Pilates

9 Tips to Self-Regulate your Nervous System

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Written by Polestar Graduate and Mentor for Polestar Pilates UK, Kristin Loeer.

There are many reasons for why we become Pilates Teachers. A love for public speaking does not tend to be one of them.

Kristin Loeer

As soon as we start teaching, groups, in particular, we realize that there is a side to this profession that is rather nerve-wracking. Day in, day out we walk into a large room filled with people who are all looking back at us expectantly. We feel the pressure to deliver something amazing and begin to tense up. We don’t know what to do with our hands and we can’t quite look people in the eye. We crack a nervous joke and blank unamused faces stare back at us in response. Too scared to repeat such an awkward display of disconnect we buckle down and escape into our “Pilates Teacher Mode”. 

We speed up a little as we talk, somehow needing to fill the silence and give people more to do, to make sure they are satisfied and do not have time to decide that they don’t like us. 

Somehow, we manage to get through the hour and as people leave, we hope desperately for a smile or a “thanks” from someone, so we know we did a good job after all. What sticks in our mind are all those people that leave without even looking at us. ‘Do they hate me?’ – we wonder. And while we are still wondering that, the next group of people are coming in and it starts all over again. At the end of the day, we are confused and exhausted and beginning to accept that there is a side to this job that makes us feel rather exposed and disconnected. 

While the described above is perhaps an extreme scenario as far as Pilates Teaching experiences go, I can say that I have certainly been there during the early years and I know that many of you have been too. This kind of challenging teaching experience is particularly common at the start of our career when we take on cover classes or work for health clubs where groups are large and unfamiliar.

And while things may improve with time and experience, many of us can not quite shake off the protective “Pilates Teacher Mode” completely and never quite feel fully authentic and at ease when we teach. 

It is no surprise that we feel so challenged in situations like this. Stepping in front of an expectant crowd and allowing ourselves to be seen can evoke a fight or flight response in our nervous system. This deeply instinctive mechanism causes us to lose the ability to rest into ourselves and socially engage with other people. In the end, we have spent an hour trying to manage our own stress while in the public eye, trying to connect with people and teach them healthy movement. Accumulatively this is a jarring process that could well be the first step to burnout if work situations like this persist. 

We can use Stephen Porges’ Polyvagal Theory to get a better understanding of what is happening to us in classes as described above. 

When we are at peace and enjoying the company of others we are in a ventral vagal state. We feel grounded, calm, and at ease. Our body is able to take care of all internal processes like digestion, restoration, musculoskeletal and cognitive function in an easy and balanced way. We feel connected to and seen by others in ways that make us feel safe and validated. This ability to socially engage with other people is something that fuels our ventral vagal state further. We have a sense of “I can.” about us and our ambitions. Most of us will have an experience of this and some of us feel at home in this state of being more so than others. 

If we are under a lot of stress, experiencing pain, or managing difficult relationships, we may not find a ventral vagal state easy to maintain. When we then enter the studio in this state, we quickly begin to pick up the signals that trigger a sympathetic nervous system response. We perceive many unfamiliar eyes suddenly looking at us expectantly or even challengingly.

We are suddenly under public scrutiny and feel the pressure to perform and deliver. We tense up, our eyes go wider, and we cannot see the room as a whole anymore as we fixate on this or that. We become a little uncoordinated or even walk into things.

We get a mental block and cannot think properly. Our voice and movements speed up and our breath becomes shallow. We cannot look people in the eye. Even if we are aware of these changes, it is difficult to control or influence them. The body has gone into a sympathetic nervous system state associated with expecting or preparing for a fight or flight situation in a moment when we are desperate to connect with people and create an environment for health and well-being. 

How frustrating is this? In our attempt to make it work, we put more pressure on ourselves, and our sense of “I can” changes to “I must.” 

Unfortunately, no matter how much we try to hide how we really feel 70-80% of our communication with others is non-verbal and a lot of it is subconscious and instinctive.

Chances are that the class participants pick up on our sympathetic nervous system state, which means that now neither of us are able to socially engage with each other or find a state of well-being. 

If this experience is repeated again and again, we may eventually collapse into a dorsal vagal state, a form of nervous system shut down. We may experience symptoms like headaches, chronic tension, stiffness and pain, voice problems, and chronic exhaustion. At this point we have a sense of “I can’t.” and something has to seriously change for us to be able to get back to “I can.” 

What can we do about this? Ideally, we want to be and remain in a ventral vagal state as much as possible when we work with our clients. We want to be able to connect with them, put them at ease and role model physical and mental well-being. 

Below are a few simple tips that can help you self-regulate your nervous system in preparation of those challenging classes as well as during your teaching.

