Instructor Spotlight: Shauntel Douglas
We speak with Pilates Instructor Shauntel Douglas about her Pilates career to date.
1. Tell us a little about yourself and your Pilates background
My name is Shauntel Douglas and I both reside and am also from Buffalo New York. I am currently a Pilates teacher at Heart Fire Yoga (Hot Pilates), Center Pilates, The Pilates Lab and Everybody Plus. I have been teaching at all these studios between three months to three or more years. My friends would describe me as hilarious, very knowledgeable, sensitive and just flat out of the box. Out of a row of brown boxes, I would be the only rainbow box that would spray glitter.
2. How did you discover Pilates?
It’s a funny story. I had just missed a registration for a 500-hour yoga teacher training program and wanted to enter an "in-house" education program to become a teacher under the assumption that both Pilates and Yoga was the same and one of my now Pilates mentors Nancy Hughes (owner of Center Pilates) linked me to Beth Elkins-Wales (owner of The Pilates Lab) who is currently one of the teachers, educators associated with Core Dynamics (Kevin Bowen) and the rest was history! Boy was I in for an immense body awakening! In other words, I learned that Pilates and Yoga are very different.
3. How do you keep learning?
I keep learning because I ALWAYS will deem myself as a student. By doing this, I continue to shadow my mentors and take different Instructors' classes. What inspires me in my work is knowing that I personally serve such a purpose in the Pilates community. I am not only a black woman but represent the curvy community as well. This honestly keeps me going, there's a stigmatic mould of what a Pilates body should look like and I hate Google for this. Pilates is highly misrepresented and not poured into black and BIPOC communities enough due to it exemplifying a higher status which Joseph Pilates never planned it to be. I have so many inspiring people to be grateful for such as my Black Girl Pilates Sister Sonja Herbert who created space for black and brown women like me, my mother who gave me the nod to pursue becoming a teacher, Jessamyn Stanley who initially inspired me to get into the fitness industry as there was NO ONE that looked like her in the fitness world and Kathy Stanford Grant being the mould for black Pilates practitioners having a space in this industry.
4. The best advice you were ever given as a teacher…
Never tell a student that they can't fulfill a Pilates movement because you aren't familiar with that kind of body. Do the work as a teacher, learn the body and find a way to fulfil the movement for the student. Find a way for that student. Don't just preach that Pilates is for everybody and not connect the dots. Connect the dots and get the body moving because Pilates is for everyone. Never leave a student out.
5. Is there something you try and instil in each of your clients?
I always instil into my students that there is absolutely nothing you can't do. I always want them to be empowered in my classes.
6. The best Pilates course you ever did was…
I've only been involved with the Core Dynamic Pilates Program but have done workshops with Black Girl Pilates a few years back pre-pandemic. Black Girls Pilates kept me going in Pilates School. It was the safe space, the diversity and sisterhood for me that meant so much.
7. What’s your favourite piece of equipment to use with clients in studio and why?
I’d say the Wunda chair. The chair is literally a "Jack in the box" – at first you are curious about what it can offer (with a tad bit of fear). You have absolutely no idea what is coming out of the box just like the Wunda chair. It's definitely deceiving to the eye!
8. How do you stay motivated?
I honestly stay motivated by working on my personal practice and creating my own open space to feel new things about my body, read and watch Pilates videos. It's amazing to see everyone's own style and philosophy of Pilates.
9. What makes you laugh the most?
Seeing a man's reaction after taking a Pilates class for the first time.
10. What’s your favourite way to spend a day off?
On a day off, I enjoy cooking, dabbling in herbs and listening to music. I am not much of a television person.
11. How many pairs of grip socks do you own? Do you love or hate a stretch band?
I currently own two pairs of grip socks and have to wear open-toe grip socks because of my size 12 feet. I love a stretch band and use mine daily. As a bicyclist, my body sometimes needs that extra oomph of motion in stretch form.
12. Does your family ‘really know’ what’s involved in your job?
This question is so funny to me and I say this with pure love as I answer. My family has used Google Images to their advantage as their own bug like repellent to take a class except for a selected few who will randomly take a class or two and when they do, I embrace them with a "hundred" combo.
Shauntel works at Heart Fire Yoga, The Pilates Lab, Center Pilates and Everybody Plus in Buffalo New York.