Yonatan Elkayam
Classical Pilates teacher and co-founder of West Hollywood Pilates, on N Highland Ave in Los Angeles.
01 — THE TEACHING LINE
Where his Pilates comes from
Joseph Pilates · Romana Kryzanowska · Carrie Samper · Yonatan Elkayam
Yonatan trained under Carrie Samper, who was certified by Romana Kryzanowska, Joseph Pilates' own protégée. Carrie built the teacher training program Equinox now runs nationwide, and Yonatan earned that certification in 2019. He has taught classical Pilates ever since.
Today he teaches at the studio he runs with his wife, Jaime, on the full Contrology line by Balanced Body. Every session is one-on-one. More on what the classical method means for your body is on our classical Pilates page.
02 — IN THE ROOM
How he teaches
Breath comes first. Before any spring is set, he gets your breathing deep and steady, and the strength gets built on top of it. He asks before he touches, and he shapes each session to the body you walk in with that day.
He works with people brand new to Pilates, people with a back that hurts, clients over 50, and women during and after pregnancy.
Balanced Body, the company that builds our apparatus, published his essay A Letter To Joe on its blog, The Core.
03 — OUTSIDE THE STUDIO
Music and film
Yonatan was a musician long before he taught Pilates, and he still is. He composes and produces, and his two albums, Reaching Usui and Inner Alchemy, grew out of his healing practice at Word of Mouth.
He also acts and directs. His screen credits include Sallywood and The Ritual, both from 2024, and he played a double bass player in the series Everything's Gonna Be Okay. He directed the series Nightmare on Laurel Canyon in 2020. The full list is on IMDb.
Years of composing taught him how to listen, and he says listening is still most of what he does in a session.
Work with Yonatan
A first session is a $65 intro, one hour, just you and your teacher.