Ana Bolt Turrall is a Polestar Pilates practitioner, dancer, mentor, fitness & dance educator in Jacksonville, FL with Revive Rehab Clinic and Optimal Performance Pilates Jacksonville.
What do you love about teaching Pilates?
I love that I get to share how amazing Pilates feels and is for the body. I have the opportunity to share the importance of movement longevity, to create change, and encourage people of all backgrounds to enjoy this treasure. It is wonderful to hear my clients responses when their minds and bodies are challenged and they get an understanding of the ‘self-awareness sensation’; I delight in describing personally what that organic connection feels like to me “a symbiotic helical effect”.
Sometimes I say to people, “Pilates it’s like eating live food, for a nutritious source of energy.”
Where do you teach in Jacksonville?
I am at two locations: The Revive Rehab Clinic, which has given me the opportunity to learn and work alongside knowledgeable PT, OT and MFR therapists to create beneficial wellness programs, assist in rehabilitation, and share the legacy of love for movement. I am also, the Pilates Director and co-owner at Optimal Performance Pilates, where my mission is to develop programs that will enhance people’s lives.
Where did you take your Training and who was the educator?
I did my comprehensive Polestar training in Miami with some amazing women including Cristi Idavoy, Shelly Power, and Beth Kaplanek who is my mentor till this day.
What are your current Inspirations? What do You love about them?
My current inspirations are to build programs for the MS population and people with disabilities. I currently work with Parkinson’s clients and survivors of domestic abuse. Every person I come across that faces movement challenges have some emotional struggles and I want to serve them.
They inspire me through their drive to find quality of life and the stories of survival. Hidden emotions can become an entrapment and occasionally we all do it for self preservation or a defense mechanism. Therefore, as the body moves there are layers of emotions that are released and the feeling of letting go happens. Sometimes words cannot express that feeling but Pilates can offer these individuals that freedom. I am constantly exhilarated to grow and continue this journey to provide positive movement experiences for better care and long lasting movement performance.
Why Pilates?
Pilates like dance is a journey – you never stop learning!
With Pilates I unearth my meditational zone, internal dialogue that leads me to listen deeply and also find the artistry and relationship with the beauty of dance.
With Pilates, there is a special focus: a strive for precision, coordination and fluidity through movement integration that feels like choreography in motion.
Pilates is also like dance because it is ‘a movement art form,’ a discipline that ties in with a holistic sense of balance and your daily living. It is the kind of movement that drives you from the inside out essentially with focus and sensibility about your body.
How did you find the practice?
I found Pilates while dancing in college at New World School of the Arts. I began Pilates as a somatic/healing movement practice after I survived domestic abuse. After a period of time, I was determined to become an instructor and turn the physical damages sustained into movement discovery and self empowerment.
By understanding and embodying the Pilates principles my limitations became possibilities.
The Polestar Pilates method helped me modify and strategize movement differently, and to dance again was my new beginning. Until this day I strive to improve and mentoring is another wonderful way to enhance the practice and evolve. I have realized that the graces of aging have led me to an intriguing journey of new discoveries where change is inevitable, but acceptance of these changes can be rewarding.
What do you hope to convey in your teaching?
Through my teaching, I let people know that I want to learn about them, motivate, encourage, share love and compassion, and in that process of learning with them – to also enjoy the fun that comes with Pilates!
I also teach the importance to invest in our bodies that God created so beautifully for long lasting and happy lives. I convey that Pilates in so many ways is a form of your own ‘physical mobility health insurance.’
Where would you love to Vacation to?
Spain where I lived growing up. I want to watch and feel the flamenco, take classes and dance to the folkloric music traditions and rhythms.
What are your Favorite Quotes? How do you live, embody and apply them?
A quote I created, that relates to me presently is:
“This body still has music left to play! The graces of aging just add a little more flavor”
Also a statement from Rudolf Von Laban:
“Movement is, so to speak, living architecture”
I teach movement and functionality for healthy living. My works have taken me to Canada and New York where I have the opportunity to collaborate with amazing movement artists with a heart for service. I see the Body as the ‘Temple of God’ – a living architecture created for amazing works. It is with gratitude that I share the gift of movement through dance and embody my work through teaching. Throughout my efforts, I help build connections in individual bodies and minds which also result in spiritual understanding of the ‘self’.
My goals are to create mindful movement programs for people to engage in exercise, and also for dancers/movement artists to enjoy Pilates through an integrative choreographed form with a flair of ‘movement architecture!’
Describe your movement style?
I feel that my movement approach serves with purpose, is thoughtful, dynamic, and depending on the class I teach, I add the dance artistry. I have studied a variety of movement modalities and danced many styles helping me become versatile and creatively engaged. I feel strong teaching with athleticism and tailor my classes to the needs of my clients.
What is your Favorite apparatus or favorite way to move? What do you love about it?
I don’t have a favorite apparatus. I find all the equipment to be a mindful playground where I can stick to the original/classical exercises, or be adventurous to create with endless possibilities for movement performance and exploration. As a movement artist I love moving in different planes to keep me curious and movement engaging.
The Kinesphere by Laban is a fascinating concept that I appreciate and use further in “Kinespheres for movement therapy” with certain populations such as Parkinsons (the body is challenged within a point to reach out into multi-directional dimensions which engages the zest of the core and has enriched gestural choreography for my dance works).
What are you reading or learning about?
I read about two or 3 books at once that correlate to the work that I do. I am presently reading “The Artisan Soul” by Erwin Raphael McManus to continue my sense of wonder, evolvement and creative processes.
