The Ultimate Gift

One year ago, Kahley Schiller’s life was completely upended by an extreme health crisis. But thanks to her 20-year Pilates practice, the 40-year-old was able to recover quickly.

- Kahley Schiller

KAHLEY SCHILLER ON THE REFORMER 11 MONTHS AFTER HER LIVER TRANSPLANT.

GROWING UP IN KANSAS CITY, MO, I STARTED TAKING DANCE LESSONS AT AGE 10. Being a dancer was all I wanted to be. So when I was accepted as a dance major at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas in 2000, I was thrilled.

A downside to my years of dancing, however, was that I suffered from chronic knee pain. Shortly after starting college, I was advised to have surgery on both knees. Thankfully, I had just started taking Pilates because it was a three-semester requirement for dance majors. I was incredibly lucky enough to have Dolly Kelepecz as my teacher.

Dolly had trained under EveGentry and had started the Pilates program at UNLV. She became my guiding force. She helped me rehab my knees—the results from Pilates were absolutely amazing. I had no more pain and didn’t need surgery!

REALIZING MY DREAM

After that, I knew I wanted to make Pilates my career. I told Dolly that I hoped to learn everything that I could from her, then return home and start my own studio. And I did exactly that.

After I was certified by Dolly through D.K. Body Balancing and UNLV, I became an instructor at the university, teaching Pilates to dance majors. I also taught at Dolly's studio, traveled to Tokyo to open her first studio in Japan, and became UNLV’s master teacher/ trainer for the Pilates certification.