Director & Founder

Dr. Penelope Latey, affectionately known as Penny, is a renowned Pilates instructor with over 40 years of experience. Her Pilates journey began in 1979 in London, where she studied under Alan Herdman and Dreas Reneke at the Body Conditioning Studio, while also pursuing a career as a dancer at the London Contemporary Dance School. In the mid-1980s, Penny began incorporating a therapeutic, hands-on approach to Pilates after completing extensive courses in Anatomy, Physiology, Massage, and Counselling.

Today, Penny serves as Director and Senior Practitioner at the Modern Pilates Studio and holds the role of Senior Clinical Lecturer and Research Supervisor at the University of Sydney. She has been an integral part of the Federal Government's Natural Therapies Review Expert Advisory Panel, and her academic contributions include a Master's degree and PhD, as well as ongoing research supervision in the Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of Sydney. Her MSc (Research) project, completed at the University of Technology Sydney in 2011, focused on examining the role of Pilates in correcting dysfunctional feet and its effects on postural stability in older adults. She furthered this research in her 2019 PhD thesis, titled "Measuring and Managing Foot Muscle Weakness."

Since moving to Australia in the late 1980s, Penny has trained and mentored numerous Pilates instructors. She pioneered the first university-based Pilates instructor course at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) from 2001 to 2005 and helped establish the Pilates Method in South Korea through her work with the South Korean Pilates Association in Seoul. In addition to her teaching, Penny authored Modern Pilates (Allen & Unwin, 2000) and contributed to several peer-reviewed publications and book chapters on Pilates and rehabilitation.

Penny's impact on the Pilates profession is immense. She presented the first formal Pilates Method Instructor Training Course in Australia in 1992 and co-founded the Australian Pilates Method Association (APMA) in 1996, serving as its first President. Through her structured Pilates Teacher Training Course curriculum and Train the Trainer programs, Penny has shared her expertise globally, presenting at various conferences and continuing to inspire the next generation of Pilates professionals.

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