We exist to positively advance the relationship the world has with movement.
Accredited teacher training since 2011, in person across Australia and online worldwide.
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Accredited teacher training since 2011, in person across Australia and online worldwide.
In Balance Education was founded in 2011 from a belief that the standard of Pilates education could move forward.
Founder Sammy Dorahy had already built a successful Pilates and wellness studio and begun delivering teacher training. Working closely with instructors gave her a clear view of the gap between where the industry was heading and the education preparing people to enter it. She saw an opportunity to build education that went further than exercises and qualifications, developing a deeper understanding of movement, communication and coaching.
Sammy approached Isaac Lucien, now CEO, to help shape and launch In Balance Education. Isaac came with years of leadership across the fitness industry and a willingness to look at Pilates with fresh eyes, questioning what had always been done and what could be done better.
Isaac then introduced long-term friend and mentor Luke Khoury as Director of Education. With more than two decades across university education, high performance and movement, Luke added academic depth, scrutiny and a measured approach to change.
Three very different perspectives. Sammy understood the Pilates industry from the inside. Isaac brought strategy and an appetite to challenge convention. Luke brought rigour and the discipline to slow down and ask why.
That combination became the foundation of In Balance Education: respect what deserves to remain, question what no longer serves, and keep advancing what comes next.
The thinking quickly travelled beyond Australia. Early courses in Europe led Sammy and Isaac onto the road, travelling through five countries in ten days, visiting studios, meeting people and understanding the opportunity firsthand. That same approach continues to shape how In Balance grows today, through the students, educators, studio partners and communities we work alongside.
Our ambition extends beyond qualifying instructors. We want to develop teachers who can think critically, communicate well, understand the principles behind what they teach and adapt them to the person in front of them.
People with the confidence to lead and the curiosity to keep learning.
Advancing Human Movement.
To set the global standard for Pilates education.
We are building a global education network grounded in principles, critical thinking and a deeper understanding of movement. One that respects where Pilates has come from while challenging convention, advancing how it is taught, and developing the teachers, educators and studio partners who will shape where it goes next.
Methods are many. Principles are few.
We respect where Pilates has come from without being confined by convention. We teach foundations that endure, encourage critical thinking over blind repetition, and develop teachers who can adapt what they know to the person in front of them.
We teach principles, not methods - building the understanding to know what you’re teaching, why it matters and how to apply it beyond a set of steps. We develop teachers who can think critically, read the person in front of them and make informed decisions in any environment - knowing why, not just what
There was always more. More to understand. More to question. More to uncover.
Movement has been at the centre of my life for more than thirty-five years - through a career in health and fitness, learning body by body what it takes to help someone move better. Then I found Pilates, and it made me curious again. It changed the way I looked at the body and the way it moves.
When I completed my teacher training, I walked in with decades behind me, and one question wouldn’t leave me: if I didn’t already have that background, would I feel ready to teach? I opened a studio in Southern Sydney and spent nine years finding out. I watched new instructors who knew every exercise freeze when a body didn’t respond the way the manual said it would. They had been taught what to say. Nobody had taught them how to see. Somewhere in those nine years, I decided to stop accepting what the industry had settled for and redefine what education should demand. In Balance became that decision.
Nothing worth building is built alone. That’s where Isaac Lucien and Luke Khoury came in. On the surface, we’re not the team you’d expect - and that’s exactly the point. Isaac builds systems and technology with an attention to detail like I’ve never seen; where I see the vision, he sees how to build it. Luke is measured and academic, always pushing us to question the thinking behind what we do. Different minds. Different instincts. One uncompromising standard for what In Balance can become. We push each other constantly, and that’s what makes it stronger.
We didn’t build In Balance to produce more instructors. We built it because education can ask more of its teachers - more curiosity and a greater willingness to keep learning. We respect what Joseph Pilates built, and we believe honouring a legacy doesn’t mean leaving it untouched. Approaches change. Understanding endures. We teach principles, not formulas, so instructors understand what they’re teaching, why it matters and how to adapt it. We don’t just teach what. We teach why.
Today, that standard has reached students in 22 countries. Pilates is growing. So should the way we educate the people teaching it. We’re here to challenge what education has become, elevate the standard and keep it evolving.
Not chasing perfection. Choosing progress. There is always more.
Sammy x
Founder & Managing Director
Sydney, NSW
CEO & Operations Director
Sydney, NSW
Founding Education Advisor
Sydney, NSWAUSactive-accredited and internationally recognised through ICREPs, with In Balance education delivered across Australia, New Zealand, Asia Pacific and Europe.
Everything you need to know
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