Sharmila is one of today’s leading Pilates instructors in Southern California. She has over twenty years of progressive Pilates experience as a teacher, teacher trainer, and studio owner. In 1999, she apprenticed under the late master trainer Romana Kryzanowska, a protégé of Joseph Pilates, consequently earning her a certification under Kryzanowska’s tutelage. Sharmila’s 25 years of dance experience as a performer, choreographer, and adjudicator. In essence, this was the precursor for her passion in examining the convergence of technical and artistic human movement.
She received a secondary Pilates certification through Power Pilates, then expanded her study of human anatomy through at New York’s Westside Dance Physical Therapy (WDPT), receiving a certificate in dance medicine. At WDPT, Sharmila studied side by side with physical therapists that oversee the health of the New York City Ballet and other professional dance companies. In 2016, she was certified in the Gyrotonic® Expansion System, under master trainer Suzie Lewis, with subsequent concentrations in the application of Gyrotonic® for Dancers, to educate dancers in dramatically increasing their strength, stability, and range of motion. In 2016, she was featured on Lauren Ritchie’s Dance Podcast, available through iTunes.
Sharmila has worked with Hollywood’s leading actresses, including Jennifer Jason Leigh, Mary Louise Parker, and Academy Award nominee Toni Collette, as well as former Victoria’s Secret Model Yasmeen Ghauri and former Miss America Maryann Mobley. She is a frequent lecturer at universities, teaching dance medicine workshops on injury prevention and wellness.
Sharmila guides her clients’ development not only physically, but mentally and emotionally as well. Besides operating a Pilates and Gyrotonic® studio in Anaheim, California, she is also a performance coach, often guiding her clients’ athletes and artists alike, to a place of trust, potential, and growth. She is as an Adjunct Lecturer at California State University, Long Beach’s Department of Dance.
She holds a master’s degree in spiritual psychology from the University of Santa Monica, with an emphasis in consciousness, health, and healing, and bachelor’s degrees in dance and communication from California State University, Fullerton.
Sharmila’s story:
“I started Pilates in 1997 while working as a dance instructor. I was diagnosed with Alopecia Areata, an autoimmune disease and Pilates was the only modality that made me feel better. Shortly after, I moved to Manhattan to apprentice with my teacher, the late Romana Kryzanowska, a protégé of Joseph Pilates, and consequently earned my first instructor certification under her tutelage. During this time in my life, I worked for and learned under many of Romana’s students: Bob Liekens, Michael Fritzke, Ton Voogt, Niedra Gabriel, Adylia Roman and Mejo Wiggin. When I moved back to Los Angeles, I managed the Pilates studio at Equinox’s facility in Pasadena. During this time, I earned a second instructor certification training through Power Pilates.
To deepen my study of anatomy, I studied dance medicine through New York’s Westside Dance Physical Therapy, learning side by side with physical therapists that oversee the health of the New York City Ballet and other professional dance companies. In 2016, I became a certified GYROTONIC® instructor, after training intensively with master trainer, Suzie Lewis.” In 2017, I attended the Applications for Dancers GYROTONIC® training.”
Check our events page for Sharmila’s most up-to-date workshop and seminar schedule.