Episode Show Notes
Our guest on this episode is Tania Huddart – owner of Hearts and Bones Pilates in New Zealand, and delivers internationally accredited teacher training programs.
[01:23] Tania talks about her life before Pilates, how dance was all she was interested in, and how she just fell into working for the Royal Academy of Dance as an International de facto teacher. She discovered Pilates in a dance magazine and tried it out because of her injuries.
[03:56] Tania labels her first session at Lesley Ackland’s studio in London as overwhelming and a revelation that she was not as strong as she thought she was. Three months later she had a whole new body.
[06:02] After Lesley offered Tania the opportunity to apprentice at the studio, Tania started working with people who were not dancers and had to learn to put herself in other people’s bodies.
[07:50] Tania describes the Pilates world as being very small in 1995.
[09:57] Tania and Bruce talk about the miraculous transformations she was seeing in studio clients and the sense of community and connection in a Pilates setting.
[13:23] Bruce asks Tania if she was experiencing any roadblocks in her Pilates progress at that time and she talks about lacking upper body strength.
[15:00] Tania describes Lesley’s ability to work with a group, but still be specific for each person.
[15:53] Bruce and Tania talk about some of the phenomenal teachers that she met around that time.
[17:49] Bruce delves into Tania’s time spent in California where she was involved with both dance and Pilates.
[19:59] Tania continues her story with her move back to New Zealand, where she opened a studio in Wellington and taught for 15 years.
[21:01] Bruce asks about the hidden gems Tania discovered through Pilates.
[22:26] Tania elaborates on some things that concern her about Pilates teacher training, that there aren’t a lot of informed teachers that can inspire people, and how her passion is to support, help, and be a mentor for these teachers.
[28:20] Tania talks about the death of her best friend being the catalyst to her dedicating her life to Pilates.
[30:54] Bruce explores the path Tania has been on since and she mentions the part he has journeyed with her.
[31:40] Tania looks back at her initiative, Always Pilates, an online resource for teachers and clients that the world was not yet ready for but that brought her into contact with people like Phillip Beach who changed her life.
[34:04] Bruce invites Tania to look at how Pilates has changed her – body, mind, and spirit.
[36:58] Tania explains why business knowledge is important, why she is a business coach and that there are often smarter ways to do things. She introduces her current project: Teaching With Confidence.
Contact Tania
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Hearts and Bones Pilates, New Zealand
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Episode Transcript
Bruce Hildebrand: In the spirit of respect, The Pilates Diaries Podcast acknowledges the people and elders of the Bunurong people, members of the Kulin Nation, who have traditional connections and responsibilities for the land on which this podcast is produced.
Hi, I’m Bruce Hildebrand and this is the Pilates Diaries Podcast.
The mission of this podcast is to share the stories of the impact of Pilates We’re inviting Pilates enthusiasts to share with us the notes they’ve taken down in their Pilates journey as we seek out the answers to the intrigue Pilates has been able to ignite inside millions all over the world. Our hope is that The Pilates Diaries podcast goes some way to answering the question " What is it that makes Pilates so special?" Join me for privileged peek into this episodes Pilates Diary.
Today we’re joined by longterm Pilates teacher Tania Huddart. Tania is based in New Zealand’s South Island, and is the proud owner of Hearts and Bones Pilates, and delivers internationally accredited teacher training programs all over the country.
Welcome to the show Tania.
Tania Huddart: Thank you very much, Bruce. It’s a pleasure being here with you.
Bruce Hildebrand: Tania we’ll begin by taking a look back- can you tell me about life before Pilates? What were your pursuits? Where did you see yourself heading at the time and in hindsight what do you now see were some little threads that might’ve led you to discover Pilates?
Tania Huddart: My life was dance, dance, dance. That was all I was interested in, Bruce. I studied dance at University I had been teaching dance ever since I was at a Vocational High School. My dance teacher always used to send people to see me if they couldn’t do something and she didn’t have time to work with them " Oh, I’ll just go and see Tania"- so I was an unofficial teacher since my teens really and I just saw myself owning a dance studio and eventually becoming Royal Academy of Dance examiner. That was what I had in my life plans. But yeah, life didn’t work out that way, strangely enough, I sort of ended up traveling the world and experiencing all kinds of things that I never dreamed in a million years I would experience and taught in places I never thought I would teach I started training teachers in my early twenties in Stockholm, because there were no teacher training programs. And I just fell into it- started working for the R.A.D. as an International de facto teacher got the R.A.D. established in Stockholm at the time.