Before The Class:Take A 15 Minute Time Out

Perhaps the most important question we want to ask ourselves is: how do we enter the studio? Are we already in a sympathetic nervous system state when we arrive? If we are, it will be very difficult for us to shift this while under the pressure of a teaching situation. Schedule 15 minutes before the class in which you can take time out for yourself where you are undisturbed. 

Grounding

Grounding is extremely powerful in helping us shift into a ventral vagal state. Spend some time acknowledging the contact and support you are receiving from the ground and other areas in which you are making contact. Feel your feet on the floor and perhaps lean into a wall or back of a chair and feel the sense of support and holding this gives you. 

Self-Contact

Give your body some support by making gentle contact with your hand on your heart, stomach, or thighs. Follow your instinct, keep it simple and give this time. Track the sensations that arise. 

Identify A Resource

Ask yourself what else might help you settle and feel more the way you want to feel. Would a hot drink be helpful or maybe your favorite music on your mp3 player? Maybe you put on your favorite leggings that make you feel great? It is those little things that can be a great resource to us when it comes to settling our nervous system. You can also connect to a resourceful memory of a time when you felt the way you want to feel now. As we connect to such memories, our body resonates.

Track Your Sensations

You may observe energy rising. This is okay. Allow it to travel through you and keep acknowledging your soothing resources and the contact and containment from the ground, your surroundings and self-contact. Chances are that energy will settle if you allow a little time for this. Once you feel calmer and more relaxed, spend another moment to really soak up this nervous system state with your awareness before you enter the studio. 

This 15-minute preparation will make a huge difference to your following teaching experience as it will be easier for you to maintain your ventral vagal state and your clients may also feel more inclined to connect with you from the get-go. 

During the Class

Notice your Triggers and Slow Down

When you feel the very first triggers that challenge your calm, allow yourself to slow down. You have more time than you think. We quickly feel under pressure to act, especially in a fight or flight state. Know that you have time to attend to yourself. 

Acknowledge the Ground

You also have contact with the ground here, just like before. Notice it and allow it to support you. You do have the time to sense the ground and acknowledge that it is always there to support you. Notice how it feels to acknowledge this. 

Self-contact  

Placing your hand to your heart, putting one hand into another, touching the back of your neck, whatever helped you soothe yourself before, is perfectly acceptable to do while teaching a Pilates class. There are plenty of those gestures that we do subconsciously all the time, so chances are nobody will notice as you get a powerful reminder of your ability to self-soothe. 

 Remember that you can 

If you notice yourself thinking that you must make it through or that you must give people a positive experience, take a breath and remember that you actually don’t have to do anything at all, but that you can absolutely do this, otherwise you would not be where you are, doing what you do.

If you can follow the above steps in full you will find your teaching experience change. Not only in these challenging teaching scenarios, but also in your work with private clients and more familiar or smaller groups. However, if you are easily stressed or uncomfortable when teaching, don’t be discouraged if the above steps are not solving your problem completely right away. Often a little more support, guidance and practice is needed to help our nervous system regulate itself in challenging situations. Feel free to contact me if you would like more information on this subject or if you are seeking further support. 

Kristin Loeer is a Polestar Graduate, Mentor for Polestar Pilates UK, and a Somatic Movement Coach. You can find Kristin at her website and on social media at @kristinloeer_movement

Community Highlight: Edwin Carvalho de Oliveria

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What Three Words come to mind when you think of Polestar?

  • Community
  • Movement
  • Quality

What do you love about teaching Pilates?

ECO: I love the possibility to offer people a better and more active lifestyle.

Where did you take your Training and who was the educator?

ECO: I am going through the comprehensive teacher training in Jacksonville, FL with Polestar Educator Lynn Peterson.

Why Pilates?  How did you find the practice?

ECO: I started to practice Pilates when I was performing in a dance company with my Pilates teacher, Selma França, an educator from Brazil.

Why Polestar Pilates?  How did you come to join the Polestar Community?

ECO: I used to practice Pilates and many other systems of movement we had to in the dance company. In our schedule, we had Pilates three times per week. Years after practicing with Selma at Bale Jovem de Salvador, I started going to Physio Pilates Ondina with Alice Becker to watch and assist her classes.

What do you hope to convey in your teaching?

ECO: Hope and reliability.

What is your favorite Quote? 

ECO:

“Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life”.

ECO: I apply this teaching 4 days a week, I also move my body every day. I love what I do.

What is your Favorite Apparatus or favorite way to move?

ECO: I love Mat work because of all the possibilities it offers, it also gives you autonomy to practice no matter where you are!

