Tuesday November 10, 2009
I just read a wonderful article about one of the Pilates Elders, Eve Gentry. The article, Eve Gentry's Art of Teaching, is published at yespilates and written by Kathy Corey, a former student of Eve Gentry.
In Eve Gentry's Art of Teaching, we get an insightful and sensitive glimpse of an instructor who left a legacy as a true artist of teaching Pilates. The article opens with this quote from Eve Gentry: Seeing is to movement what listening is to music. It is not enough to hear, you must listen. It is not enough to look, you must see. It is accompanied by great photos of Gentry, Joseph Pilates, and Clara Pilates. If you have an interest in the history of Pilates or teaching, I think you will like this article.
Sunday November 8, 2009
The Pilates Method Alliance (PMA) is holding a big teacher training summit in Dallas this weekend. They will be discussing the important, and somewhat contentious, instructor certification issue. James Henderson, PhD., and Psychometrician for the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA) will speaking at the summit. I, for one, am very interested in the outcome and look forward to reporting on it.
In the meantime, Pilates-Pro.com reports that in a recent letter from executive director, Elizabeth Anderson, the PMA has announced its intention to support the formation of local chapters of the organization.
The PMA has hired Andrea Jeanfreau to head up the local chapters project. Anderea is a PMA member and a BASI trained Pilates instructor who has executive experience with setting up local chapters under a parent organization.
The letter about the PMA local chapters finishes up:
Each chapter will establish its own goals and objectives designed to recognize and support Pilates professionals at the local level.
If you're interested in starting a PMA Chapter in your area, please contact PMA Membership Manager, Denise Dixon, to express your interest. Write to denised@pilatesmethodalliance.org
So there you have it. Local chapters sounds like a great idea to me. I'm looking forward to more information on this from the PMA, and seeing how the local chapter idea plays out. Thanks to Pilates-Pro for reprinting the PMA announcement for those of us who didn't get ours yet (sniff).
Wednesday November 4, 2009
20 Core Minutes is designed to strengthen your core muscles: the deep abdominal, back, and pelvic floor muscles. One of the best ways to challenge these muscles is to make them stabilize the trunk under unstable conditions. In this workout, we do that by reducing stabilizing contact with the floor, and by using the exercise ball (non-ball options are given too).
Some exercises in this workout are intermediate level but modifications are given in the instructions for those of you who want to go through at a slightly less challenging level.
Do 20 Core Minutes of Pilates
Have the Exercise of the Week, along with other great Pilates info., sent directly to you each week in the Free Pilates Newsletter.
Monday November 2, 2009
"In 10 sessions you'll feel the difference, in 20 sessions you'll see the difference, and in 30 sessions you'll have a whole new body"."
Joseph Pilates
We usually use the Pilates Power Animal of the Month to look at what we can learn about movement from different animals. There is certainly much to be learned from the butterfly. Its bright presence and grace in flight are truly inspiring. But it is the butterfly as a symbol of change and metamorphosis over time that I want to focus on this month.
We could see the butterfly's journey from caterpillar to magnificent avian as symbolic of our potential go through dramatic transformations in our Pilates practice. It's not just that we get out of the gate with fast changes in the beginning, as Joseph Pilates describes above. We can also make huge transformations throughout the life of our practice. The catch is that those changes are sometimes preceded by uncomfortable caterpillar and cocoon stages!
What I've noticed in myself, and many other people, is that I go along improving, which feels great; then I level out, still feeling pretty good and thinking I know what I'm doing. Then, something new enters the picture. It might be an insight from an instructor, a movement concept I read about, a new physical challenge, or just the inner push for the next level; and all of a sudden I feel like I don't know anything and I'm going backward in my Pilates practice.
The opportunity that comes with these disorienting phases is, of course, to stick with it. To have faith in the transformative process. If your Pilates practice is strong -- you have a good instructor and you practice at home and/or at the studio -- you will emerge on a new level of integration.
I'm in an "Pilates caterpillar" stage now. What's keeping me going is trust in my "butterfly process" (I've been through this before). What about you? Do you experienced similar transformations in your own practice?
See past Pilates Power Animals