So I thought dance would be my life, and to many degrees, it still is- I still dance not doing classical ballet or flamenco or contemporary the way I used to, but I also had lots of injuries. Believe it or not, I hate exercising. So the gym culture really put me off. I really didn’t like any of that repetitive movement disliked running. I like swimming as long as I can play in the water. I really don’t like doing lengths. Expecting me to exercise was not really on the cards. And I then discovered Pilates in a dance magazine- an article that I read and where I was in South Africa at the time there was no Pilates- Pilates did not exist.
Later on that year, I moved to London and decided I had to go and check this out because I was getting all these injuries teaching and ended up in Leslie Ackland’s studio at Pineapple Dance Studios down the end of a corridor was stuck between two little studios. But even then, I didn’t think that I would ever own a studio, let alone do what I’ve done. It’s been an amazing journey.
Bruce Hildebrand: I think we have a bunch in common there, the repetition for me of exercise, albeit having run a marathon in London 2002 and so I think the attractive part of Pilates is the engagement and the mental presence that is the furthest thing from boring repetition. So I can certainly relate to how Pilates is very different to that. Returning to your story Tania tell me when you first arrived at Pilates- remind us of the year this was, and Leslie Ackland obviously an incredibly well known name in Pilates in London.
Tania Huddart: I arrived at the studio not knowing what to expect. I had no clue what Pilates was all about. And of course at that stage it was during the whole lawsuit that was going on in the States- so I was quite categorically told from day one that it was Pilates-based exercise- we’re not allowed to say they were teaching Pilates- it was all Pilates-based. I didn’t even know the names of the exercises because none of the names were being used. Leslie actually didn’t teach me initially. My very first class was with one of the other teachers in the studio, Nick and I remember being really overwhelmed. I remember walking out of the studio and going, what the hell was that? I thought I was strong and I could barely do anything. I was shaking like a leaf.
Bruce Hildebrand: I think there’s many people that can relate to that story Tania!
Tania Huddart: It was just astounding- and to be honest with you for the first time in my life, I could not remember movement. The only thing I remembered from that first session was lying on the floor with my feet on the wall doing bridging. So when I walked into the next session, Nick looked at me and said "so Tania, what can you remember from last week?" And I went " Nothing. I know that I started on the floor with my feet on the wall and that was it." So I walked out of there going, I need to do this because I’m not strong enough.
Bruce Hildebrand: It sounds like it was very humbling. And again, I can completely relate to that. I remember first time legs in straps on the Reformer- I looked at my instructor saying, are you serious? You want me to be able to do that? and she quite simply said yes. And my jaw fell on the floor and I thought, how is that even possible? Having never ever used those group of muscles before, and that was on the back of having an incredibly athletic childhood,
Tania Huddart: Yes, absolutely. I think the thing I couldn’t do and it took me years to learn to appreciate was all the side-lying legwork work on the Cadillac and the oblique work, that was just a complete and utter enigma to me- I had no idea what I was doing there. God knows how I ever balanced because I was so weak- it literally blew my mind. Three months later I had a whole new body.
Bruce Hildebrand: That sounds like a familiar cliche.
Tania Huddart: Yeah, it fits into Joe’s you know, within 30 sessions you’ll have a whole new body, well, yep I remember talking to Leslie and she offered me the opportunity to apprentice at the studio. I started apprenticing with Leslie and I have to be honest, she scared the living daylights out of me. She’s a very forthright lady. And it gave me a chance to go back on my anatomy and start honing my teaching skills from the dance world in the studio.
And I remember very clearly working with a man probably in his mid to late thirties and asking him to roll down through his spine and touch his toes. And the man got about halfway and I said to him, can you go any further? And he’s going, no, I’m stuck. And me going, ah, not a dancer. Right- now what do I do? So that was the start of me, learning to put myself in other people’s bodies and then trying to figure out what the restrictions are and how to work around that. So it was a very key moment for me where I realized that not everybody could do the things that I could do, or the people that I spent most of my life with, which were dancers, who were these highly mobile people.
