Pilates Intel Online Newsletter for the Pilates Teaching Community

As many of you know, “Going Deeper” has been the prevailing theme of my journey into an embodied understanding of Pilates over many years of inquiry. It is from the rootedness of this lifelong inquiry that I would like to respond to Amy Alpers’ rebuttal.

Like Amy, as a Classically trained teacher of Pilates for over 25 years, I have an abiding commitment to preserve the scope and integrity of Pilates, and, as a fellow student of Romana’s, a deep respect and appreciation for her enduring contribution.

Having sat with both James’ article and Amy’s rebuttal for a few weeks, I wanted to share how they have both “landed” for me as I feel that, rather than getting positional about a certain perspective, we can have a bigger conversation.

And so, it is with full respect for my friends and colleagues, Amy and James, that I offer a differing perspective.

I would like to propose that we engage in this conversation with these thoughts in mind:

1. A willingness to engage in a very challenging, yet absolutely essential, inquiry, as distinct from dismissing differing perspectives: “How do we honor the scope and depth of Joseph Pilates’ vision, while, at the same time, allowing it to evolve, yet not get caught in a ‘belief’ system?”
2. How do we deepen the conversation of “what is Pilates?”, while moving beyond who’s right or wrong?

I would like to address, in particular, two assertions Amy put forth in her rebuttal to James Crader’s article:

1. Change one aspect of this organically organized entity and you destroy its integrity.
2. Change the equipment, the exercises, the order or sequences, or the progressions of advancing through the system, which are all perfectly designed, then you alter the entire tensegrity of the method and its ultimate intention – full body health. Homeostasis.

Sharing from my experience, having studied with Romana in Boulder and NYC, she taught Pilates the way she taught it … not exactly the way Joseph Pilates taught it. She was a dancer and he was a boxer/wrestler. Their focus and perception of physical reality was different. Romana taught like a dancer with rhythm and pacing; Joseph Pilates moved people in whole body movements.

Also, Romana changed things according to what she felt worked best at that time. This observation isn’t making her wrong for doing that, it’s just acknowledging what occurred. How often have we who studied with her laughed about that … that was just Romana! Remember when the Rollover was moved from the Intermediate mat to the Advanced mat?

It is so easy for us to elevate “what’s so” to “what’s sacred”. Here is another instance worth noting. Many of you may know that my husband, Michael, was the co-founder of Peak Pilates (after his initial Pilates manufacturing company, Dynamic Fitness Systems, suffered a devastating fire in 1998). We opened the first Pilates studio in Austin in 1993 and, soon after that, I asked Michael, a longtime woodworker, if he would build me equipment modeled after the equipment Romana was using in New York. I am so indebted to Romana for not only consenting to my request to meet with Michael, but also giving him free rein to thoroughly measure every piece of equipment at her studio in Dragos Gym. After spending two full days measuring equipment and engaging Romana as to what she considered crucial to the equipment’s design and performance, a very curious awareness began to emerge: in every case, each of the many “critical” dimensions … such as height/distance/angle of footbar to carriage in various settings … were significantly different between every one of her Reformers … there simply was no one standard. And yet, all the while, it was emphatically restated just how crucial these dimensional relationships were to a Reformer’s performance. In fact, one Reformer was touted as the “holy grail” for the exquisite way that it tracked, giving a “ride” with the perfect resistance. After careful examination, Michael discovered the secret: the back right carriage wheel resting on the track was … frozen!

Perception is everything … what is “The Truth”?

Remember, there was no fixed notion of Pilates equipment when Joe began crafting, innovating, and creating what was to become Contrology and what we now call Pilates. Many contend his first “equipment” was devised from the frame and springs of hospital beds. Whatever the case, what is clear is that he used what he had available to him, applying a deep body wisdom from his own journey to wellness, to craft the first “Pilates equipment”. The equipment is revolutionary and vital to the Method, but let’s be wary of mythologizing or canonizing either it, or the Method.

