of study toward his Holistic Health Practitioner certification and a specialization in Zen Touch. He is also a certified Reiki practitioner.

His flexibility practice began in 1971 and developed into a daily commitment spanning more than 50 years. From 1981 to 2010, he worked as a personal trainer, aerobics instructor, and fitness coach across four gyms, sharing his knowledge of strength and movement with students.

Although Ken retired from regular instruction in 2020, he remains part of the Art in Flexion community. He continues his own martial arts practice and shares his experience through special workshops, giving students opportunities to explore anatomy, flexibility, and body mechanics in greater depth.