But yet looked incredibly strong, but if there were anything like me were actually incredibly weak underneath all of that. It was such a revelation- and to know that I was learning some skills with which to help people to overcome that- was really powerful! It really worked for me at a very deep level- and I was surrounded by dancers and West End actors- we’d walk past people like Eddie Izzard as I was going to work in Covent Garden and I met Tina Turner and The Rolling Stones cause they were using the space. And you’d walk past them with their body guards and everything else- it was an incredible time. I used to go and do observation time with Alan Herdman- going to see what he was doing because obviously he trained Leslie. And then when I moved to New Zealand, I actually worked with Jocelyn McGregor who at that time was working with the Royal New Zealand Ballet and had been Leslie’s business partner, and I’d met her in London. And so it was this little microcosm of a few key people. I think there were only about three studios in London, other than Alan’s studio and Leslie studio. So the Pilates world was really small. I got to know about the PhysicalMind Institute through Leslie at the time, because that’s what Physical Mind Institute was doing was bringing the teachers in the States together and trying to establish some kind of training program. I always thought one day I’m going to you know, study with Physical Mind- and that’s then what I did eventually when I moved to California, which is, again, something that was never in my life plan it was such a wild ride. And when I think about it now, wow, how did that even happen?
Bruce Hildebrand: Tell me what years are we talking in this London phase?
Tania Huddart: London was 1995- and then California happened in 2000. Yeah, 2000 to 2002 I moved back to New Zealand. I was in New Zealand from 97 to 2000 working with Jocelyn using Pilates just with my dance students- at the time I was still teaching dance. If somebody had said to me then are you ever going to open up a studio? I would have said, hell no, I’m a dance teacher
Bruce Hildebrand: And two things out of that for me you mentioned something earlier about having a new level of empathy for someone who hasn’t moved their whole life. And that’s one of the intentions of the Pilates Diaries Podcast to really have a multitude of stories be told that Pilates can be adapted, and so wonderfully used across the full landscape and the full spectrum of varying capabilities and a whole range of applications. I think that’s really exciting story you just told. And the other question I had is stepping outside of this story for a moment, I’m curious about the perception of the other people in your life around you when you told them that you’d begun Pilates, what was their comments and what was their thoughts?
Tania Huddart: They didn’t know what it was and I don’t know that I was actually even equipped to explain it to them, I just saw the transformation that was happening in the studio. And to me it was nothing short of miraculous that working consistently with these people, from having a woman who could barely lift her head- where all her friends were just looking down at the top of her head, and that’s how they knew her- to a year and a half later people wondering who she was, because they’d never actually seen her face. It was just unbelievable that this could happen in people’s lives. It’s just so transformational. I felt like a superhero. I thought I could fix the world, it was just incredible.
Bruce Hildebrand: So you’re talking posturally for this lady- she was so stooped forward that she literally had postural deviations- she couldn’t look up And she was one of your fellow clients at Leslie’s studio participating in classes alongside you. And what age would she have been?
Tania Huddart: She was late fifties, early sixties when she was doing this work.
Bruce Hildebrand: And you were in your twenties at this point.
Tania Huddart: I was in my early twenties, yeah.
Bruce Hildebrand: And that would have been an eye opener for you at that point as well, to see how adaptable Pilates is to such a contrasting age group.
Tania Huddart: Yes, because we had everything from West End dancers who were injured to people like her and retired dancers in their sixties and seventies- it was a real family. Leslie’s studio was a real family- we knew each other because there weren’t that many of us doing it- it was incredible. It really was quite a slice of London life that was playing out in the studio.
Bruce Hildebrand: That rings true to readings of John Howard Steele, who produced The Cage Lion last year in 2020 and how much it was such a collective family that attended Joseph Pilates’ original studio in New York, and that same eclectic group those who are willing to consider participating in this obviously very magnetic and somehow bizarre, but really helpful methodology Joseph Pilates tapped into something really incredible in each of us I think.
Tania Huddart: Yes, I think so. And I think that’s one of the powers that we have as teachers, as well as to build this beautiful community within our studios to give people a place to belong. That’s certainly something that I value and I, I know that when I left Wellington to pursue further study one of the comments that will always stick with me from one of my clients was " Tania I’m not quite sure what I’m going to do now, because you do know that I see you more than my best friend". It’s very humbling when you have such a prominent place in your clients’ lives, because they do see you every week, sometimes more than once a week, it’s not a superficial engagement that you have with these people. It really is a very deep engagement.
