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« THE GRACE » THE VERY IMPORTANCE OF THE SIMPLE AND THE EASY

– Javier Pérez Pont

(Dedicated to the attendees of the workshop at Le Studio Pilates in Paris, April 2015)

Today, with all the «Pilates» that exist on the market, the insane number of names and egos in all of this, a huge «competition» has developed to see who offers more and wins over a greater number of followers. This deliberate confusion is the final result of the current marketing trend of «anything goes.»

Of course because of all this, and because we’ve forgotten the famous phrase that Joe Pilates liked so much—»less is more»—the result is that teaching, in the vast majority of cases, has been working to the detriment of the philosophy, ethics and purposes of this spiritual discipline which operates in the form of a physical and mental discipline.

In the last few years, we have come to be at the mercy of and to search for the part of the system that is choreography, as opposed to the legitimate purpose of Contrology.

In contemporary times, also due to ignorance regarding the life and person of Joe Pilates, we’ve allowed Contrology (and I am speaking of the literally thousands of versions of the Pilates method out there) be turned into nothing more and nothing less than a very famous «band-aid» in the body cultivation market. And this has led to the current situation, the vulgarization and simplification of Contrology, and of the real intentions of Joe Pilates.

There are an infinite number of methods and systems that promise to help human beings enhance their quality of life in general. And this raises a serious question: What do we think sets us apart from the rest? And, then another question arises which is even more serious: What is it in reality makes us different from the other «Pilates»?

We haven’t studied to become teachers just to supply exercises, nor exercises from the «archives,» nor ones that are modified, advanced, or for elite athletes…. we are here to provide an EDUCATION and to teach responsibility to ourselves, to our descendants and to humankind. Not to mention our professional obligation to be an example and beacon for others…

I would like to talk about EDUCATION, responsibility, discipline, the protocol in general of «goodness»; about the » common good»; about improvement, orderliness; about not treating the body as something separate from the whole person, the mind, spirit, soul, etc.; about creativity, of strength, talent, perseverance, duty… ethical categories every one of them. While they may be confusing, if we think in a general way or generically, they become clear in their intentionality in our professional context and are very important, and are what distinguish us from all the other «Pilates.» And I would like to talk about applying these not only to our professional responsibility but also to our obligation to transmit them to the students/clients of our studios.

And before starting, we should recall the words of our teacher, Romana Kryzanowska, who in the 1990s used to recommend the following trinity of values to her students when they started the teacher training course:

Humility, Respect, Work.

And remember them, because they are the pillars of an authentic and quality teacher who is heir to the legacy of Joe Pilates. And these pillars are what make us remember our craft, what situates us precisely in our proper place in this legacy. And it is our obligation and duty, with the confidence that what we have been taught is correct, perfect and complete, to understand, through practice and will, this colossal handed-down legacy.

All we need to do is to take a seat in a public place, observe and reflect.

We observe «people,» as Joe Pilates himself used to do from one of the two windows in his studio on Eighth Avenue, always displeased with what he saw, and as Roman Kryzanowska also advised us to do.

If we observe how people move, how they walk and undertake the simplest tasks we can imagine, the result is no more encouraging than the «disaster» our teacher described in his interviews. Human beings, unfortunately, out of ignorance, habit and a tradition, a philosophy, of carelessness, have been taking the path of physical, mental and spiritual decline since time immemorial (you need not do more than to read his first book published in 1934 in which he describes a society no different from ours).

And this great lack, is it simply a deficiency at the physical level, or is it also due to a total absence of a basic and minimum education on the functioning and maintenance of health?

In the end, the personal desires and intentions of the creator of Contrology were that this would serve to help improve the individual in all aspects: the improvement of the human race and its social characteristics.

When we analyze a private Contrology session, we see that this consists of several parts: in the first place, we must make the most technically accurate selection possible, based on our knowledge and experience (I remind you of the aforementioned trinity of Respect, Humility and Work towards what we have been taught), of a choreography or a selection of exercises that flow in a particular order; in the second, the intensity of these, also adapted to the individual in question; and in the third, and the most important, the ultimate «intentionality» of the class, and of future classes, with a particular individual.

In summary, I’m talking specifically about the choreographic content of the selected Systems, adapted to each case. And the final part, in my understanding, that which is the deciding factor: the ultimate Intentionality of the work, which should go beyond a simple hour of training.

Let us dedicate our efforts to this latter aspect.

We have the duty to offer our clients work that supports well-being, improvement and quality of life so that they can go about the daily tasks of human beings, which in the final analysis are to move and perform any task one wishes to undertake. To regain or maintain dignity as an individual and a member of our species.

To do this, we need not only a body but also an attitude and a willingness to take pride in our efforts. Contrology was created for this purpose, to play a fundamental role in preparing the self for this end, as well as for prevention.

Our job as educators—which means to educate others about «something,» and this something in our case is Contrology itself—is, with the help of the method and its ethical values, to supply the concepts, the philosophy and the values of same in our teaching, and for these ethical values and this responsibility to ourselves and to others (rule number one of the social protocol) to transcend this hour of training and bring about a real and lasting change in the practitioner of the method.

And it is here, after this general analysis, where the real need for an authentic «education» emerges. We should use Contrology not as a mere instrument «to earn a living» but with a larger purpose: that of creating responsibility in the practitioner and of giving the person the tools to achieve the objectives of Contrology, namely: «grace» and control of the body itself, physical well-being and enhancement of our personal and social responsibility.

And these «tools» are not, as is mistakenly understood, in the choreography; they are in the concepts, in the «message,» and in the ethical values of Contrology.

In the end, to make a long story short and generalizing, how does Joe Pilates himself define it? As the «grace of moving, developing oneself, prevention, and going about the daily tasks in life with the dignity that corresponds to a «member of the human race.»

And, what is this «grace»?

Quoting Joe once again, «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 body the direct result of the assembled Contrology exercises that produce a harmonious structure…»

And how does one achieve this final goal? With the technical legacy passed down to us, and through what I call the «second trinity»: Correctness, Goodness and Beauty, which converge at the same point.

The three concepts must not be separated, in fact one cannot exist with the other two, and the result of their union is the grace Joe Pilates speaks to us of.

«Correctness» is nothing more and nothing less than following the rules of the structure of one’s own body according to the laws of physics, biology and the particular anatomy of each practitioner. The majority of these laws have been broken since earliest childhood, normally due to a deficient or nonexistent education on the subject, subsequently joined by a lack of responsibility and self-discipline (I’m speaking in general terms and not about particular aspects). In many cases it takes people a long time to relearn correctness, to understand and to move and control their human mechanism.

«Goodness» coincides with correctness because the body and the mind—and why not the spirit as well?—are «grateful» for this return to the «normal» functioning of the being. Something that is «correct» must, by definition, be «good.»

«Beauty» is the result of the two previous categories, but not only this. A Contrology teacher must recognize the beauty of movement in actions correctly executed in any daily task performed by the individual. And so the «class» must go beyond the hour of training in a room or studio.

Lastly, our aim must be to teach our «student»—not client—to move in all the basic activities of life in an efficient and «graceful» way that we all recognize and admire in another.

Javier Pérez Pont

Barcelona, Spring 2015