Broadening my horizons...

One city, three days - three (very different) movement experiences

I already had a seed of an idea. A quiet and persistent little voice encouraging me to get out of the safety of my own little Pilates bubble and see what else is going on 'out there'. I had quietly played with the idea of trying to incorporate some exploration into my career somehow.

When my partner Dan suggested I could tag along with him to Europe's largest conference on psychedelic consciousness, in Exeter I thought it might be my opportunity to dip a tentative toe into the world of networking, vlogging and exploration.

I got to Google, did some research and reached out to three different people / places to arrange a visit:

1. Georgia Vaines - a Pilates teacher specialising in BASI methodology and working in a private 1:1 capacity in her own studio

2. Sisi from Mind for Motion - a specialist in gyrotonics, working privately in her home set-up.

3. Studio Pilates - a group reformer studio franchise born out of Brisbane, Australia.

I had made contact with each of the three studios to explain my little mission, check i can (cringe!) do my vlogging and arrange a time slot for my appointment. I was ready!

Dan & I packed ourselves up in his camper van and headed West to Exeter. My appointments weren't spread out evenly, meaning I have a very busy Thursday, with two workout sessions and a ton of city-walking! Luckily the weather held out on day one as I stomped around the city, before the rain came in.

1. 'Hanging Out' (literally!) with Georgia Vaines

Sarah trying a back extension on the Cadillac in Georgia's studio

I set-up my camera (okay iphone 16) on my stand in the corner of the bright naturally-lit space and nervously tip-toes toward the large metal frame dominating one half of the space. Georgia guided me through some spinal-warm ups in the form of some different roll-downs on the chair 'your back moves really nicely' she encouraged me as she watched haw-eyes to my body and the way I was executing these initial exercises. Phew!

footwork on the cadillac

As a Pilates teacher myself I was interested in 'checking in' with my technique. We all get into our comfort zones, programming and teaching the movements in the style that we are most drawn to - how would I fare being taught and challenged?! Can I really do this Pilates thing??

Turns out, yes - not bad actually Sar...

The outcome of my session was exactly what I needed - a general sense of reassurance about my movement and abilities. Georgia had a brilliant balance of authoritative energy and trust-worthy technique-correcting - balanced by warm and encouraging feedback - even whipping out her own camera at one point during 'the saw' because 'you do that so well'. Phew!

Read the full blog on my experience with Georgia here...

It was my first tentative step into a longer, bigger project reaching out to meet other Pilates teachers, and to deep-dive into Pilates as a phenomena, industry, profession and global movement... My tech was basic, my interview techniques lacking - but I was doing my first 'teacher talk' and Georgia's openness, acceptance and encouragement was so very welcome as I embark on this next stage in my Pilates journey, and I remain very grateful to her for her time and help with my first vlog.

Check out the vlog for more on this visit:

1. sarah's vlog about visiting Georgia Vaines in Exeter

   
   

2. Trying something new: spiral medicine

   I'll be honest, obvs - and it's ahrd to admit as a 'professional of movement' - but I hadn't heard of gyronotics before. Have you? I only came across it as I was doing some broad searching of what movement classes or practitioners might be around in the Exeter area ofr me to visit / try...

   
   

   My initial reaction was 'ooooh, this looks COOL!' The general background on the technique - or at least what I could gather from an incredibly brief Google-search, along with some imagery of the apparatus looked intriguing. It was hard not to draw immediate parallels with Pilates:

   - Created by a Eurpoean man

    - Developed closely alongside dance / dancers in New York

   - Involving large wooden pieces of apparatus with ropes and resistance

   - Gentle, restorative movement technique integrating breath-work

   
   

   How was I not going to love this? I emailed Sisi from Mind for Motion, and she helped me find a time to book in for a private session. It was all arranged. At this point I decided not to thoroughly research the techniqie, but give myslef a chance to experience t, in my body, without too much prior knowledge or bias. I wanted to feel a new technique and also hear about it from Sisi herself, as someone who lives and breathes it.

   
   

   I urged my 3% remaining battery on my phone to hold out as I hurried down a residential street looking for the right house... It was a hot sunny day, and rather than having time to kill (as anticipated) I found myself having to go straight from my previous 1:1 with Georgia, walking across Exeter, grabbing half an egg sandwich and a banana (I didn't want to be too full) en route and hoping I'd have enough time to arrive calmly for my gyrotonics session.

   I was intruiged knocking on Sisi's door, what will her home-studio be like? I didn't have to wonder for too long as she opened the door, adorned with her slippers and a warm smile. She opened to door to her living room and thre was all of the impressive looking wooden apparatus, very cool! I wonder what Danny would say to me turning our living room into a personalPilates studio...

   
   

   We both seemed eager to get me moving, and I was shown to the first piece of apparatus - it looked to me like a bench-press bench in front of a ski-machine tower - interestingly these two weren't physically connected at all, not like they would be with a reformer and tower for example - it meant that Sisi could move the bench further away or closer to the tower, which affected the angle and pull of the ropes differently depending on what movement we were (I was) doing...

   
   

The first set of movement we did were like doing feet-in-straps on the reformer. The resistence felt light, but enough to help me the connections and effort whre I needed to, light but held. Sisi was really clear with instructing the breath-work, and the movement she directed was a little quicker than I anticipated, and very fluid and circular - lobster tails to diamonds, diamonds to lobster tails.. it was nice to have to use my brain again in a different type of sequence, I have become so familiar and automatic with the Pilates positions and sequences, it reminded me of what it's like to be a 'newbie' to unfamiliar apparatus and movement patterns.

I then sat on the front edge of the bench and used the 'turney bits'. This felt delicious in y back, as I was guided to make fluid, undulating ripples through my back - something that luckily, my back loves doing naturally. This was accompanied by swirling circular movements with my arms, as the 'pegs' I was holding onto spun around in circular motions - it took a couple of tries to get the equipment set-up as it felt for a while as though my arms were too short to reach properly, and the resistance was tugging at my shoulder a little. My instructor had stayed, for the most part fairly hands off guiding me with her voice and breathing along with me - but it was really helpful when she sad astride the bench behind me and physically guided my body through the various patterns, helping me find the right direction of circle for the archer-like position - one arm circling forward and the other back to find a deep spinal twist and lean - the rotation of my hips following the same pattern as my legs turn in and out as part of the same sequence - I was really calling on all of my movement coordination experience from dance & Pilates to get the hand of this and make the movement flow nicely...but when it did, it felt gorgeous!

I could tell that Sisi, underneath her unassuming casual clothes and slippers was a powerhouse - her posture perfect, her small frame looking elegant and muscular - it was inspiring to see and kind of made me wish I could see her demonstrating more of the gyrotonics movements.

She explained to me that the concept was much more modern than Pilates, having been developed in the 1980s by an injured dancer Julio Horvath, who thought of it as a 'yoga for dancers' system of rehabilitation and injury prevention. Much like Mr Pilates though: he was somewhat of an inventor, finding scrap bits of material, including stools and seats and engineering them together into moving equipment that he felt would best support his movement.

I thoroughly enjoyed my gyrotonics session, and could see how regular practice would be supportive and like 'lotion for the body'. Exeter is lucky to have Sisi with hr specialised knowledge and equipment - and if you ever find yourself nearby a gyrotonics expert / studio I highly recomend you give it a go!