Presenter Bios - PPN Conference 2025
Leila Kester
Leila is a Senior Pilates Specialist who lives in Amsterdam. She has a vast teaching experience, as her teaching of Pilates started in London back in the 80’s. Since then she has continued to study, with numerous inspiring teachers such as Clarice Marshall, Madeline Black, Elizabeth Larkam and Brent Anderson. Leila has been teaching dancers at Nederlands Dans Theater and Het Nationale Ballet for close to thirty years. Working closely with these incredible movers has had a huge influence on her development as a teacher, making her question many issues regarding aesthetic, being process or result driven and what it is to have a healthy relationship with your body.
Leila is an educator for Polestar Pilates, educating new generations of teachers in Amsterdam, Leuven (Belgium) and Athens since 2009. Further more Leila has taught her own workshops and material both in The Netherlands and abroad, and she has been a presenter at four IADMS conferences. In the centre of Amsterdam she has her own studio where also several other teachers work, and where she offers small immersive workshops for teachers who wish to further develop themselves.
Helen Stamatakos
Helen Stamatakos is a leading Pilates educator from Sydney Australia with over 25 years’ experience. She is renowned for her work with elite athletes—ranging from professional footballers to Olympians—helping them optimise performance, recovery, and injury prevention. Helen has presented at major industry events, including the Pilates Journal Expo and the Pilates Alliance Australia Conference at ICC Sydney, and is frequently featured in Australian media for her expertise. Through her studio Pilates Insync and her role as an educator, Helen continues to shape the next generation of Pilates professionals, and she is now extending her reach internationally, sharing her knowledge with Pilates communities abroad.
Amy Cox
Amy Cox has been a Pilates instructor for over 30 years. She trained in New York City with Cori Doetzer with whom she also worked for 12 years. During that fruitful learning period she worked as a modern dancer, choreographer and director - where the study of movement went hand in hand with choreographic creation and teaching clients. Amy founded The Movement Practice, a Pilates and movement studio in Amsterdam, in 2008. Amy holds certifications in; Gyrotonic® and Gyrokinesis® (1998) BASI® (Body Arts and Sciences International) Pilates (2015) and Structural Integration/Anatomy Trains (2022). Together with an amazing staff of administrators and educators, Amy runs the BASI Pilates Benelux license. It gives her great joy to promote Rael Isacowitz’s comprehensive and innovative BASI Pilates training program to students and teachers around the world.
Jolanda Hoefnagel
I am the owner of K'dans, studio 'in beweging' in The Hague ( NL).
With a background as a teacher in Physical Education I have developed a great interest and knowledge about the human body and its function…..
In my studio we help our clients to MOVE as efficient as possible and live a pain free & strong life , and as a STOTT PILATES Instructor Trainer I share the beauty & depth of the Pilates method with my students from all over the world and help to build everyone’s own strength as a teacher.
Next to my PE degree and STOTT PILATES Instructor Trainer, I am a continuous learning student:
Part of my work and background: Fascial Movement Trainer and Movnat certified trainer . MELT level 5 certified and Franklin Method and trained by many many Master trainers around the world.
I am looking forward to share some playfull integrations of different movement modalities at the PPN convention
4th Annual PPN Convention | In Harmony: Bridging Pilates Styles
✨ Buy your tickets now and book your chosen route for the day (choose between two parallel workshops)