You can find Edwin on Social media @edwiincarvalhoo

For more information on Teacher Training visit our website polestarpilates.com

Pre & Post Natal Pilates: Tips For Providing The Best Session

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Polestar Faculty and COO Andreina Santaella, NCPT shares her insight and experience as a mother and Pilates teacher. For more on Pilates and pregnancy watch Pilates Hour Episode “Third Trimester Pregnancy”.

A pregnant person’s body goes through many changes that may generate some pain and discomfort; thankfully, there are exercises that can help address these issues. Giving a future mom the opportunity to practice Pilates helps her focus on the joys of becoming a mother while reducing the discomforts of pregnancy.

Doing the right kind of exercise during pregnancy can significantly improve the way you feel, be very beneficial for delivery, and help you get in shape faster after your baby is born.

Breath Training in Pilates and Labor

What sets Pilates apart from other types of exercise is that its benefits go beyond physical conditioning. Pilates teaches you how to control your breathing, which promotes a feeling of peace with your body and mind.  It gives you a mechanism to keep calm during stressful situations and fall asleep at night when you feel uncomfortable. Even more importantly, it assists your labor breathing exercises, which, as you know, are key for safe and less stressful delivery.

If you are pregnant and thinking of starting an exercise routine, consider trying Pilates. If somebody you know is pregnant or just gave birth, encourage them to try a Pilates class.

Andreina’s Breathing Sequence

Belly Breathing:

With your hands on your abdomen inhale and feel your abdomen expand into your hands. Exhale and feel your abdomen narrow. Continue to increase the volume of your breath with each repetition. See if you can take more in and expel more air out.

Chest Breathing:

With one hand on your breastbone and one hand between your shoulder blades, breathe into the upper part of your torso. Feel your sternum lift into your front hand while your upper ribs expand into your back hand. Notice if it’s easier for you to breathe in the front or the back.

Ribcage Breathing:

With your hands on either side of your ribcage, inhale and expand your ribs into your hands, exhale and use your hands to help expel the air by narrowing your ribcage. Try to increase the excursion of your ribcage from the narrowest point to the most expanded point.

Strength and Alignment

Women report back pain when carrying a child. The main reason for this is due to bad posture and imposed stress in the spine and back muscles. Pilates helps you strengthen your core and back muscles, distributing the extra weight of the pregnancy through the entire spine.

Andreina’s Strength Sequence

Dead Bug: With upper body supported

Single Leg Stretch: Sitting upright

Quadruped: Leg reaches

Arm reaches:

Combination arm and leg reaches:

 

Pilates and the Pelvic Floor

Pregnancy causes an increase in pressure on your pelvic floor muscles. This is due to hormonal changes and the increasing weight of your growing baby.  Pilates offers an integrated approach to health and well-being. It focuses on creating alignment through the body which translates to efficient movement with ease, strength, and control.

For expecting mothers, one of the perks of practicing Pilates is pelvic floor strength, efficiency, and control.  Having an integrated and strong pelvic floor can assist during labor, as well as help prevent urinary incontinence later. The following exercises create the right amount of load to create spontaneous activation of the pelvic floor while lengthening hip flexors which classically get tight and restricted during pregnancy. Learn more about the pelvic floor here.

Thigh Stretch: mat variation. Work towards opening the fronts of your hips while sliding your sit bones towards the floor as you float up. If the range is too deep, you can place a block or pillow on your ankles to reduce the range.

Chest Expansion Reverse: This take on a Pilates classic uses hand weights to increase the load on the pelvic floor. It also creates a pull towards the floor that helps with opening the collar bones and upper shoulder.

Ready to learn more? Try our #PilatesHour episode 110 “Pelvic Talk”. We want to hear from you! Try these moves at home or with your pregnant clients. Share your photos and videos with us on social media @polestarpilates for a chance to be featured.

Community Highlight: Polestar Mentor Valentine Hilaire

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In your own words describe “the Spirit of Polestar”:

VH: A benevolent environment. It helps you to understand that the most important thing is not only about what you do but how you feel. It has guided me to connect with myself.

What three words come to mind when you think of Polestar Pilates:

Observation

Freedom

Serenity

What do you love about teaching Pilates?

VH: I love Pilates mostly because the practice isn’t about the person adapting to Pilates, but Pilates adapting to the person. Polestar Pilates gives you a sense of observation which helps you to understand each person individually. I did my training in Paris with Alexander Bohlander, Birgit Scheffe and Yaelle Penkhoss. They all helped me train my eye.

What are your current Inspirations?  

VH: I love to explore movement. As a dancer I learned how to move with music, now I love to move with my own rhythm, to find fluidity and connection between exercises, and to create a harmony that makes sense with how I feel in the moment.

Why Pilates?  How did you find the practice?