I know Amy and James both agree that Joseph Pilates’ intention was a vision bigger than “just doing his exercises”. Context clearly matters. It matters that we first have a deep understanding of the vision and scope of the work Joseph Pilates taught in order to then “be creative”, as we discover our own voice.

Where I see the “just move” approach, as espoused by James in his article, can sometimes get caught, is in “being creative” with a tendency to move from where one is already strong or hypermobile … sometimes missing what is personally needed to release old habits and patterning for ourselves, or the client in front of us. I can also understand a concern with the message “just move”, because that can seem like an unfocused approach to the visionary work that Joseph Pilates created. I also do not agree with the statement that Pilates is just a “bunch of movements”. In studying with five of the Elders, my experience is that the true gift of Pilates is to “Return to Life” … a renewed awareness and experience, at any age, of our holistic, integrated wholeness.

It’s true that “movement heals”, however, from my experience, it needs to be approached with awareness. This is not a “heady” approach to movement or thinking too much. It is a relational, embodied approach that animals and babies know instinctively. It is not based on “opinion”. It is beyond studying archival exercises. Are we willing to return to the beginning exercises and see something NEW that each person needs and allow that new awareness to guide how we move that person through the progressions? Are we willing to have the “experience of being in the form of the movement” be more important than the “form” itself? What I see is often “missing” for us, is being willing to take time to unravel the holding patterns we have developed through learned ways of being told “how to be and what to believe” in order to feel we belong within a particular culture. The result can be a striving to “be accepted”, rather than a letting go into “becoming curious”.

Our Pilates community is not a monoculture; there are clearly differing “perspectives” and “beliefs”. Even within the Classical Pilates culture, there are many ways of seeing and approaching the same movements, and rather than thinking of others as misguided or wrong, how can we have conversations that have us appreciate the broad landscape of this work, without losing its holistic, flowing essence?

Let’s consider this: No system, including our solar system, that has a vital life force, remains fixed, static or frozen in time. Just as we are, Pilates is an organic, deep rooted, dynamic, living, growing, and evolving system.

Like Amy, as a Classically trained teacher of Pilates for over 25 years, I have an abiding commitment to preserve the scope and integrity of Pilates, and, as a fellow student of Romana’s, a deep respect and appreciation for her enduring contribution.

Having sat with both James’ article and Amy’s rebuttal for a few weeks, I wanted to share how they have both “landed” for me as I feel that, rather than getting positional about a certain perspective, we can have a bigger conversation.

And so, it is with full respect for my friends and colleagues, Amy and James, that I offer a differing perspective.

I would like to propose that we engage in this conversation with these thoughts in mind:

1. A willingness to engage in a very challenging, yet absolutely essential, inquiry, as distinct from dismissing differing perspectives: “How do we honor the scope and depth of Joseph Pilates’ vision, while, at the same time, allowing it to evolve, yet not get caught in a ‘belief’ system?”
2. How do we deepen the conversation of “what is Pilates?”, while moving beyond who’s right or wrong?

I would like to address, in particular, two assertions Amy put forth in her rebuttal to James Crader’s article:

1. Change one aspect of this organically organized entity and you destroy its integrity.
2. Change the equipment, the exercises, the order or sequences, or the progressions of advancing through the system, which are all perfectly designed, then you alter the entire tensegrity of the method and its ultimate intention – full body health. Homeostasis.

Sharing from my experience, having studied with Romana in Boulder and NYC, she taught Pilates the way she taught it … not exactly the way Joseph Pilates taught it. She was a dancer and he was a boxer/wrestler. Their focus and perception of physical reality was different. Romana taught like a dancer with rhythm and pacing; Joseph Pilates moved people in whole body movements.

Also, Romana changed things according to what she felt worked best at that time. This observation isn’t making her wrong for doing that, it’s just acknowledging what occurred. How often have we who studied with her laughed about that … that was just Romana! Remember when the Rollover was moved from the Intermediate mat to the Advanced mat?

