Jennifer Kries - Biography

Jennifer Kries

Jennifer Kries is an unparalleled innovator in the realm of health and fitness, dance, and choreography. She is an author, Pilates master teacher, yoga instructor and lifestyle expert. She is regularly a guest lecturer and instructor at renowned educational health institutions and spa facilities worldwide. Jennifer is a true Pilates pioneer and was the first to bring Pilates to the masses with her award-winning videos and DVDs, The Method Series and Fox/Fit TV’s, The Method Show that revolutionized the fitness community and started the explosive wave of enthusiasm for Pilates mind-body exercise.

Jennifer discovered Pilates’ timeless principles at age 13 in a mat class at New York’s School of American Ballet given by Pilates disciple, Eve Gentry. She went on to study with two more of Pilates’ original disciples, Romana Kryzanowska and Ron Fletcher. She holds a certification through the original Pilates Studio under Romana Kryzanowska and is one of the country’s privileged few 2nd generation Classically trained Pilates Master Teachers. As professional dancer and yoga devotee, she brings a dynamic and progressive, yet traditional perspective to her Pilates teaching. Her work transforms bodies and minds in keeping with the passionate spirit that led Joseph Pilates to create his system.

She has practiced yoga since 1988 and has been teaching and inspiring thousands with her unique approach to yoga since 1995. She trained with Lindsey Clennell at the Iyengar Institute in New York City, with Alan Finger, Founder of the ISHTA System and BeYoga Studios, NYC, with Sarah Powers, master teacher of Yin Yoga and Buddhist meditation at the Kripalu Center in Lenox, MA and with the esteemed Kofi Busia, one of B.K.S. Iyengar’s renowned Senior teachers. Jennifer's yoga style blends a heating flow or Yang Vinyasa practice, influenced by Hatha, Ashtanga, Iyengar and Kundalini styles with a Yin component, a practice of long held poses to enhance and harmonize the body’s the meridian and organ systems to create total balance and health in the body-mind. The synergy of her Pilates and Yoga background, her intensive study of anatomy with renowned exercise physiologist and movement scientist, Irene Dowd, coupled with her own study of eastern philosophies and schools of movement such as the “soft arts” of Qigong and Bone Marrow Nei Kung with Qigong Masters, Mantak Chia, and Roger Jahnke led Jennifer to develop her new Hot Body Cool Mind system.

As much a dancer as a fitness expert, she made her professional debut at sixteen in Balanchine’s “Serenade” with Edward Villella’s Eglevsky Ballet. After becoming a member of Pennsylvania Ballet at sixteen, she was discovered by Matt Mattox disciple, Shimon Braun of Philadelphia’s Waves Jazz Dance Company. She quickly rose to the rank of principle, performing in such houses as the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, Royal Festival Hall, London and L’Opera de Paris, as well as making guest appearances with Philadanco, the Bat Sheva Dance Company, Lar Lubovitch, Roland Petit’s Ballet de Marseilles, Opus I Contemporary, Balletto di Toscana in Florence, and in film, Donald Byrd’s Next Step. She has an eclectic number of choreography and teaching credits, among them, New York City Ballet, Hubbard Street Chicago, and Pennsylvania Ballet Summer residencies and Sade’s music video “No Ordinary Love. She founded her own company, Contemporary Dance Theatre New York in 1997 and has choreographed several seasons of work in New York City, performing at Lincoln Center and other renowned venues to sold out houses and rave reviews.

One of the world’s preeminent mind-body master teachers, she is responsible for launching many of today’s most respected professionals who teach either traditional Pilates or The Method, her trademark mind-body synthesis: Pilates, yoga, and dance. She is the founder of New York’s Balance Pilates, Yoga, and Dance; and Hot Body Cool Mind—The Studio in Philadelphia, Artistic Director and Founder of Contemporary Dance Theatre New York and most recently, creator and producer of yet two other ground-breaking DVD series, Hot Body Cool Mind: The Life Force Power Workout which presents the best of Pilates, Yoga and Dance and Jennifer Kries The Pilates Method Master Trainer Series.

Her approach to personal fitness is unsurpassed. Jennifer brings unmatched clarity and an extraordinary perspective to her teaching. She has inspired countless readers, practitioners, graduates of her programs, and viewers alike to embrace her all-encompassing philosophy of movement, art, health, life and energy. Through her inspiring work, she helps people transform far more than their bodies, leading them to experience a joyful connection to themselves and to tap into a reserve of power, mobility and clarity like never before. Her attention to detail, superb teaching style, artistry, and knowledge of Eastern healing techniques, anatomy and energy dynamics makes her one of the most highly sought-after mind-body teachers in the world today.

For more information about Jennifer please checkout her website www.JenniferKries.com.

Jennifer Kries