Christi Idavoy has dedicated her life to movement. As a young dancer and philosophy student at NYU she found an instant affinity with the science and practice of yoga. The Himalayan Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy in NYC was Christi’s second home as she studied the traditions of Swami Rama from 1999 – 2001. On a voyage to share her passion for yoga as a healing art she moved to Costa Rica where she taught yoga and furthered her studies as a graduate student at the United Nations University for Peace. In 2005 she stumbled into a Pilates studio in San Jose, CR where she started her career as a Pilates instructor.
Today Christi has lectured and taught yoga and Pilates in many Latin American countries thanks to her role at Polestar Pilates Education. When she met Polestar founder, Brent Anderson in 2009, she knew she had found the organization that would allow her to bring together her passion for international relations and development with her career as a movement practitioner. With her extensive experience as a Polestar Senior Educator, Ambassador, and Examiner Christi is a truly a “teacher’s teacher”.
Polestar: What do you love about teaching Pilates and owning a studio?
CI: The thing I love the most about teaching and owning a studio is building a conscious community. We come together from different walks of life to do Pilates and then realize that we have the most fundamental values in common: we value our health and happiness and want to take responsibility for it.
Polestar: Where did you take your training and who was the educator?
CI: I took my Polestar training in Miami at the Polestar Center with Brent and Shelly in 2010. My first Pilates teacher training was in Costa Rica in 2005.
Polestar: What are your current Inspirations? What do you love about them?
CI: My current inspirations are found in nature: seeing the movement of the elements and finding the correlations between the human experience and the environment. I love feeling connected to creation and my movement practice allows me to realize that the inherent order found in nature is also within.
Polestar: Why Pilates? How did you find the practice?
CI: Honestly, I wasn’t interested in Pilates until a studio owner in Costa Rica offered to subsidize my training because she needed instructors. I was already teaching yoga and dance so teaching came pretty easily. I fell in love with Pilates once I realized the subtle power of the springs. Intuitively I explored the spring tensions, going from heavy to light, searching for that sweet amount to feel supported without all the extra “work.” My goal was to “float” on my yoga mat and slowly, my Pilates practice gave me just that. I realized that the more floaty experiences I had in the pIlates environment, the more I was able to transpose that feeling onto the mat without the springs… Magic!
Polestar: What do you hope to convey in your teaching?
CI: I hope to convey connectivity, relationships, the bigger picture, feeling vs. thinking and developing intuition and self love through the practice.
Polestar: Where would you love to vacation?
CI: Bali!
Polestar: What is your favorite quote?
CI: That’s a hard question! Lately it’s, “Certain things in life simply have to be experienced – and never explained. Love is such a thing.” – Paulo Coelho
Polestar: Describe your movement style?
CI: Creative and inquisitive.
Polestar: What is your favorite apparatus or favorite way to move and what do you love about it?
CI: I love all of it! I really love moving my spine in every possible direction and relationship to gravity because when the spine is mobile everything else falls into place. I really love the spine corrector and ladder barrel in conjunction with the tower bar on the trapeze table, chair and reformer… LOL! ALL OF IT
Polestar: What are you reading or learning about?
CI: I’m re-reading The Untethered Soul and continuously working on mental hygiene. Harnessing my energy to manifest my soul’s desire one day at a time. When it comes to movement, I’m really exploring the breath and the pelvic floor. After becoming a mother and having a traumatic birth experience that ultimately lead to a c-section, I’m very interested in breathing and moving to clear away scar tissue and restore the fascial system. I’m also diving deeper into plant medicine and medicinal essential oils. I’ve been experimenting with my family and am really amazed by the gentle power of plants.
Polestar: How does Pilates inform your profession?
CI: Pilates reminds me of the order in it all. I like to think of my life as my profession, my life is my work. Life is chaotic. Pilates keeps it orderly!
You can follow Christi on Instagram @christiidavoy
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