Olivia Stuart

Olivia is a Master instructor with Balanced Body and a faculty member with the Charlotte Ballet. She studied at The Julliard School and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance composition from SUNY Purchase College.

Olivia was first exposed to Pilates as a student at the American Ballet Theatre. She began practicing Pilates as a method of cross training and she continued the practice throughout her professional career with the Pennsylvania Ballet and the Nashville Ballet. When she suffered an ankle injury, her surgeon told her that her career was effectively over as she would never dance en pointe again. It was at this time that she began practicing Pilates not just for conditioning but as an adjunctive treatment during physical therapy as she rehabilitated her ankle. This experience was transformative for Olivia and she decided that she wanted to be able to bring this transformational practice to others. She became comprehensively Balanced Body certified under the tutelage of David Gensheimer and Jennifer McNamara. After two years of a diligent and focused Pilates practice, Olivia defied her surgeon’s prediction and went on to dance for four more years feeling stronger and more centered than she had prior to her injury.

After retiring from her career in ballet, Olivia embarked on her new career as a Pilates instructor. Although this path grew out of circumstance, Olivia is incredibly thankful for the road that brought her to where she is now as she has a career that allows her to combine her passion of movement and teaching to help change lives in a meaningful way. While she teaches a diverse population of students, Olivia realized that due to her own experiences as a dancer she is in a unique position to encourage dancers to incorporate Pilates into their training. She developed a Pilates based conditioning and injury prevention class for the Nashville Ballet that she has since taught at other ballet schools across the country. Another special population Olivia enjoys working with is pre and post-natal mothers. As a mother herself, Olivia recognizes this special time in a woman’s life, and she designs programs that can help facilitate a smooth delivery and faster recovery post-delivery. Olivia is continuously awed by the human body and its ability to guide and heal itself through movement. While Olivia adapts her instruction to meet the unique goals of every client, injury prevention and total body strength through proper alignment are the principle foundations of her teaching.