Romana on Teaching Pilates

Tooling around Pilates oriented pages on Facebook the other night, I came across a page devoted to Romana Kryzanowska. Now before I go on, for those of you wondering who I'm talking about, Romana Kryzanowska is one of the Pilates Elders. She was a very close student of Joseph Pilates. Romana actually ran Joseph Pilates studio after his death. One of the most renowned teachers in Pilates, Romana has carried the torch of classical Pilates training throughout the years. She has personally trained, or had a big influence on, just about every well known contemporary Pilates teacher and system. OK. back to my story.

Reading posts related to Romana Kryzanowska, I saw one from Pilates instructor, Diane Lam of Pure Pilates Hawaii. Diane trained directly with Romana Kryzanowska. She recounted a wonderful dialog between herself and Romana that I thought was so instructive that I asked Diane if I could repeat it here.

Romana opened the day asking us "If you had a beginning student, would you give them rowing?" My first instinct was YES if they needed it but was stopped before I could answer as EVERYONE shouted out NO -- that's an advanced exercise. She then said "Wrong ... even if the person is a beginner, if they need the rowing, GIVE IT!" And it's the same with all the other exercises in the system.

To me, this speaks to a quality that I value highly in an instructor, which is the ability to be absolutely present to the needs of a student in the moment - regardless of preconceived agendas.

Diane also recounts how Romana always said: "A good teacher teaches by words alone." She went on to give the example of a time when she asked Romana about two ways of teaching an exercise and how Romana's explanation by way of her words, phrasing and intonation were all it took for Diane to "SEE the exercise" and to "feel the phrasing and work through her words".

I think this is good food for thought the week. If it generates insights or questions for you, share them by leaving a comment below or in the Pilates Forum.

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