Our Teachers

Julia Stetson

Owner & Master Teacher

Julia a third-generation Classical Pilates instructor certified through Real Pilates® NYC, the studio is rooted in an authentic lineage that traces directly back to Joseph Pilates himself. That lineage represents generations of accumulated knowledge passed from teacher to teacher — preserving the depth, precision, and integrity of the method as it was originally intended to be taught.

Julia has completed the Mejo Wiggin Classical Syllabus, Carrie Russo’s Mentorship Program and Pilates Lab, and continues to study weekly with some of the most respected teachers in the field, including Sonje Mayo, Clare Dunphy Hemani, Shari Berkowitz, Cynthia Shipley, and Victoria Torrie-Capan. For Julia, learning is an ongoing practice.

Her relationship with movement began long before Pilates. Julia trained at the School for Creative and Performing Arts before earning her BFA from the College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) at the University of Cincinnati. She went on to perform professionally with Dayton Ballet, Albany Berkshire Ballet, Cincinnati Ballet, Ballet Quad Cities, and the José Mateo Ballet Theatre in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

That performance career naturally evolved into decades of teaching and mentorship. Julia taught dancers of all ages, coordinated productions including The Nutcracker, and helped shape young artists with the same precision and discipline that defined her own training. That background in dance remains inseparable from the way she teaches Pilates today: every cue, correction, and eye for alignment is informed by decades spent living inside the moving body.

Certified in Pregnancy and Postpartum Corrective Exercise through Dr. Sarah Duvall, and additionally trained in the Burdenko Method and Barre Boston, Julia works with dancers, athletes, new mothers, and anyone seeking to build strength, improve alignment, and move with greater confidence and ease.

Beyond her work with clients, Julia is passionate about supporting the next generation of Classical Pilates instructors. Real Pilates Boston is proud to serve as a host studio for Alycea Ungaro’s Real Pilates Teacher Training Program — one of the most rigorous and respected classical Pilates certification programs in the world, rooted in the direct lineage of Romana Kryzanowska.

Through this partnership, the studio serves as a Boston-area home for teacher trainees, offering access to authentic Gratz apparatus, experienced mentorship, and a living classical environment in which to observe, practice, and grow. With decades of experience across both dance and Pilates education, Julia brings the same precision, care, and integrity to mentoring instructors that she brings to every client she teaches.