A quiet room in the middle of the city, and the two people who teach in it.
01 — PHILOSOPHY
We are private by design: just you and your teacher for a full, unhurried hour, with the focus entirely on the quality of your movement. We care more about how you move in twenty years than how sore you are tomorrow.
Breath is our first principle. Before any spring is set, we anchor the body in deep, intentional breathing. The strength comes, and it lasts, because it is built on that breath.
02 — THE FOUNDERS
Co-founder & teacher
Functional Movement Coach and Reiki Master with 15+ years guiding hundreds of clients back to strength, mobility, and focus. A former athlete herself, she blends energy medicine and movement into a practice that meets you with both compassion and precision.
Jaime is an ACE certified personal trainer, with further training in pre and postnatal fitness, kettlebells, TRX and functional strength. She leads the functional movement side of the studio.
Co-founder & teacher
Yonatan trained under Carrie Samper, who was certified by Romana Kryzanowska, Joseph Pilates' own protégée. Carrie went on to build the teacher training program Equinox now runs nationwide, and Yonatan earned that certification in 2019. It is a short line back to Joe, and it shows up in how exact the work is. He teaches the way he makes music, shaped to your body's rhythm on the day. No "no pain, no gain." Just careful work that builds a body you live well in.
He has taught classical Pilates since 2019 and has been a musician for thirty years. Balanced Body, the company that builds our apparatus, published his essay A Letter To Joe on its blog, The Core.
I tried a number of different Pilates locations before landing at West Hollywood Pilates. It’s remarkably hard to find a great classical teacher in Los Angeles—but Yonatan is just that. He’s knowledgeable, intuitive, and somehow both rigorous and gentle. Highly recommend. Fabulous music, too.
I must say that Jamie and Yonatan’s studio is by far the best place I have worked out for both body and soul. Not only are they warm and compassionate, their knowledge is off the charts. I love it so much I drive 40 miles each way. Literally life changing!!!
I don't think I actually understood the full scope of what Pilates has to offer until starting one-on-one sessions at West Hollywood Pilates. Right from the first session Yonatan quoted Joseph Pilates' "In 10 sessions you'll feel the difference, in 20 sessions you'll see the difference, and in 30 sessions you'll have a whole new body". At about a dozen sessions in I'm already feeling more aligned in my body, my posture has changed, I feel stronger and all the minor aches and pains I lived with have dissipated. Yonatan's approach merges breathwork and meditation into the sessions and offers a challenge while respecting the process. I couldn't recommend these sessions enough.
03 — HERITAGE
Joseph Pilates · Romana Kryzanowska · Carrie Samper · Yonatan Elkayam
Each teacher in that line learned from the one before. What it means for your sessions is on our classical Pilates page.
Yonatan Elkayam
Jaime Elkayam
Every session here is taught by one of us. There is no other staff, so the teacher who learns your body is the one you see each week.
The studio at 717 N Highland Ave has a wood-beam ceiling, large windows with palms outside, and the full Contrology line by Balanced Body: reformer, Cadillac, wunda chair, arm chair, ped-o-pul, ladder barrel and spine correctors. A framed portrait of Joseph Pilates hangs on the wall. Only one session happens at a time, so for your session the room is yours.
Plenty of people come to us brand new to Pilates, and our beginners page explains how the first session goes. Others come with a back that hurts, or because they are over 50 and want to stay strong and steady. One of our clients is in their eighties. Yonatan also works with women during and after pregnancy.
04 — IN OUR OWN WORDS
Filmed in our first studio, downstairs from the space we teach in now.
The other half of our practice is energy work. It lives at Word of Mouth.