Bruce Hildebrand: And it’s quite a privilege for us to be afforded that relationship and the richness of it.
Tania Huddart: Absolutely. And something that I’m deeply grateful for. Many of those clients are still friends- are still people that I am in connection with. And if I go to Wellington I’ll always meet up with a few of them. That relationship has transcended the studio. And it really is phenomenal the richness of life that wells up out of a Pilates business- when it’s done with love and kindness and the trust factor blows me away. It’s incredible.
Bruce Hildebrand: The connection. So it rings true again of John Howard Steele’s story of walking arm-in-arm with Joseph Pilates down the main streets of New York. I’m curious at this point, Tania, was there parts of the experience that you didn’t want to accept or parts of Pilates that you found challenging for your pursuit of wanting to improve at Pilates- was there things that you found as roadblocks or things that got in your way that you didn’t want to face up to that were blocking your progress with Pilates at this point in time?
Tania Huddart: I didn’t have a lot of upper body strength, so from a physical perspective, the upper body strength was always really challenging. I didn’t really develop that until I started teaching and I think it was from pulling springs all day long that lack of strength in the upper body disappeared. So that was really interesting that teaching made me stronger. I hated the side-lying work, it took me a long time to embrace that. Now it’s some of my favorite exercises to do, but at the time I really disliked it. Leslie is such a gifted teacher she challenged me to be better physically, but she never gave me anything that I couldn’t achieve. And I was teaching but I was also required as part of that journey to do two classes a week, and her classes were an hour and a half long- so I was doing three hours of dedicated supervised Pilates every week and I could have easily done three hours at a time. There was such a depth of knowledge that she brought to the body that I never felt like I was out of my depth. I really value what I learned there- it really set me up- and it was very modified with every person in that room- because it was more like a circuit-based class.
There were usually about six of us in this tiny little room and she had specific exercises for each person and she kept each person’s body in her head. And that’s something that I really respected and that I learned from her was how to work in a group, but still be specific for each person- that there were some things that everybody did because it was good general practice, but then there were things that were specific to their injury, to their restrictions that were their go-to exercises. It’s largely a system that I still use myself in terms of how I structure my class for a client. It’s been refined over the years, but that ability to step into that body and to choose appropriate exercises. And I think what’s even more important for me now is not just the exercise choice, but understanding how I’m going to give that person ownership of these exercises so that they can transform their everyday life. That really spins my wheels. It’s still exciting after more than 26 years.
Bruce Hildebrand: It’s amazing to hear. I can certainly relate I was about five years behind you Tania in my time in London and the way that you’re speaking so beautifully about Leslie’s structure and her flow within the operation of the way the studio ran was very similar to what I first experienced when I stepped into Gordon Thompson’s studio, who also learned from Alan Herdman. The way that the operation of the room worked- it’s certainly bringing back memories of that structure that you’re talking about with Leslie knowing bodies so well, a lot of individualized work going on, but also a lot of collective work going on. And it was a beautiful space- and I literally fell in love with Pilates myself in that phase when I first stepped into that space.
Tania Huddart: Yes. I met Gordon a couple of times because obviously it’s such a small Pilates community- and Leslie encouraged me to go around and observe these different people teaching- and they were quite happy to have me come in and observe it. Yeah, I was incredibly lucky. And even when I did my training in the early 2000s in the States, I was so lucky with the people that I was working with- Leslie Powell was one of my mentors and Doris Pasteleur Hall- phenomenal teachers! I was so lucky to learn from them. Marika Molnar, Tom McCook was part of that group as well- just incredible. I spent six weeks in Santa Fe with Alex Garcia who was the lead instructor at the head office there at the time- such a richness of approach, even though we were trained there more classically, it was also geared towards the individual and Alex was really good about modifying exercises for people. I remember there were about 10 of us training with him at the time and everybody got homework, except me, my homework was to rest- because I was like a kid in a candy store- I was so excited! He said "Tania you need to chill out- you’re not allowed in the studio on the weekend. You need to go and rest and do other things". I was highly miffed with him at the time, but yes, in later life I have come to value that concept of rest.
Bruce Hildebrand: Let me revisit the initial entry into this story, I feel like there’s been a metamorphis at this point of transitioning from dance into Pilates- is there any dance in your life at this point in California?
