Imagine if you will, being a person with a deep love for Pilates, but having no one to share it with. Kind of awful, wouldn’t you say? Such was the case for a new friend of mine, Hanne Bignell, living in Norway. Let me tell you a little about her interesting story.
Hanne is a very young middle aged 42 year old woman, and has just had the pleasure of having a second child. She currently teaches Pilates at a Folk High School (a Scandinavian boarding school with one year programs) near Oslo.
Like many of us, Hanne was introduced to Pilates in via her budding dance career back in the early 90’s, known to her then as Pilates Body control.
Anxious to deepen her skills as a dancer, she moved to the dance mecca, New York City in 1995, to attend the Martha Graham School. There she saw a poster advertising a Pilates school, and she thought, “Yes, that is what I want to do. I knew nothing about Pilates, and certainly nothing about the politics”, she relates. By great luck, the school happened to be that of Romana Kryzanowska. Unsurprisingly, she started to see the depth, found it amazing and the results in her body were nothing short of spectacular. “Romana was an amazing person an amazing person. Her hands and instinct about what your body needed were inspirational. She had a great energy about her, sometimes sitting in the reception area like our grandmother, telling stories about her time with Joe Pilates. Being with her required early mornings, as Romana worked from 7 am to 1 pm. It was great to have a session before morning dance class.
Hanne doing breast stroke with Romana. That is her friend Libby doing horse back. Nice work!
“They were busy days, in the afternoon after dance classes I was back at Romana’s studio to do apprentice hours. It was a great time. Brooke Siler was around, along with Michael and Ton.”
Hanne’s immersion into Pilates continued with Alycea Ungaro, with whom she landed her first job as a teacher in 1997, where all were Romana trained. “Alycea’s business acumen was admirable, she was open to new things, yet utterly dedicated to high quality. She was very supportive of me, and I find her influence in my own teaching still today.”
Nice teaser Hanne!
In 1999, Hanne tired of New York, and had the urge to return to the slower pace and cleaner environment of Norway. After doing so, she got her first taste of isolation, and she immediately regretted her decision. After those years of bathing in the richness that Romana and Alycea had provided her, she suddenly found herself utterly alone and misunderstood. Exercise class without music was too foreign for the Norwegian fitness enthusiast. Within months she jumped on the chance to teach in Bermuda.
By happy coincidence, she met in Bermuda a nice Englishman, and so stayed there teaching for a few years. During this time, Hanne’s eyes were opened to many different styles of Pilates. She had many discussions with colleagues of different backgrounds and levels of experience. “I realized that the quality of the work depended less on the school and more on how the individual continued to develop her understanding of the principals of Pilates.”
She returned again to Norway in 2003, Englishman in tow, and more ready to face her role a Pilates pioneer. She opened a studio in 2003 with a Romana trained colleague, Lene Danielsen, following the strict pattern she was taught at Romana’s school of teaching only private sessions and mat classes. She found, however, that though people knew of the new trendy Pilates, there were few who really responded. “So there were many going through my studio, but few that stayed, most people were not well trained and relatively unaware of their body. It was hard to convey the value, and as my style did not involve blood, sweat and tears, and many found the work to be too slow. Simply put, personal training was just ‘not there’ yet.”
With strong perseverance Hanne faced an uneducated public, and things grew. Her need for more teachers was the catalyst for her to rekindle her relationship with her former Romana colleagues, Michael and Ton. In 2005 they came and taught a comprehensive course (Cadillac, chair, barrels, reformer and pedi pole) to 8 students that Hanne and Lene prepared. L & H continued the teacher trainer courses with new students, offering mat instructor and comprehensive instructor courses.
Beautiful stretch, with a beautiful poise in the upper body, I will take this pic and show it to my students.
It is at this point that you would expect this essay to express a great success after many years of work. But such will not be the case here….after 5 years Hanne found herself to be worn out and unfulfilled, and so closed her studio in 2007. “To me this was a huge personal failure. Everyone I knew was successful in their Pilates business, but of course it was not in Norway! I ran my studio after the principles I was taught, small mat classes, privates and duets, but I believe this model proved too narrow. Privates were expensive while having the least margin. In the end, I learned that to be a good teacher doesn’t always make you good at business. My Pilates engagement eased off for some years.”
In speaking with Hanne, I am touched by a poignant honesty in her trial and so called failure. I am also drawn to a beautiful balance in her knowledge about the quality of her highly valued training of Romana, with her wonderfully open minded about the other influences in the field. For example, equipment: “I am used to Gratz, and love the slow pull-in it provides. But new features that other brands offer can be very beneficial. For example, the split pedal on the chair interests me a lot.”
And about teaching, Hanne says “I find humility in a teacher to be important,” says Hanne, “you need to understand the greatness of what you are standing before, and for the person you are teaching. Many in the dance community that could beat you to become better. That is not my style.” When Hanne speaks, I hear wisdom.
Tendon stretch with Romana.
Fortunately for Norway, Hanne’s Pilates involvement has begun again, teaching at the Folk High School and some evening courses. “Pilates is important for me in my life, there still a lot of work to do to deepen the knowledge of Pilates in Norway, and Scandinavia, but I have learned and am prepared to again work on this in new ways, I am excited!”
To generate more awareness in Scandinavia, Hanne is developing the annual Pilates Convention in Norway, held for the second time this year Oct 2nd to 5th. Hanne’s colleagues (and my friends) Michael and Ton will be there, along with senior Pilates Body Control UK instructor Phillippa Satchwell. Romana trained Anna Schrefl from Vienna will present her combination of Spiraldynamics® and Pilates. And yes, I will be there too, teaching mat classes!
“What I want to accomplish with the Conference is to let people meet and be exposed to new teachers, discovering different styles and equipment. I need this myself, there is never an end to learning! This conference still needs to develop and grow before being established, but it will, my new start has great promise.”
Thank you Hanne, I believe you, and I look forward to writing about your happy ending in the future.
Hanne Koren Bignell is a dancer and dance teacher through the Norwegian College of Dance and Ballet and the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance. She is a masseuse and a certified Gyrotonic(r) level 1 trainer.
It was through dance Hanne became aware of the Pilates and in 1997 she completed her teacher training through Romana Kryzanowskas’s program through the Pilates Studio of New York. Hanne is quite proud of being trained by someone so close to the original source of such a unique method.
Hanne has also trained with, and continues to train with teachers such as Bob Liekens, Sari Mejia Santo, Kathy Corey, Lolita San Miguel, Michael Fritzke and Ton Voogt.
Michael Fritzke and Ton Voogt helped set up the first Teacher trainer course in Norway, which Hanne started with colleague Lene Danielsen in 2005.
Hanne has worked full time as a Pilates teacher for Alycea Ungaro’s “Tribeca bodyworks”, now “Real Pilates” and for “Contrology! Bermuda Ltd”, before opening up her own studio in Oslo, Norway 2003.
For the last 5 years Hanne has worked at Follo folk high school as a dance and Pilates teacher. She arranged Pilates convention Norway first time in 2013 and will start a Pilates Program at Follo Folk high school from the fall of 2015.