Kara Wily’s New Pilates DVD Receives a Rock’n Review

By Siri D. Galliano

When Kara Wily, a long-time certified teacher of Romana Kryzanowska, first asked me to review her new DVD Slim and Tone Pilates, I was shocked at her thinking there is even a need for another Pilates mat DVD.  I was surprised by her confidence in asking, as I am a die-hard fanatic of not changing Joe Pilates or Romana’s original work. Not only was I pleased to find out Ms. Wily is also uncompromising, I was personally thrilled to learn from her.  I now have a new workout for myself and my students.

Rather than watch it, I decided to work out and feel it.  I stopped within the first ten minutes of watching, happy to be a voyeur and to take notes on the fantastic flow of the non-fused, non-confused, non-compromising Pilates work Kara
delivers.

Even though there is a sequence to the Classical Matwork, there is also a lot of room for creativity, and Kara remembers Romana teaching her enough mat variations and reformer-without-the-reformer combinations to make this a beautiful rendition with no gadgets, no adaptations and no wasted projections of personality.

Repeatability being the number one positive aspect of any exercise DVD, I could work out to this again and again. Professionally directed and produced with original music, it has an exterior location and a director of photography whose moving camera compliments the natural beauty of Kara Wily.  A mother of two, dressed in simple wardrobe and makeup, wearing a perfect body with sculpted legs, arms and back formed out of years of work.  Her clear directions sing like a nursery rhyme as she guides you, gracefully executing traditional movements on a raised platform above green grass and below blue skies. The background lends serenity and interest.  She performs in front of trees,while the camera simultaneously and pleasantly pans her with either the pool, Greek columns, with the garden or ocean in the background.

Kara, in a lyrical, attractive, non-static, honest voice, passionately and rhythmically, teaches Kara, which is truly how the mind itself directs our own bodies.  She is instinctively herself, using the simplest of anatomical terms in an interesting way, like “use the power where the glutes and hamstrings meet,” and charming words you will steal, like “taffy,” to convey the feeling of stretching muscles in opposition.

Kara Wily’s transitions and tips will not only inspire you to work out but view the DVD again, and use them the very next time you teach:
- Referring to the Double Leg stretch, she shares, “Joe Pilates said that if you only do one exercise per day this should be it.”
- While demonstrating the Hundred, she instructs to “lift the arms long above the heart” while allowing you to support the head with one arm if you need it.
- The Hundreds are followed by Single-Leg-Circles, flowing into Climb-a-Tree, a surprising but natural move.
- “The Teaser is the granddaddy of all stomach exercises,” and it flows into the Can-Can, into Swan, into Rolling-like-a-Ball, with “the nose over your hips.”
- The Saw turns into the Swakate series into Profile, where “the arm lifts over the head like starting a lawn mower.”
- The Leg-Pull flows into the Rocking, where she presses her heels into her hands “like an ever expanding bubble.”
- The Rocking turns into the Knee Stretches, which flows into the Russian Splits with Push-ups, and then a clean move into Standing Chest-Expansion into Standing Knee-Lifts, done with ‘freedom in the neck.” Then? Here?

Kara gets suddenly sexier in a perky-nippled close-up as she finishes with joyfully Jumping Front and Back.

Although this is clearly a workout for a healthy body, she gives well-executed modifications within the movements without stopping the workout, such as wrapping an arm around the ribs during Saw and clarifying Pulling-Straps for anyone with shoulder problems.

The high, high production value aside, the narrative makes this DVD not only compete but exceeds the other Peter Fiasca and Romana classical mat DVD’s where you’ll find cuing of the “Powerhouse” twelve times an exercise or mulitple minutes spent in opening commercials and varied voices teaching.

This DVD is a great collector’s item wonderfully directed by Andrea Ambandos.  I have two critiques of this DVD; during the last seconds, Kara should resume talking directly to the camera rather than a voiceover, complimenting you on the wonderful job you’ve just done.  And Kara’s well deserving name is not on the cover which looks like a generic brand. Let’s hope if the Pilates people don’t yet acknowledge her as one of the best, she sees the rewarding sales she deserves. She has done her teacher and self proud by delivering pure Pilates.  Without hesitation, this thirty minute workout should end up in your personal repertoire of Pilates perfection.

To purchase this DVD, visit KaraWilyPilates.com.

About the Author: Siri Galliano of Live Art Pilates travels to big and small studios all over the world to teach safety on equipment and the Traditional Work.  She is the director of the Traditional Big Bear Pilates Intensive in the mountains of Southern California and can be reached at liveartpilates@earthlink.net.

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