“To see, takes time*”

EDITORIAL

It’s the end of 2023, the last few years of ups and downs are finally behind us and I am looking around and asking where are we now? I went to an art exhibit in NYC at the MOMA on Georgia O’Keffe. The exhibit is named after one of my favourite quotes from her. “To see takes time.”

It reminds me a lot about what I think is important in Pilates and what I am tired of talking about. I am done with the classical vs contemporary conversation. BORING. The way I was raised in this Pilates world, I never had to pick a side. I worked for Kathy Grant and Carola Trier and I took the best from these women and made the rest my own. Let’s talk about what we are doing and why.

Have you ever finished a session with a client and thought to yourself…. What am I doing? What purpose am I serving for this person? What is the end goal here?

Are you focused on creating choreography that your clients haven’t experienced before or are you thinking of developing your sessions with their function in mind? We’re so much more than just a series of moves put together.

Teacher training and certifications come with rules that help us learn and understand the Pilates method in the style directed by each program. As you develop yourself as a teacher, you will find a client or person who doesn’t quite fit the mould laid out for you in training. So my first tip is to be curious and ask questions!

Find another professional that you get along with and do some movement brainstorms with them. Ask them questions…I have been seeing this, what do you think? Do you see this in your massage, Personal Trainer (PT), Gyro practice? Two things happen when you approach your teaching this way, you create a referral network and you can look at your clients from a different perspective.

Don’t be afraid of asking a question in a workshop! Or ask yourself why does that work?

Break out of your comfort zone! For me, I like to look at other movement methods like Melt, Indian Club Swinging and Fletcher Pilates and see where the crossovers are. I ask myself, ‘How is this technique also addressing the same things I am working on in the studio?’

I also need to caveat that you’ll only get true benefits from looking at other methods once you’ve built solid foundations in the Pilates method and years of experience. Once you do you’ll start to be able to appreciate that you can see so much more than before. You’ll be able to draw parallels between Pilates and other forms of movement and that’s where the magic lies.

I was first introduced to MELT by Hallee Altman. She and I went through the same Pilates certification at about the same time. It uses a foam roller that is more squishy than a traditional foam roller. Hallee developed MELT for Pilates. The MELT method is all about rehydrating connective tissue, rebalancing the nervous system, decompressing the spine, mobilising joints, and so much more. So when Hallee suggested I try it and I trusted her judgment. I think she experienced some of my warm up stuff that I like people to do and thought I would like it, and I do!

I’ve learned so much about MELT from my friend Hallee and another friend Angeline Shaka. It feels so great and is often about dropping down into the roller. I am an active person mentally and physically and MELT often asks me to drop into myself in both mind and body and I love that for my own practice and for others. 

I sometimes like to start a session with my clients with a little MELT moment. I also love it for its three dimensional quality of movements and for its reflective nature. When you do MELT you take a moment to feel if there have been any changes or shifts in your body. Think about that.

I also grew a love for the Indian Club swinging. Haven’t heard about it before? It’s all about swinging weighted clubs in circular and sometimes elaborate movements that ultimately end up strengthening and increasing your upper body and shoulder mobility. Indian Club swinging was introduced to me by Pam Warshay of Sage Fitness. I like the simple functional nature of swinging a club. The body is often standing while weight bearing and doing three dimensional movements. I often like to end a client's session with a little club swinging. It gets my clients off their backs, the heart rate increases and it can be a mental challenge too.

I also quite enjoy the Fletcher Method originally developed by Pilates elder Ron Fletcher. I only know about the official Fletcher Program through Kelli Workman, a Fletcher Program teacher and mentor that works at my studio Bridge Pilates. For example, in a “Fletcher Style” Open Leg Rocker you can have five steps of development until you do a full version of the Fletcher Open Leg Rocker. So there isn’t one thing you need to remember to do, it might be 10, and then there is the breathing pattern that goes with it! I have enjoyed learning bits here and there from Kelli, but it’s clear this is just a small part of a much larger repertoire. I believe that my clients have enjoyed the variety that the Fletcher work has brought to my teaching.

Ron Fletcher definitely had his own unique and complete way of thinking about the work. I love experiencing part of it and playing with some new variations within movements like the Saw that I have done thousands of times!

After Kathy Grant, I also worked with Dr. Marshall Hagins, a world-class physical therapist in New York City who influenced the way I teach Pilates the most. Through our work together he helped me look at the body with a new lens. He was briefly a student of Kathy Grant's, was a dancer on Broadway and taught first-year students at Long Island University for 20 years. He is specific, patient, smart and took the time to let me struggle to learn alongside him.

Because of his background and the work we did together. I saw the Pilates method in a new way. I saw the places where the movements and choreography were dictated by personal preferences and not actually teaching the body in front of me. With Marshall, I saw where I as a Pilates teacher I was falling short and where I could improve. Best of all it had nothing to do with being Classical or not. It was about what the goal was for the person I was teaching.

Then when it comes to the foundational exercises with my clients, I’m always looking for ways to break the rules to see if we can do things differently, to see if we can get a better outcome.

For example let’s take Swan on any apparatus., I will change things to help my clients work their spine in a way that I think works best for them. For instance on the Spine Corrector, I often like to face a different way than I was taught. 

I will add in a different focus in the Teaser. I might get a client to look at one hand as they lower and lift into Teaser. Last, just changing the rhythm of an exercise is a fun way to mix it up!

I will often have clients work in a parallel position with their legs if I think it works better. I will change the choreography of the arms to get more flexion or extension in their spine. Most of all, once the client thinks they have mastered one version of the Swan, I will add to it in some way.

Being curious also means that I’ve paid close attention to the way one of my teachers Deborah Lesson instructs her clients. Deborah’s approach is unique in that she doesn’t just get through the exercises with her clients, she uses the exercises to see people and what she thinks they need for their body in that session. I find it incredibly useful to go through her exercise routine as it helps me see and experience the overall arc of what she is teaching and what she’s trying to highlight in her work with a client. She is very much her own teacher yet I see glimpses of things I learned from Kathy Grant that may have come from her time with Carola Trier. When I work with Deborah I feel expertly guided with a lens that’s focused on my unique needs and it helps me to re-think how I work with clients. 

So for you teachers out there who want to break the mould, my advice is simple:

-        Be curious

-        Ask questions

-        Challenge what has been done

-        Think outside the box

-        Make friends with movement professionals outside of your space

-        Make up stuff! Try something new  purpose in mind.

-        Do a deep dive into something that excites or interests you movement wise. See how it connects to how you or your clients move in Pilates and in everyday life. Inspiration can be everywhere. It is your job to keep things interesting for yourself and your clients

• Play with speed. Do things twice as fast, twice as slow. How does that make things better or worse?

Blossom Leilani Crawford is the owner of Bridge Pilates in Brooklyn, New York and her own streaming site blossompilates.com. She is known for her playful and powerful teaching methods and for her ability to seamlessly switch between different Pilates techniques. She teaches continuing education to Pilates instructors virtually and in person all over the world.