Tania Huddart: Yeah, there was, I was not allowed to work because of the visa that I was on- so I was doing classes in California at a studio just up the road from me with Beth Hogue. She was a teacher that had trained under a very different style of classical ballet. She was amazing- so I found my dancer’s body again. Around the corner from my house there was a Pilates studio which is where I did my Mat training. I’d never done Mat work in my life before then. So I thought I’d better go and check out this Mat training business. So I started doing Mat classes and did the training with Angie at her studio. Then I was studying my dance philosophy degree at the same time- so I was going backwards and forwards to London and doing all of my papers- it was all distance learning apart from the times that we had to be in London for classes. There was also the California Art and Craft College up the road from me, so I did a film course and I did some pottery and various different art classes and things like that, so I certainly filled my time. And then 9/11 happened- that was huge! We didn’t have a TV at the time, so I went across to our neighbors and it was unbelievable watching this unfold. I sat there and I turned around to my ex-husband and I said " We’re not going to be here for much longer, there’s a training course happening in Santa Fe- I’m doing it!" Two weeks later, I was in Santa Fe and I started doing my training because I was determined I was going to leave the States with a qualification. And so that’s what I did- and those six weeks in Santa Fe were magical- it was a very intense time- amazing people that I was studying with incredible place- on the day that I sat my final exam my ex-husband was in a meeting and they told them that they were dis-establishing his role- they wanted to move him to Chicago to take on a sales role, which he didn’t want, or he could take voluntary redundancy. He called me up and he told me what was happening, and I said we’re going back to New Zealand aren’t we? And so that’s exactly what then happened. So I ended up back in New Zealand and opened up a studio.
Bruce Hildebrand: He was a Kiwi national?
Tania Huddart: No, he’s half British half Swedish, which is how I ended up in Stockholm all those years ago and living in London and various other places- I lived in Latvia of all places about a year after Latvia gained independence, I traveled all around the Baltic states, I lived in Amsterdam which I absolutely love- fantastic place- great dance scene there as well. I’ve had so many adventures- if anybody had told me I would live this rich life that I’ve had, I never would have believed it. Dance and Pilates basically have been a part of that all the way through- phenomenal. So I opened up a studio back in New Zealand and at that stage, there were only about two or three studios in Wellington and then it just exploded. I had an overflowing studio within three months of opening up- it was such a wild ride- just incredible- and carried a waiting list pretty much for all 15 years that I was teaching in Wellington.
Bruce Hildebrand: Tania can you reflect on the time when you knew you were getting hooked on Pilates, and what the hidden gems were that were beginning to really take a hold of you, that you couldn’t ignore that had gotten under your skin and were basically an itch that you couldn’t resist to scratch?
Tania Huddart: I hate not being able to do something or understand something. So the fact that it challenged me to such a degree- because not much has challenged me physically in the way that Pilates has.
Bruce Hildebrand: That’s an incredible thing to say.
Tania Huddart: Flamenco maybe, but that’s more about timing than anything else. Pilates physically found my weak spots and I didn’t like that, so I was determined that it wouldn’t be and just kept on working on it. I never stopped doing Pilates, even in the places where there wasn’t much Pilates around as I was moving, I had my foam roller, I had my very first piece of equipment- a wobble board that Leslie had ordered for me- and it’s still in my studio- it still gets used daily. It’s had me en pointe doing panche’s en pointe on the wobble board, t’s had me doing grande rande de jambes en pointe on the wobble board. If I think about things that Leslie got me to do – insane things- I couldn’t do them now for the life of me- not that I would want to anymore, but if I think about what I was capable of hands down, there’s nothing like Pilates for strength and flexibility. I’ve never found anything that is as satisfying.
Bruce Hildebrand: That’s an amazing thing to say. And at this stage of your Pilates progress Tania, what I’d really like to do is dive into your Pilates Diary at this point and really understand more what was it that had you full so deeply in love with Pilates? and perhaps some issues or some hidden conversations that were happening in the studio all around the world, and in the industry at large, that you didn’t feel aligned with, or that perhaps turned you off from Pilates.
