Cari has been teaching Pilates since 1997 and educating Pilates teachers since 2001. She has an extensive background in Pilates, dance, movement science, anatomy and yoga.
Her professional dance career began in 1991. She performed both company and commercial work in Minneapolis, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver, and South America. She performed with Ballet of the Dolls, Winifred Harris’ Between Lines, and Cirque Productions among others. She has been a practitioner of Ashtanga and Anusara yoga since 1996 and started teaching Pilates in 1997 while dancing professionally in Los Angeles. In 2002, she earned her ACE & NASM certifications.
In 2004, Cari trained in Dance Medicine with the prestigious Harkness Center for Dance and has lectured at national dance summits at the Edge Performing Arts Center in Los Angeles and in Minnesota for the Minnesota Dance Medicine Foundation. She also served as Education Chair for the Minnesota Dance Medicine Foundation from 2011-2018, and started their “Ask the Experts” outreach program.
Cari was part of the original movement that pioneered the idea of combining Pilates and physical therapy at Core Conditioning in Los Angeles, CA. In 2009, she moved back to her home state of MN and opened Paragon, which was the first fully integrated Pilates and physical therapy studio in the region.
She is a PMA Gold certified Master Teacher and teaches comprehensive Pilates teacher training courses and continuing education as a Senior Master Instructor for Balanced Body Education.
In March 2007, she became a BB Master Instructor for Pilates Teacher Training as part of the inaugural group at Balanced Body. In 2009 she added BBMI for Anatomy in Three Dimensions, 2015 Bodhi Suspension System, and 2017 CoreAlign.
Cari also teaches continuing education courses on integrating Pilates with physical therapy and special conditions, and has presented at national Pilates conferences since 2005 including Pilates on Tour and Pilates Method Alliance. She was invited by Balanced Body to contribute to their video podcast library. Check out her Balanced Body video podcasts for Athletes.
Cari holds a B.A. degree in Cross-cultural Communication from the University of Minnesota, has attended countless hours of continuing education coursework, and is a casual student of neuroscience. She enjoys helping those individuals with involved and complex movement issues, taking a whole-body myofascial approach to healing.