Master Pilates Teacher Ellie Herman

Published authority on the Pilates Method, Master Teacher Ellie Herman is an innovator in the field of Contemporary Pilates and the inventor of the Pilates Springboard.

Ellie has taught Pilates since 1991 and has published ten books, including professional Pilates training manuals that are used in teacher training programs all over the world. Ellie leads her own comprehensive teacher training program annually in her studio in Narberth, Pa. She travels to teach at conferences and private studios worldwide.

Formerly based in the San Francisco Bay Area for over 20 years, and then Brooklyn for another 15, Ellie now resides in Narberth, a suburb in mainline Philadelphia where she owns a Pilates studio.

How It All Began

A Letter From Ellie

My romance with Pilates began in 1989 when I was a professional dancer and choreographer in San Francisco. Also an experience junkie, I decided to try my hand as a professional wrestler. My career as “Ruth Less” was cut short by a serious knee injury, which occurred during a tag-team match. As I lie on the mat with a swollen knee I cursed myself for being so stupid.

But there was a silver lining - the Dance Medicine Department at St Francis Hospital in San Francisco, where I ventured to heal myself with this mysterious thing called Pilates. I was put under the care of Elizabeth Larkham, and after months of Pilates rehabilitation and no surgery (normally advisable after an anterior cruciate ligament tear), I returned to dancing only to realize that I was a much better dancer than before my injury. Pilates had not only allowed me to return to jumping, leaping, and twirling, it had actually improved my technique, control, balance, and core strength.

In 1991 I attended the Masters Dance program at NYU where my favorite thing was the Pilates mat class with Kathy Grant, a disciple of Joe Pilates. Kathy Grant not only taught me that depth and creativity could be brought to the Pilates Method, but also helped to relieve the mounting hip pain I was experiencing due to daily ballet classes. Kathy's Pilates classes inspired me to drop out of NYU and pursue Pilates teacher training with Steve Giordano and master teacher Romana Kyranowska, another of the Pilates Elders .

In 1992, I opened my own studio in my live/work loft in the Mission district of San Francisco, and I opened a second studio in Oakland, California, in 2001. I earned a Master of Science degree in Acupuncture & Chinese Herbal Medicine in 2001.

In 2003, I invented a piece of Pilates equipment called the Pilates Springboard, an inexpensive and space-saving variation of the Pilates Cadillac. Like the Cadillac, the Springboard comes with arm and leg springs and a roll down bar. Manufactured in California by Balanced Body since 2005, the Ellie Herman Springboard is a perfect way to get full-body resistance training in Pilates studios around the world or in the comfort of your own home.

In 2005 I moved to Brooklyn and opened my Union Street studio, then the Class Annex in 2008, the Court Street studio in 2012, and my newest studio on 8th Avenue in Park Slope in 2019. The pandemic forced the closing of 8th Avenue and Court Street. A new studio in Narberth Pa will open October 2021.