Pearls Of Wisdom - by Jillian Hessel

If you're an instructor or even an avid student of Pilates, you can probably trace your roots back to a special mentor or formative teacher. And because the work is so life-changing and so many teachers are so inspiring, quite a number of us end up becoming teachers ourselves. This is how the living chain of Pilates lineage goes: Our mentors change our lives in a significant way, and then we teach the next generation of students, inspiring them with the transformative magic of Pilates.

We are extremely fortunate that so many of our revered Pilates "elders," the first generation of master teachers who studied directly with Joseph Pilates, are still teaching today. Ron Fletcher, Jay Grimes, Lolita San Miguel, Romana Kryzanowska, Mary Bowen and Kathy Grant are in their 70s and 80s, but it is a testament to the vibrancy of our method that they are still very much alive, healthy and exemplarily fit.

My First Teacher: Kathy Grant

I have been extremely privileged in my personal teaching heritage: I initially studied with not one but two Pilates elders simultaneously: Kathy Grant and Carola Trier. In 1981 I was still dancing professionally in New York City, but years of ballet training had taken their toll on my body. A fellow dancer told me about her Pilates teacher, Kathy Grant, who had helped her with a chronically painful back condition, so I decided to give her a try.

Kathy's studio was located in a somewhat surprising place: the top floor of the tony Henri Bendel department store, which was then on West 57th StreetMany people say the dancers who worked with Kathy became outstanding performers in half the time it usually takes to become a dancer, thanks to her specialized training.

Kathy had evolved an idiosyncratic way to administrate, teach and manage her clientele all by herself, so she had no teaching assistants. Her clients had to memorize their personal workout program (I still have my original notes), and we all worked extremely hard at improving because we wanted to please Kathy, who was (and still is) an exacting, extremely detail-oriented teacher.

My first impression of Kathy's studio was that it was intimidating. It was very small and filled with all sorts strange-looking apparatus. But oh, the beautiful movements her clients performed on that equipment! To my untrained eye, it looked like a combination of gymnastics, yoga and underwater ballet. I longed to do it immediately: after all, I was a professional dancer, so why not?

Kathy took one look at my back (a double S curve caused by scoliosis, made more lopsided by years of professional ballet dancing) and banned me from all the resistance equipment. She had me lie down on a mat and practice breathing evenly into both sides of my rib cage. This turned out to be quite a frustrating challenge, since the muscles in my back were so imbalanced. "You can't even breathe correctly without throwing your spine out of alignment," she said accusingly. "What do you think is happening to you when you dance? We'll have to rebalance your entire structure if you want to dance pain-free."

Yet each time I would return to dance class after a super-focused Pilates session, I would destroy all of Kathy's new alignment cues — and Kathy noticed. You can probably imagine how much trust I had to have in her to comply with her strong suggestion that I stop dancing for an entire summer. Imagine an eager 26-year-old dancer not taking a class for three months. But I took her advice, and that's what allowed her to completely deconstruct and rebuild me and create a new and more efficient way for me to move my body.

Kathy's training completely transformed my conception of alignment. She taught me to work "from the inside out," as we say in Pilates. She was also the first to teach me that I could alter my body alignment by changing my breathing pattern. With Kathy's guidance, I gradually developed a completely new paradigm with which to observe, translate and process movement.

Years later, after I had become one of her "success stories," Kathy confessed that when she first saw my back she truly did not know what to do with me. Thank goodness she never showed any of that self-doubt to me. She also confessed that she is not a patient woman at all, just stubborn.

I spent the summer of 1981 studying intensely with Kathy three times a week while collecting unemployment benefits from my previous dance gig. I realized I had stumbled on not only a unique method of exercise but a rare and gifted teacher. Pilates was so restorative that I gained hope that I could soon resume my dance career relatively pain-free. I needed a job, and Kathy had a great idea: Her friend and colleague Carola Trier needed a new apprentice. So I trotted four blocks crosstown to meet with Carola, proud that Kathy thought enough of me after only a few months of training to recommend me.

My Other Great Mentor, Carola Trier

Carola Trier's Studio for Body Contrology stood in stark contrast to Kathy's. It was in her spacious apartment, and an elevator operator shuttled you up and down; Carola was the first person to open a studio with Joe Pilates' blessing.

Carola greeted me graciously in her old-world style. I felt scared and shy, but after our initial interview, she gifted me with 10 sessions to "try me out." This was for me to see how clients were handled in her studio and for her to observe my facility with the method.

I will never forget what Carola said to me that day — in fact, I have passed those words on to countless aspiring teachers: "You can make a very nice living as a teacher but you will never become rich. It is very hard work, but it can also be very rewarding. You have to love helping people, and then when you really help them, you'll find the satisfaction most rewarding — almost as good as performing!" 

My introductory workout was taught by Carola herself, and she began with her signature posture analysis. Our work began on Reformer. The session moved along at a much brisker pace than I had been accustomed to, so I was grateful for the careful foundation of warm-ups Kathy had given me.

The clientele here was an interesting mix of professional and aspiring dancers plus a sprinkling of New York society's rich and powerful elite.

My first tasks as her teaching apprentice were to clean finger marks off the wall, fetch towels and hold the feet of clients while they performed footwork on the Reformer. I was encouraged to observe like crazy, ask intelligent questions and, most important, ask for help during more complicated exercises such as Short Spinal Massage or Backstroke Swimming, as I was not yet permitted to handle these on my own.

Carola ran her business and taught with the precision of a Swiss watch. Teachers and clients alike lived in absolute dread of her explosive temper, which added to our desire to please her as she barked out her commands. In another life, Carola could have had a career as a drill sergeant, but we were grateful that she chose to teach Body Contrology.

Clients she handled in an elegant manner, with the utmost respect. Using her "magic touch" — she was also a massage therapist — she employed far more hands-on guidance during exercises than is common today.

And so began a very interesting and transformative time in my life: working at Carola's studio four mornings a week, and studying with Kathy three days a week. The two were so different in their approach to Pilates, yet each taught me new ways to look at and transmit the body of exercises passed down to us from Joe. But both encouraged me to find my own interpretation of the work as I developed as a teacher.

I owe my exactitude, keen eye and precise teaching style to Kathy's continual quest to find perfect form for each individual. She always demanded purity of form in the execution of the movement from all her clients, which made (makes) her a very tough taskmaster. My style of teaching in clear layman's language comes from Carola. She didn't like a lot of talk going on in her studio; long-winded explanations of how to execute an exercise were verboten. I also learned from her the ABCs of running a studio. She was a very accomplished professional in a day when few women ran their own companies.

I believe both women's individual contribution — their example of how they filtered Joe's work through their own sensibilities and life experience — had a bigger impact on me than any individual exercise or routine.

Every Pilates teacher needs to develop his or her own teaching style and voice, and I was lucky enough to have Kathy and Carola hold my hand along that path until I discovered mine.