Locate a Graduate

Jennifer began Pilates lessons in 1999 with Carla Schmitke at Pilates of the Foothills and it was love at first Hug a Tree. Even during her first lesson she could tell that Pilates would keep her healthy, strong, and pain-free throughout her life. She has spent a large portion of the last three decades trying to figure out when she can fit a Pilates workout into her day.
Jennifer’s academic training was as a scholar, and she taught high school English and coached speech and debate for ten years. She brings the same drive to learn and share what she has learned to her Pilates practice. She is constantly working to improve her understanding of bodies and how to keep them well and moving with ease through the Pilates method. She is a Nationally Certified Pilates Teacher through the National Pilates Certification Program (NPCP). She trained to teach Classical Pilates with Rachel and Amy Taylor at the Pilates Center in Boulder, Colorado, and has studied Pilates for pelvic floor health in pregnancy and menopause with Carolyne Anthony. In 2023, Jennifer completed Heritage Training with Cara Reeser, which focused on the work of Kathy Grant, one of the foremost interpreters of Joseph Pilates’ method. Jennifer is currently studying the work of Blossom Leilani Crawford, another of Kathy Grant’s disciples.
Jennifer’s approach to teaching Pilates is also rooted in her understanding of what it is to be a beginner at learning a skill. She believes that a good teacher should always be learning something that does not come naturally to her. She was 41 and a new mom when she began learning ballet under Carla Parks at the Academy of Classical Ballet in Lakewood. Even with a strong background in Pilates, it was not easy to learn how to move like a ballerina at an age when most professional dancers retire. So, Jennifer knows what it’s like to be the least experienced person in a class, the person who can’t remember how to do a combination, and how long it takes for muscles to learn something new.
Jennifer believes that the practice of Pilates is the art of human body maintenance, and that the teaching of Pilates is Physical Education — a liberal art. As a Pilates teacher, her priority is to promote and protect a client’s bodily integrity so that they can build sound strength, agility, and flexibility, while educating her clients about the science and the art of human bodily movement. She approaches each client as the individual they are, challenging them to the height of their personal ability with care and attention.
In 2021, Jennifer founded Nurture Pilates, with the dual purpose of bringing Classical Pilates to the heart of the Park Hill neighborhood in Denver and giving back to the community. Nurture Pilates’ current community outreach includes partnerships with the Park Hill Elementary School PTSA, the McAuliffe at Smiley Foundation (supporting McAuliffe Middle School), the Greater Park Hill Community organization, and St. Thomas Episcopal Church.
Jennifer’s specialties are Pilates for pelvic floor health, Pilates in pregnancy and in menopause, and (counterintuitively!) Pilates for men.