About Kara Wily

Primary Teacher Training: Romana's Pilates®

Kara Wily, Owner of Kara Wily Pilates in Los Angeles California.

Kara began teaching Pilates in 1993. Eleven years ago she began her own business and in January 2008, she opened Kara Wily Pilates. Most recently, Kara was a featured Pilates trainer in Element’s Slim and Tone Pilates, distributed by Anchor Bay Entertainment in October of 2009. She was also the featured trainer in the New York Times (Gear Test with Kara Wily, Pilates Instructor, Thursday November 15, 2007), an article in the Larchmont Chronicle (Kara Wily opens a Pilates Studio, July 2008), and yespilates.com (November 2008). She relocated to Los Angeles in the year 2000 from New York City.

While teaching in New York, Kara taught under two of the most notable names in the Pilates community: Brooke Siler, author of The Pilates Body and Owner of re:AB and Alycea Baylis Ungaro a physical therapist and owner of Tribeca Bodyworks. Ms. Siler has praised Kara for being “one of the best in the business.” During her time in New York, Kara was on scholarship at the Alvin Ailey School of American Dance, performed at City Center during the Alvin Ailey Company’s winter season, and attended Columbia University for Post Baccalaureate Studies.

Kara helped Colleen Glenn open Glenn Studio in Dallas, Texas. Prior to her experience in New York City, Kara was the director of the Pilates Program at Performing Arts School Vienna in Austria. She taught Pilates lessons to performing arts students and also gave classes in anatomy. She was also cast in the musical, Cabaret, performed at the Museum Quartier.

Kara has published an article in a newsletter and a chapter in a book about the Pilates Method. “Muscles and Mechanics” was published in the Pilates, Inc. 1998 Spring Newsletter. The Chapters, “Exercise and the Pilates Method” and “Pregnancy and the Pilates Method” published in the book The Pilates Method of Body Conditioning, made Kara a co-author with her teacher, Romana Kryzanowska, the person to which Joseph Pilates entrusted his archives.

At Southern Methodist University she was introduced to the Martha Graham Technique, a dance technique heavily influenced by Joseph Pilates. After a ski accident that resulted in reconstruction of her anterior cruciate ligament, Kara began training in the Pilates technique. Although her classical dance training prepared her in some ways for Pilates, she gained a whole new understanding of control and centering that she had missed by starting dance training late in life.

In conjunction with her university studies, dance and Pilates background, Kara sees her Pilates studio branching out to become a center for movement study. Kara’s natural appreciation for beautiful lines, a meticulous work ethic, and her own love of movement make her a strong teacher and an inspiration to those with whom she works.