Dianne Miller

Dianne Miller opened Canada’s first Pilates center in 1985 and trained the first Pilates teachers in Canada.

Read more about Dianne and her legacy below.

Our Founder

Dianne brought Pilates to Canada in 1984, when she first used the Pilates Method to rehabilitate an injured dancer.

Dianne Miller looking directly at the camera and smiling

Dianne came to Pilates through the ballet world. She was a professional dancer who returned to her first love, teaching, under the tutelage of her mentor, Ruth Carse. She has taught at all levels, from children through professional dancers in both ballet and modern dance companies. Additionally, she spent ten years teaching ballet in the degree program in dance at Simon Fraser University’s School for the Contemporary Arts. She continues to teach ballet to selected professionals and injured dancers needing rehabilitation.

In 2005, she sold the studio to long time associate Mairin Wilde. This ongoing collaboration which began as the renowned Dianne Miller Pilates Center, evolved into what is today the Vancouver Pilates Centre. Mairin continues to lead the VPC as a provider of excellence in Pilates training, with a superb staff of DMPTEP and VPC trained teachers.

Dianne began her Pilates training with Ron Fletcher in 1978, and continued to train with him throughout his teaching years. She also trained with Mary Bowen, Eve Gentry, and Kathy Grant. These four elders of the Pilates Method have remained major influences in her life.

Dianne developed the Dianne Miller Pilates Teacher Education Program™ in order to train the next generation of Pilates teachers. In addition to her commitment to providing the highest quality Pilates training possible, Dianne successfully challenged applications to trademark the name "Pilates" in Canada, on behalf of those teachers she had trained. Her efforts to preserve the right to teach the method and use its creator's name have benefited every Pilates teacher in Canada, and have contributed to the widespread popularity of the Pilates method of exercise.

She is a founding member of the Pilates Method Alliance, the international not-for-profit organization for the Pilates Method. Dianne became the first Canadian Board Member of the Alliance, and was an invited contributor to the development of the P.M.A. Pilates Certification Exam. Dianne is also a Franklin Method Educator, Level Three, Boulder, Colorado 2011.