VH: I began Pilates when I was in a professional dance school. I was 14 and it helped me to find both mental and physical balance. Since my first Pilates class, I felt that something had changed not only in my body but also in my way of visualizing my body.

Why Polestar Pilates? 

VH: My Pilates teacher told me it was surely the best Pilates training. I came to the Pilates studio, took a class, and knew it was where I wanted to be.

What do you hope to convey in your teaching?

VH: That everything is possible! I remember one of my clients who came to me because he had pain everywhere; low back pain, hip pain, and shoulder pain. At the time he told me “I thought I couldn’t do this anymore” speaking of a specific movement. Today he can, and he’s free of pain. I hope to convey that there’s always a way to feel better.

Do you have a favorite Quote? 

Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning to dance in the rain.

Vivian Greene

To me this means to remember that the most important thing isn’t what happens to us, but what we do with it.

What is your favorite apparatus or favorite way to move?

VH: Of course I love each apparatus, but If I had to take only one apparatus on a desert island it would be the reformer because of its fluidity and its ability to adapt to all our needs.

Valentine is a Mentor for Polestar Pilates France – You can find Valentine on Social Media @valentinehilaire

Educator Highlight: Claire Sparrow

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Describe “the Spirit of Polestar”:

CS: Polestar is a true community that empowers people from where they are to grow and succeed. Not without challenge but by providing a safe and positive environment that makes it easy for people to move forward in new ways.

What Three Words come to mind when you think of “Polestar Pilates”?

Community

Creative

Empowering

What do you love about teaching Pilates? 

CS: I love that moment when people discover something new in themselves that feels like an uncovering or unravelling of their truth, their inherent movement – like it was something that was always there they just didn’t know how to look for it or find it. My first Polestar training was at my own studio in Leeds with the amazing Alastair Greetham. We were a small group new to Polestar in the North of England and were overwhelmed by the generous and knowledgeable teaching from Alastair.

What are your current Inspirations?  

CS: I recently took up mediation and I love how this restores my mind and body. I am also doing business coaching because I think it is possible and important that we strive to build our industry as a viable sustainable business. I feel a responsibility to do what I can to build a solid foundation for the future of our industry through the quality of teaching and approach to business that doesn’t sacrifice our values and ethics.

Why Pilates? 

CS: I was studying dance at university and suffered knee injuries preventing me dancing for almost an entire academic year. I was blessed to have a Pilates studio on site and spent my days there on the Reformer and assisting the teacher. I wasn’t a fan at the time and then when I returned to dance and felt the results in action I knew I would love Pilates forever. I always say that Pilates isn’t here to help us get good at Pilates it is here to help us get good at life and all we want to do with it!

Why Polestar Pilates? 

CS: I had trained with many other schools before discovering Polestar. I had looked at Polestar over the years and never pursued it because I was scared of the physio influence and that it would be over my head. It turned out to be exactly what I needed to answer all the questions I had. I am creative, lateral thinking, and intuitive so learning scripts, teaching rote, and not knowing the why behind what we were doing really never worked for me. Polestar allows us to be creative, to be who we are as humans, and teach from there.

What do you hope to convey in your teaching?

CS: There are no boundaries. There is always something you CAN do!!!

What is your favorite Quote? 

CS: Wow this is tough! I am a real quote person and there are so many. I even wrote a series of blogs about my favourite Joseph Pilates quotes. I have some great Brene Brown and Maya Angelou ones and right now it is actually this quote that I have kept with me throughout lockdown.

“Time is like a river that carries us forward into encounters with reality that require us to make decisions. We can’t stop our movement down this river and we can’t avoid those encounters. We can only approach them in the best possible way.”

Ray Dalio

When we accept that in our lives there are going to be many things that happen that are out of our control and we know they will come, we can bring our attention and focus to how we respond and work with these situations and events. We can ride the wave rather than trying to swim against the tide. In our movement and our Pilates life we can accept that we may develop inefficiencies, imbalances, or even injuries and that it is normal. We don’t have to berate ourselves or diagnose – only accept and move from there with the support of ourselves and the method. I also love the part about carrying us forward, we are in a time that only moves forward and I don’t like to look back and use energy comparing me today with me in the past and the same in my relationships with others. We have to forgive and accept ourselves and others to stay healthy and move forward “in the best possible way.”

What is your Favorite Apparatus or favorite way to move?

CS: I come back to the Reformer because of the moment you lie down it’s like a hug and the soothing rhythm and sound of the springs as you do footwork immediately brings me into myself.

You can find Claire on social media @Clairesparrowpilates and @polestarpilatesuk

Polestar Pilates Highlight : Ana Bolt Turrall

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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