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” THE GRACE ” THE VERY IMPORTANCE OF THE SIMPLE AND THE EASY

– Javier Pérez Pont

(This small article is dedicated to the participants of the Stage Pilates in Paris – April 2015. I would like to thank Philippe Taupin for the invitation).

Today, due to the multiplicity of “Pilates” genres on the market, the folly of names and egos that they receive, a “huge dispute” has been created to know which one is the most convincing and which one manages to attract the largest number of followers. This confusion is the final result of today’s marketing according to which “anything is possible”!

All this has made Joe Pilates’ famous phrase “less is more” go unheard. As a result, the teaching, in its great majority, has distanced itself from the philosophy, ethics and proposals of this doctrine of the spirit in the form of physical and mental doctrine.

In recent years we have carried out a research on the choreographic part of the system versus the primary purpose of control.

Nowadays, perhaps also because of the lack of knowledge of the life and person of Joe Pilates, Contrology (in all its versions!) has become part of the marketing of the cult of the body. And hence, the current situation, the vulgarization and simplification of Contrology and of the true strengths of Joe Pilates.

There are an infinite number of methods and systems that help human beings to improve their quality of life. This raises an important question: Why do we think we are different from others? And then another even more fundamental one: What makes us truly different from other “Pilates”?

We have not been trained only to give exercises all the time, nor exercises that have been taken in “archives”, nor modified or advanced exercises for surplus clients… we are there to EDUCATE and teach responsibility towards ourselves, our neighbors and the human being in general. And what can we say about our professional obligation and the example we must be for others?

I would like to talk about “EDUCATION, responsibility, discipline, general protocol, “the good”, “the common good”, improvement, order, non-separation between body and mind, creativity, strength, talent, perseverance, devotion … of ethical categories dedicated to thinking and which are very clear in their roles and in our professional context…. of ethical categories dedicated to thought and which are very clear in their own butts and in our professional context. They are very important and distinguish us from other “Pilates”. Applying them is our professional responsibility as well as transmitting them to the students/clients of our studios.

Before I begin, I would like to recall the three most important words (the Trinity) pronounced by our master teacher Romana Kryzanowska, during the 90’s, at the beginning of each Formation: Humility, Respect and Work.

It is good for us to remember these words because they are the pillars of an authentic and good teacher, an heir to the Joe Pilates heritage. These pillars are the ones that make us remember our artisan work, to situate us in relation to our place in this heritage.

Having confidence in what we have learned as correct, perfect and finished, it is our obligation and duty: to understand this heritage through practice and will.

For this, one must simply sit in a public place, observe and meditate.

We observe “the people”, as Joe Pilates himself did from one of the windows of his Studio located on 8th Avenue, always fascinated by this subject, or as Romana Kryzanowska advised us to do.

Observe the way in which people move, march, carry out their simplest tasks, and the result cannot be more illustrative of the “disaster” that Joe described in the interviews. Human beings, unfortunately, whether through ignorance, habitudes or parasitic habits, have been following the path of physical, psychological and spiritual degradation since time immemorial. (It is only necessary to read his first book published in 1934, where he describes a society similar to the one we live in today to understand this).

Is this degradation limited to physical aspects or does it also touch on the lack of knowledge about the role and maintenance of health?

In the end, following the personal desires and the objectives of the creator of Contrology, the main purpose of it is that it can help to improve the individual in all its aspects, thus an improvement of the human race and its social characteristics.

In analyzing a Control session, one learns that it is composed of several parts. First of all, the teacher must know how to make a good choice of a choreography or continuous exercises that respect a pre-established order, which depends on his knowledge and also on his experience (I come back to the three key words/to the Trinity: Respect, Work and Humility in relation to what we have learned). Then, the intensity of the exercises must be well adapted to the person in question. Finally, the most important thing, the final “goal” of the class and of the following classes, all considering the individual as a whole.

In summary, I will talk about the choreographic content in particular, the systems chosen for each person and the final goal of the work that must go beyond the training session.

We will now focus on the latter: the ultimate goal of our work.

It is our duty to work with our clients to bring them well-being, to improve their quality of life and to make their daily tasks – moving, among others – easy to accomplish. In a word: Re-establish or just maintain the Dignity of the human being.

To have “Dignity” we need not only a body but also an attitude that makes us feel confident in our commitment. Contrology was created for this purpose: to help develop the fundamental role of preparation and prevention of our being to accomplish its tasks.

Our work as teachers, in the sense of “teaching something to someone” and in our case, what something means Control itself, with the help of the Method and its ethical values, consists in bringing concepts and philosophy to our teaching, to ourselves and to others (rule number one of the social protocol). It is at this precise moment that we move from training or real and lasting change of the practitioner.

It is now, after this general analysis, that we have the need for a real teaching. Control should not be used as a simple tool “to gain our pain”, but to create responsibility in the practitioner by giving him the tools to achieve the purpose of control, namely: control and control of his own body, physical well-being and improvement of personal and social responsibilities.

Weapons are not, as we think, in the choreography, they are in the concepts, in the “message”, in the ethical values of Contrology.

As Joe Pilates said “the grace to move, develop, entertain and accomplish the daily tasks of everyday life with the dignity that a human being should have”.

What is this “Grace”?

Selon Joe : ” Good posture can be successfully acquired only when the entire mechanism of the body is under perfect control. Graceful carriage follows as a matter of course. So too is the proper functioning of your own body the direct result of the assembled Contrology exercises that produce a harmonious structure… “

And how do we achieve this ultimate goal? With heritage and what I call the second trinity: the Right, the Good and the Beautiful.

These three concepts must never be separated and one does not exist without the other, because the link between them is the source of grace, according to Joe Pilates.

“The right thing to do is to follow the rules of the structure of one’s own body according to the laws of physics, biology and especially the anatomy of each practitioner. Most of its laws have been violated since the youngest childhood due, first of all, to a lack of information, then to a lack of responsibility and discipline. “The Right One”, in some cases, takes a lot of time to be understood (movement, control of his body).

“The good”: it is similar to the right one. The body and the spirit appreciate the return to the “normal” functioning of the being. The “right” must be good by nature.

“The beauty is the result of the two previous concepts, but not only. A teacher of Control must recognize the beauty of movement correctly performed in any daily activity. C’est pour cela qu’on a dit que la séance doit aller au-delà de l’entrainement de studio.

Finally, our goal should be to teach our student, student and not client, to move through the simplest activities of daily life in an effective way and with the grace that we recognize and admire in others.

Javier Pérez Pont

Barcelona, spring 2015

Je veux toujours remercier Katia Aily F. de Camargo pour la traduction

And to Pascal Bony for his corrections on the translation.