For constant guidance and tuning, I read “Alignment Matters” by Katy Bowman, and Beth Kaplanek’s manual “Pilates teachers perspectives of Lower Extremity Pathologies & Joint Replacements” (Beths’ manual is like a bible for me!) and I am learning more about the Oov!
After taking the fundamentals and apparatus course, I am hooked on practicing the depths to where this tool keeps stimulating strategies to find balance and stability; yet the body is always challenged in a de-centering mode. My brain literally, goes into a rollercoaster, there is an internal dialogue that suddenly yields revelations, and it is then where for a few seconds I feel- ‘internal silence and almost a sense of center’ – just in time to start that rollercoaster again- this is seriously is pretty magical.
How does Pilates inform your profession?
I was a dance, theatre and fitness educator in the school systems for 20 years. As I continue to teach in these fields, Pilates is part of my curriculum. Hence, the Polestar method informs my profession all the time, even through the quotidians’ of life. It has provided me with a stronger foundation in all forms of education in movement performance for fitness enthusiasts, dancers and seasoned dancers. As an older dancer who continues to dance, Pilates informs my body with functional technique and safety. Therefore, I choreograph, and teach dance technique with a cognizant perspective by cross training with the Pilates Principles for Movement Artistry. I believe that institutional dance forms can benefit from and enhance the longevity of dancers with these principles. I apply them to myself and in my artistic development.
Fun facts about me:
I love taking care of orchids because they are so difficult to keep alive! I was born in Nicaragua, and I am 34% percent Indigenous Native from Central America from my father’s side. I have coached track & field, and Love to play the Djembe. I am not good but I enjoy the rhythms I create and it happens all in private 😉
Meet Ana on Social media @anaboltturrall and on Facebook at: The Bolt Movement . Visit her website www.theboltmovement.com
Workshop Objectives:
The process of planning this mat class involved adopting a filter of empathy and sensitivity towards domestic trauma abuse victims. As one of my clients who is an MD said, “We all have suffered our own trauma at some point in our lives.” Although this is true, I have never personally experienced the level of trauma as that of a CORA client. I reached out to a few friends and colleagues who have, as well as to Pilates teachers on “The Contemporary Pilates Haven” Facebook group who have had experience working with victims of domestic abuse. Excellent advice came from all of these sources.
One member of this Facebook group recommended the book, The Body Keeps The Score, by Bessel Van der Kolk M.D. This excellent read was particularly helpful in understanding the current neuroscience research involving trauma and pointed towards the successful use of Yoga and Pilates as tools whereby the individual can experience the self as finally being seen and heard, a state of being that often disappears from the psyche of the abused.
In other words, just to be, as opposed to not be, (think Shakespeare), is an essential step for the individual to experience as she/he negotiates a path towards freedom.
I had to design a Pilates Mat class that delayed supine, prone and quadruped positions on the mat as these positions would likely be triggers that could land the participant in a real moment of re-lived trauma crisis. These positions would need to be introduced in a manner where the participant felt an organic sequencing that got them there with a sense of self efficacy and power.
As opposed to a list of exercises to teach, here is where the six Polestar Pilates Principles of Movement helped me to design an appropriate class. Breath, Axial Elongation and Core Control, Spine Articulation and Mobility, Head Neck and Shoulder Organization, Alignment and Weight Bearing of the Extremities, and Movement Integration.
The class started sitting on stools where we mobilized the feet using blue mini balls, and breath and spine movement exploration using Therabands. We progressed to standing for mobility and balance exercises in the spine and extremities using the wall and the floor for support, followed by supine, prone and quadruped exercises with feet against the wall. We returned to standing in a circle with some group movement, folk dance style. In one of the groups we also did an improvisation using the mirror exercise where, working in partners with palms held up and facing each other but without touching palms, the duo moves together as if looking in a mirror. Many of us movement teachers may have done this sometime in our past, but none of the CORA staff members had ever done this exercise before. They loved it!
Aside from the stools, blue mini balls and Therabands, the only other small props I used were partially inflated squishy balls for proprioceptive feedback through the hands, and upper and lower back while doing exercises standing at the wall and in supine. The use of balls for the wall exercises was important because it brought an element of play to the experience and would hopefully avoid a trigger experience of abuse.
We addressed all of the Polestar Principles during this class, and as is so often the case, each exercise hit on many Principles simultaneously.
During the discussion afterwards, I asked the staff members for feedback as to how, or even if, they thought what they had just experienced might be beneficial for their clients. They all commented on the awareness of breath as a huge benefit for bringing the self into the present. I had introduced the statement, “breath is a tool, not a rule” to the group as we explored mobility through all the movement planes, changing where to inhale and exhale. They found this particularly on point as it facilitated each of them to feel positive change in their movement where there had initially been some discomfort. They commented that this might be a first concrete step for many of their clients to feel less invisible. After all, the successful change was generated by the self and not an outside force. Not surprisingly, they also saw the value for their clients in the group and partner generated movement at the end of class as it provided community support.
As of this writing, the CORA Safe House Curriculum Director has indicated that she would like to find a way to incorporate Pilates into the early evening programming. Some of the therapists are considering ways to bring Pilates into their group sessions. These are a group of dedicated, underpaid non-profit organization employees working to improve the lives of their clients. Although no ongoing relationship between myself and CORA has been established, and it may take awhile to solidify some plans, I believe that we will find a way to make something work. Stay tuned!
