How my Anthropology Minor makes me a better Pilates Instructor

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