Carrying Tradition Forward: Meet the Presenters of the 2026 Classical Pilates USA Symposium
Studio featured: RM58
This October, Classical Pilates instructors and practitioners will gather from all over the world in Washington, D.C., for the 2026 Classical Pilates USA Symposium, bringing together six Second Generation Instructors with more than 150 years of combined experience for a weekend of education, movement, and shared learning.
Jerome Weinberg, Phoebe Higgins, Cary Regan, David Freeman, Brett Howard and Jen O'Mara will each bring their own experience and perspective to the Symposium, offering attendees the opportunity to deepen their understanding of the Classical Pilates methodology through focused seminars, hands-on learning, and exploration across the apparatus.
The experience begins with a pre-conference event featuring eight Teacher Trainers alongside two industry experts, expanding the opportunity for attendees to learn from a range of voices and expertise within the Pilates community.
Across the event, attendees will have the opportunity to explore the Classical system across the apparatus, deepen their understanding of the method, and connect with others brought together by a shared dedication to the work.
Each presenter brings decades of experience shaped by their own mentors, clients, practice, and continued study. Together, they offer something especially valuable: the opportunity to experience how a shared Classical foundation can carry the tradition forward through different perspectives.
Six Second Generation Presenters, Eight Third Generation Presenters, Two Industry Experts, and a variety of perspectives on the Classical Methodology
The Pilates method offers a lifetime of study. The longer we teach, practice, and observe, the more there is to discover. By deepening our understanding we can learn to communicate better, adapt the system for the individual body, and connect a single exercise across a variety of apparatus, keeping the body engaged while also providing purpose behind the movement.
At the 2026 Symposium, educators will bring those questions to life through seminars that span the Reformer, Cadillac, Wunda Chair, Spine Corrector, Ladder Barrel, Pedi Pole, and much more.
Cary Regan: The Art of Teaching Through Touch and Apparatus
Cary Regan brings more than five decades of experience to the Pilates method, offering a perspective shaped by years of practice, observation, and teaching.
At the Symposium, Cary will explore Hands-On Cueing, examining one of the most nuanced skills a Pilates teacher develops: how intentional touch can communicate information and help a student better understand the work within their own body.
Her teaching will also extend to the Ladder Barrel and Pedi-Pole, two pieces of apparatus that offer distinct opportunities to explore alignment, balance, support, strength, and control.
Together, these seminars speak to an essential part of teaching Pilates: learning how to observe more closely and choosing the right tools—whether it is a cue, a touch, or a piece of apparatus—to help the person in front of you find a deeper understanding.
Jerome Weinberg: Exploring Flow Across the System
Jerome Weinberg will bring his experience to sessions exploring Cadillac Flows and Combos and Mini Mats.
The Cadillac offers an expansive environment for understanding how exercises connect, transition, and build upon one another. Exploring flows and combinations invites instructors to look beyond exercises in isolation and consider how movement can develop across a sequence.
The Mini Mat work offers another perspective on connection and continuity, returning practitioners to the foundational language of the Mat while exploring how exercises relate within the larger Classical system.
Together, Jerome’s sessions highlight something central to Pilates: the work is not simply a collection of individual exercises. It is a system built on relationships.
Phoebe Higgins: Supporting the Individual Within the Classical Method
Phoebe Higgins will explore two very different areas of the Classical system: the John Winters Wunda Chair and Supporting Clients with Scoliosis.
Her sessions reflect an important responsibility of the Pilates instructor: understanding the established system while learning how to thoughtfully apply it to the individual.
Working with someone with scoliosis requires a specialized approach and a deep understanding of how spinal asymmetry can influence the body’s movement, alignment, and overall capabilities. The Pilates system offers instructors a broad vocabulary of exercises and apparatus, but experience and judgment help determine how those tools can best serve the person in front of them.
Her exploration of the John Winters Wunda Chair adds another dimension to that conversation, inviting attendees to experience and study a distinctive piece of Pilates apparatus through an elder's perspective.
David Freeman: Keeping the Work Engaging
How do we keep clients engaged while remaining grounded in the Classical method?
David Freeman will explore this question through Make Workouts More Interesting for Clients.
For instructors, familiarity with the system creates possibilities. Understanding exercises individually is only the beginning. Over time, teachers develop the ability to recognize relationships, make thoughtful choices, and create sessions that respond to the person in front of them without losing the structure and intention of the method.
David’s seminar invites teachers to think about how creativity can emerge from a deeper understanding of the system itself—using the breadth of Pilates to keep clients challenged, curious, and connected to their practice.
Jen O’Mara: Unlocking the Spine
Jen O’Mara will bring an anatomy-driven perspective to two essential areas of the body: the spine and hips.
In Unlocking the Spine: An Anatomy-Driven Approach to the Spine Corrector, attendees will explore how a deeper understanding of anatomy can inform the way the Spine Corrector is used to support movement, articulation, and organization of the body.
Brett Howard: Building Foundations for More Advanced Work
Brett Howard’s teaching at the Symposium will explore two foundational pieces of the Classical system: the Reformer and Wunda Chair.
In Creating a Strong Foundation on the Pilates Reformer, Brett will examine the importance of building the understanding, organization, and control that support progression throughout the method.
The deeper the understanding of the fundamentals, the more possibilities the system begins to reveal.
Different Perspectives, One Interconnected System
Photo credit: RM58
From hands-on cueing and scoliosis to spinal anatomy, flowing sequences, client engagement, and foundational work, the Symposium’s seminars approach Classical Pilates from many directions.
Yet each leads back to the same system.
That is part of what makes bringing these presenters together so meaningful. A shared Classical foundation does not mean every teacher sees or communicates the work in exactly the same way.
Years spent teaching different bodies create perspective.
Mentorship creates perspective.
Personal practice creates perspective.
Continued study creates perspective.
When those experiences come together, attendees have an opportunity to look again at work they may have practiced hundreds of times and discover something they had not considered before.
The goal is not simply to leave knowing more exercises. It is to see more within the work that is already there.
Throughout the Symposium, attendees will rotate through small-group seminars spanning Gratz apparatus, creating opportunities for focused, hands-on learning.
The Reformer, Cadillac, Wunda Chair, Spine Corrector, Ladder Barrel, Pedi Pole, and Mat each offer a different environment for understanding the body.
The springs provide resistance, assistance, and feedback. The dimensions and proportions influence positioning and movement. One apparatus can prepare the body for work that appears somewhere else in the system.
These relationships are part of what makes Pilates a method rather than simply a collection of exercises.
As the Exclusive Equipment Partner for the 2026 Classical Pilates USA Symposium, Gratz is proud to provide the apparatus that will support this weekend of education, exploration, and shared practice.
Learning From Teachers and From Each Other
The presenters bring more than 150 years of combined experience into the Symposium, but the learning extends beyond the seminars themselves.
It happens while watching another teacher approach an exercise differently.
It happens when a cue changes the way you experience a movement you have practiced for years.
It happens in conversations between sessions, questions shared among colleagues, and connections formed between teachers from different studios, training backgrounds, and communities.
For a few days, those experiences come together around the same work.
That exchange is an important part of how Classical Pilates continues to Carry Tradition Forward.
Carrying Tradition Forward
Preserving the Pilates method is not simply about looking backward. It is about continuing to:
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Study it.
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To practice it.
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To ask questions.
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To learn from those who have spent decades within the work.
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And to carry that knowledge into the way we teach the next person.
The 2026 Classical Pilates USA Symposium creates a space for exactly that exchange.
Presenters bring their individual knowledge and perspective. Instructors and practitioners bring their own experiences, curiosity, and questions. And the work brings everyone together.
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