Many years ago, (I believe I was a sophomore in college) I
took a course at Western Wyoming College entitled, “Introduction to Cultural
Anthropology.” To be honest, I am
not sure why I signed up for the course.
At the time, I’m pretty sure that I didn’t even know the definition of
the word Anthropology.
But for
whatever reason, I was registered for this course, and on the first day I
went. The professor Charlie Love,
gave a lecture of which I remember little, but one thing he said stuck with me,
“In your heart you know you are right.”
A very empowering statement until he went on to describe the conflict
that occurs when what you know to be right in your heart is different than what
another person knows to be right. Is your heart any more correct than the other hearts?
And with this began a journey of this thing we call cultural
anthropology…Deconstructing constructs and questioning everything…I soaked in
all of the information that I could. Every elective
I took (I was a dance major after all) was related to anthropology in some
way. It was my interest and my
passion, and at the end of four years I completed my degree, A Bachelor of Fine
Arts in Dance with a minor in Anthropology. How’s that for practical???? But wait…It in fact was a very practical degree, but I
couldn’t articulate why until recently.
From there, my study of different cultures continued through
the eyes of Laban Movement Analysis and of course I got a day job teaching Pilates.
(A girl’s got to make a living) But
something happened in these formative years. My worldview changed.
Without trying, I learned to see with some insight into the worldview of
others. I didn’t know this made me
a better instructor, and honestly I hadn’t made many connections between
Anthropological thought and effective teaching until this many years later when
I took a Polestar Pilates continuing education course taught by Helen Masin of
the University of Miami.
The course entitled, “Communication Skills for Pilates
Teachers,” sounded fascinating, but I didn’t know that it was going to be like
going home. I didn’t know that I
would be talking about mini ethnographies and worldviews. I didn’t know that I would be learning
about active listening and Neuro Linguistic Programming. But most importantly, I didn’t know
that I was going to be reminded of Edward T. Hall and the amazing qualitative
research he did on nonverbal communication. Of course this took me to my bookshelf, where I have all of
his books! There will be some
revisiting happening soon!
As always after a course, I come to the studio with
different eyes. This week it was
how am I adapting my worldview hour to hour…
How might a session with Avery, (check out the videos below,)
be different than other sessions?
In this picture my clients are experiencing MY worldview: We
could save the world if we would just take care of our feet!
The most important thing Helen Masin said, “Approach every
interaction with curiosity.” How
exciting is that? My curiosity is
what gets me through the day! Who
knew?
Katrina Hawley, C.M.A – PMA® - CPT
Director of Instruction at The Pilates Studio
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