It is so easy for us to elevate “what’s so” to “what’s sacred”. Here is another instance worth noting. Many of you may know that my husband, Michael, was the co-founder of Peak Pilates (after his initial Pilates manufacturing company, Dynamic Fitness Systems, suffered a devastating fire in 1998). We opened the first Pilates studio in Austin in 1993 and, soon after that, I asked Michael, a longtime woodworker, if he would build me equipment modeled after the equipment Romana was using in New York. I am so indebted to Romana for not only consenting to my request to meet with Michael, but also giving him free rein to thoroughly measure every piece of equipment at her studio in Dragos Gym. After spending two full days measuring equipment and engaging Romana as to what she considered crucial to the equipment’s design and performance, a very curious awareness began to emerge: in every case, each of the many “critical” dimensions … such as height/distance/angle of footbar to carriage in various settings … were significantly different between every one of her Reformers … there simply was no one standard. And yet, all the while, it was emphatically restated just how crucial these dimensional relationships were to a Reformer’s performance. In fact, one Reformer was touted as the “holy grail” for the exquisite way that it tracked, giving a “ride” with the perfect resistance. After careful examination, Michael discovered the secret: the back right carriage wheel resting on the track was … frozen!

Perception is everything … what is “The Truth”?

Remember, there was no fixed notion of Pilates equipment when Joe began crafting, innovating, and creating what was to become Contrology and what we now call Pilates. Many contend his first “equipment” was devised from the frame and springs of hospital beds. Whatever the case, what is clear is that he used what he had available to him, applying a deep body wisdom from his own journey to wellness, to craft the first “Pilates equipment”. The equipment is revolutionary and vital to the Method, but let’s be wary of mythologizing or canonizing either it, or the Method.

I know Amy and James both agree that Joseph Pilates’ intention was a vision bigger than “just doing his exercises”. Context clearly matters. It matters that we first have a deep understanding of the vision and scope of the work Joseph Pilates taught in order to then “be creative”, as we discover our own voice.

Where I see the “just move” approach, as espoused by James in his article, can sometimes get caught, is in “being creative” with a tendency to move from where one is already strong or hypermobile … sometimes missing what is personally needed to release old habits and patterning for ourselves, or the client in front of us. I can also understand a concern with the message “just move”, because that can seem like an unfocused approach to the visionary work that Joseph Pilates created. I also do not agree with the statement that Pilates is just a “bunch of movements”. In studying with five of the Elders, my experience is that the true gift of Pilates is to “Return to Life” … a renewed awareness and experience, at any age, of our holistic, integrated wholeness.

It’s true that “movement heals”, however, from my experience, it needs to be approached with awareness. This is not a “heady” approach to movement or thinking too much. It is a relational, embodied approach that animals and babies know instinctively. It is not based on “opinion”. It is beyond studying archival exercises. Are we willing to return to the beginning exercises and see something NEW that each person needs and allow that new awareness to guide how we move that person through the progressions? Are we willing to have the “experience of being in the form of the movement” be more important than the “form” itself? What I see is often “missing” for us, is being willing to take time to unravel the holding patterns we have developed through learned ways of being told “how to be and what to believe” in order to feel we belong within a particular culture. The result can be a striving to “be accepted”, rather than a letting go into “becoming curious”.

Our Pilates community is not a monoculture; there are clearly differing “perspectives” and “beliefs”. Even within the Classical Pilates culture, there are many ways of seeing and approaching the same movements, and rather than thinking of others as misguided or wrong, how can we have conversations that have us appreciate the broad landscape of this work, without losing its holistic, flowing essence?

Let’s consider this: No system, including our solar system, that has a vital life force, remains fixed, static or frozen in time. Just as we are, Pilates is an organic, deep rooted, dynamic, living, growing, and evolving system.