Art and Wine at The Pilates Studio in Hadley

Stress relief comes in many ways.  I’ve discovered in the past few days that for me stress relief came with an art opening and a wine tasting at The Pilates Studio…It was a time to be social and have fun, and also a time to slow down and taste. 

The viewing!!

The Relaxing!!!

The Artist!!!!!

For the next few months the walls of The Pilates Studio will be graced with the paintings of our very own Jennifer Sussman and on this past Saturday we had an opening reception for her.  It was such great fun to see the studio as a space for art, and it was even more fun to see the space transformed not just by the paintings on the wall but also by the energy in the room.  People were lounging and relaxing.  The minds in the room were not concentrating on bodies, but on paintings.  It reminded me of a principle from Laban Movement Analysis (not to get too technical).  The exertion/recuperation principle is the yin and yang of the movement analysis world.  In the studio, I teach pilates to help people recuperate from stillness in their lives.  Yet practicing Pilates all of the time can be its own exertion, and practicing stillness can be just the balance needed. I learned this weekend that looking at art and speaking with people about art provided recuperation for the space.  Now, the energy feels different.

And then there was the Wine Tasting

Tasting wine with food pairings

Dark Chocolate with A Cabernet 

MMMM Chocolate

learning new things

Finding the body of the wine

checking out the color

Taking notes: hearing stories

concentration

 Our latest Mat Chat was a wine tasting with Faye Omasta from the Traveling Vineyard.  The most striking thing for me was learning to slow down when tasting wine.  I spend my day watching people move, and keeping people safe from injury…When tasting wine I had to stop to notice the color of the wine, I had to see the body of the wine, I had to smell the wine, swirl the wine, and then finally taste the wine…I got to imagine the locations of the wineries, and taste foods from these locations with the wines.  I was lead on this journey by a knowledgeable source and I got to hear many impressions of the same wines…It was a time to slow down and notice.  It is funny that this is what I ask my clients to do with their bodies every day…slow down and notice.  Its something that can be learned in many ways.

I look forward to all of the gatherings we have at the studio, because they create an atmosphere of learning and a community that values more than just exercise.  These gatherings make a space for friendships to blossom.  We are not alone in this world and its always nice to be reminded of that!