Our Team
Shirah Perry
Co-founder, Teacher Trainer
she / her
Originally from Philadelphia, Shirah began her movement career as a ballet and contemporary dancer. After completing her BFA in Ballet Pedagogy she moved to New York City, where she worked as a dancer, dance teacher, and choreographer. While exploring the dance community in New York, presenting work and participating in local and international dance workshops and festivals, Shirah sought out Pilates as an avenue both to cross-train and as a potential additional source of work. She completed a Comprehensive Pilates certification and began working as a Pilates instructor in New York before eventually landing in Berlin in 2016.
As she gained experience, Shirah fell in love with teaching functional movement and dove headfirst into her work as an instructor. While teaching barre and contemporary Pilates, she completed a yoga certification (200RYT) and pursued continuing education in anatomy, therapeutic exercise for breast cancer and chest wall surgery, prenatal and postpartum exercise, and restorative yoga. She is currently completing a certification as a postpartum corrective exercise specialist (PCES). Shirah has taught in North America, Europe, and Africa, and is the co-founder of re:form.
Shirah’s teaching style is rigorous, intuitive, and analytical. She cultivates a regular yoga and meditation practice and tries not to kill her plants.
Katherine LaPlant
Co-founder, Teacher Trainer
she / her
Raised in New England with California roots, Katherine came to Berlin by way of Los Angeles where she left a career in TV production to pursue movement instruction. Having discovered a personal sense of physical and mental restoration in building a regular Pilates practice, she was driven to facilitate this experience for other over-scheduled and stressed-out Angelinos. Katherine launched her new career in 2013 with offerings in contemporary reformer Pilates and treadmill HIIT with an emphasis on tough but thoughtful programming. Her resume quickly grew to include personal training, prenatal fitness instruction, and postpartum corrective exercise.
Since moving to Berlin in 2016, Katherine’s practice has expanded to include barre fitness instruction and teacher training. She is additionally certified in the Functional Range Systems as a mobility assessment and training specialist. In 2020, Katherine established a private Pilates studio in West Berlin and pursued continuing education workshops in advanced prenatal concepts and Functional Anatomy for Movement and Injuries. She is the co-founder of re:form.
Katherine’s teaching style is methodical, precise, and energetic. She is a recreational runner and also a mother of two.
Emily Hart
Teacher Trainer, re:form Barre Teacher Training Graduate
she / her
Hailing from Florida, and now based in Zürich, Emily is re:form’s first Assistant Teacher Trainer.
In her early adulthood, Emily’s encounters with Pilates, barre, and indoor cycling sparked a love of fitness and movement. Several years, a move to Berlin, and hundreds of fitness classes later, Emily realized that the positive impact a regular movement practice had on her mental health was something she wanted to share and to help others discover. This desire inspired her to take the leap of leaving her job in Berlin’s start-up scene to become a group fitness instructor. Emily began her fitness career as an indoor cycling instructor, but jumped at the opportunity to certify in her long-favored modality in re:form’s inaugural Barre Teacher Training.
Since then, Emily has become a certified personal trainer, certified corrective exercise specialist in the BioMechanics Method, continued her education in working with prenatal and postpartum clients, and pursued her Pilates certification in both mat and apparatus. She currently teaches Lagree and Barre in Zürich and maintains a YouTube channel, Emily’s Aligned Fitness, featuring at-home workouts.
Emily’s teaching style is enthusiastic, creative, and alignment-focused. She is an avid at-home-exerciser, reader, and baker.