Pilates Intel Online Newsletter for the Pilates Teaching Community

January 31, 2018

Brett Interviews the ‘Great’ Bob Liekens

Brett: Let’s talk about your school. Please give a little history about your school and tell us how it is different from other schools.

Bob: Our school is called The Pilates Standard and it is not so different from other schools. Basically, I come from the school of Romana Kryzanowska. I worked with her for 17 years. We created a training manual together and, at the same time, I was supervising teacher trainer at her studio. So, I feel a responsibility to communicate Romana’s view of Joe’s work with integrity. Her legacy and also how she built up the whole art of the work, not just the vocabulary of Joe Pilates, but how to actually TEACH his method. Romana’s approach was very specific.

I feel I was in the right place at the right time, between the “old way” of working and the “new way”. When I worked with Romana, there was no certification. To become a teacher, one worked with Romana at least 3 times per week for 3 years and when she felt you were “teacher material”, she would say “Honey, you are teaching this afternoon”. That’s what happened to me.

Now of course things are very different, we have trainings, a manual, certification …

Romana always said, “Pilates is a workout.” Pilates is something you do, it is not something you talk about. I am afraid there is a lot of talk these days. And this is what I try to convey in my training school.

Romana was in some ways very humble, she always said “Look, I am only the messenger, this is Uncle Joe’s work.”

And, of course, there were others who worked with Joe, but Romana gave us a very strong framework for Joe’s work. For example, in looking at archival footage, Romana’s mat class was exactly how Joe was doing it.

At the Pilates Standard, not only do we have the Comprehensive training program, we also have the LEAP program – as in a leap of faith, a leap to your next level!

When I was working with Romana on the training manuals, after having written a good amount of material, Romana stated “that is enough for these poor apprentices to learn in six months.” There was still a lot of material left that didn’t make it into the first manual. Unfortunately, the planned second manual never made it.

Therefore, for the LEAP program, I incorporated all of that unused material to create this new manual. To the program, we added a history update, movement principles and applied anatomy. It is a comprehensive program to complete everything I learned from Romana. This really is what I want to share.

Brett: How long does it take to complete the entire program?

Bob: The comprehensive program takes about a year, and then I want teachers to teach at least 3 years. And then the person can start the LEAP program – and this also takes a year to complete. This has been my biggest goal for the past year. So that is my work, that is what I am doing today.

Brett: And you teach as well, in New York, right?

Bob: Yes, that is right, and I have interesting news! I am teaching at the original location of Joe’s studio on 8^th Avenue. Today it is called Rolates – the same floor where Joe worked for 40 years … so, this is exciting. It is a beautiful studio and I hope to organize the LEAP program there as well.

Brett: The Pilates world has evolved a lot; how do you feel about this? Do you ever get sad with the changes?

Bob: No, I do not get sad, though I do sometimes get irritated. Because it is a pretty simple issue … this is the work of Joe Pilates. I find it very clear what Joe made and what his intention was. And then you see people taking that and pulling it into a completely different direction. I do understand that Pilates must be a “living method”. It must be updated with the new knowledge we have – but at the same time people take it so far away from the original intention, and still use the name.

I sometimes feel that the ONLY thing people are taking from Joe is his name – which becomes absurd. They say, “hey this is Pilates”, while I think “No, Joe would not recognize that”. And this can irritate me. Because when taught wrong, without any understanding, people start to say, Pilates can hurt you. But that is clearly not true, if you apply Joe’s work correctly, you will get strong.

Also, these days you have teacher training programs everywhere. My feeling is that after you first learn Joe’s method from A to Z, inside and out, and work with it for 15-20 years, then MAYBE you can start to think about creating a teacher training program. To put a stamp of your own personality on it. But before that, don’t even try, sorry.

Brett: You know Bob, I was a bit like those people you talk about, but I have reformed. In my training, I did not even know that Return to Life existed. I came through the Stott program, which I do appreciate, but after some time I came to realize that I had not received a complete view of the relevant historical foundation of Pilates.

Bob: Another thing that can irk me is that Joe Pilates did do therapeutic work, but overall (and this is what Romana taught me), for the healthy person, Pilates is a workout. Joe’s idea was that you need to work vigorously, with control and concentration … it was not an exercise program designed only for rehabilitation. What I see today is that people are doing only therapy, lots of analysis and meanwhile the poor client is doing nothing!

According to some, Joe explained very little, you did it, you worked. There is a place for therapeutics, but it has become distorted.

It is for this reason I am grateful that I worked so long with Romana, because she insisted on moving. It is movement that heals you, not the analysis. The experience should be uplifting, not put you down. This is why Romana became angry with several other schools. She would make remarks like “They are all doing pre-Pilates – when the hell are they going to do Pilates?”

If you want to learn to swim, you have to jump in the pool, you cannot just sit on the side and talk about it.

Brett: That was a great way to put it, thank you Bob. So, what did you love most about Romana?

Bob: You know, what I loved most was her happy energy. She always had a good time and had a great sense of humor. It was her energy, I tell you when she walked into the studio everyone started sweating already.

Yes, I did see her get angry, and I understood mostly why, but otherwise this short little lady had a tremendous joy of living. I have heard people say they were afraid of Romana, but I never was, she was such a happy person.

There was a shift in her approach when this certification thing came into existence in the 90’s. It became overwhelming to her. She felt forced to take something that takes YEARS to learn and put it into a program that lasted six months to a year.

Creating the manual did not come easy. For example, when including an exercise like Short Spine Massage in the manual, she would go on and on explaining all the different aspects of it, and I had to say, “Let’s keep it simple, I have to put this down on one page”.

The whole “new way” was frustrating for her because, of course, no exercise is ever black and white. So, she felt forced by the way things were evolving in the business – a manual, certification, apprentice meetings, etc. – to have to do something she didn’t really wanted.

I would have loved to help Romana reach a larger audience, but she was always being pulled back by people around her. One year, Romana was ready to go to the PMA but was strongly discouraged by her family. Unfortunately, the result is that some people only hear negative things about Romana, and this is terrible. They should have known her!

I feel if it wasn’t for Romana, we wouldn’t have as much of Joe’s work come to u . And that is why I am working so hard to get Romana’s work to the next generation.

Brett: Wonderful, thank you Bob for talking with me today.

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Bob Liekens has been teaching the Pilates Method, and keeping it classical, for over thirty years.
Born and raised in Belgium, Bob received his degree in dance from the Rotterdam Academy of Dance in The Netherlands in 1981. He relocated to New York City to further his dance career in 1983 and that same year was introduced to classical Pilates Method at Romana Kryzanowska´s Pilates Studio.