Tania Huddart: I think one of the things that disturbed me, in fact still disturbs me to a very large degree, is that many Pilates teacher training courses expect teachers to be performing seals. I think that it is a personal journey to want to be better at the exercises. But there are many of us that have physical restrictions that don’t make it possible for us to do some of those exercises and it doesn’t even have to be the advanced exercises, even what’s classed as a beginner’s exercise can be incredibly challenging even for a sophisticated mover. I think when we come to doing teacher training courses, my biggest passion is teaching. So I’m a teacher at heart I always have been, and I believe that many teacher training courses are not equipping trainees with the skills to teach.
They all think they need more knowledge, they all think that they have to go and study other disciplines and inform themselves about Polyvagal Theory and the Myo-fascial System and everything else. Don’t get me wrong- I love learning. I am constantly learning. I’m a Myofascial Release Therapist, I’ve become a Coach. Next year I’m doing more study, and I never stop studying. I love knowledge, but my clients really don’t give a damn they want to feel better. So all of this stuff informs, but they don’t want to know the ins and outs of that. They just want me to help them to reach their goals and that’s my role, but I can only do that if I understand how to connect with them and communicate with them as people, and then how to help them create that transformation that they’re looking for from being in pain to out of pain- from being a average dancer to a great dancer because they doing what I’m helping them to do.
Bruce Hildebrand: And it’s not about learning another exercise or another 50 exercise or another a hundred exercises is actually the skill set I understand you’re talking about is taking a small number of exercises, but knowing very well how to apply them and use them appropriately.
Tania Huddart: Exactly. Because variations on exercises- you can make them up yourself if you understand how it works. It doesn’t have to be a by the book exercise. You have to understand the body and then you have to understand the people that you’re working with. Especially in today’s world where there’s so much competition there are so many teachers out there’s so many studios out there.
The thing that can set you apart is your ability to communicate why this movement that you teaching is important in everyday life. How does this connect? Are we just taking the box in the studio for an hour and then walking away and forgetting about it? Or are we giving people the tools so they can use these movements they’re learning with us in everyday life. So from John Howard Steele’s book, what I got was that was exactly what Joe’s approach was. I want you to be better in normal everyday life- that’s why I’ve designed these exercises. If we don’t give our teachers the ability to communicate with our clients, these high level concepts that we have in our heads, then we are doing them a disservice. It’s not about learning the exercises. Those are our history. We have to know them, to all intents and purposes, how many of my clients am I really going to teach Control Balance to, what benefit does that got in their normal everyday life?
I don’t see a very high value in that exercise in terms of the clients that I see walking through my door. In fact, probably 98% of them I’d break if I had to ask them to do something like that. But if I’m working with a circus artist or a dancer and they need to get into those extreme ranges of motion, then fantastic- I can do that, but also in my experience most of those people need to learn to come home to their bodies. They don’t need to do fancy exercises in the studio.
Bruce Hildebrand: They need to rest.
Tania Huddart: Yeah, and they need to recalibrate, they need to come home. They need to put some structure into these extreme ranges of motion that they’re doing. That’s probably my biggest passion now- giving back to teachers. If I reflect on all the amazing teaching and support that I’ve had from people like Leslie Powell, like Leslie Ackland like Doris Pastaleur Hall. I want to be able to help teachers not lose their confidence because those are the biggest conversations that I have, beautiful, talented teachers who feel like they can’t get it right who lose their confidence, and ultimately a lot of them stop teaching and we can’t afford to lose more people out of our industry- we don’t have enough teachers as it is. We have a lot of people who can do Pilates, but we don’t have a lot of really informed teachers that can really inspire people. So that’s my biggest passion right now, Bruce. That is the gap that I see in our market, that is where I would like to be able to support and help and be a mentor for these teachers.
Bruce Hildebrand: Tania it’s often at this stage that we’ve been in the game long enough- so we’re looking at the time now that you’re returning back to New Zealand- and you’re getting obviously a really good feel for what Pilates entails, and you’re getting a picture of being in the game for X amount of time- were you beginning to sense that the time is coming where you’d have to turn a little more inwardly and face up to a range of factors that would perhaps shape your involvement with Pilates determining how you were going to move forward with it- you just touched on that’s what is your main passion now. There was a certain turning point at that stage of the journey when you first stepped back in New Zealand and opening your own studio? As you mentioned earlier, you would never see yourself having done- I’m assuming that because of where you are now that you decided to move forward with that clearly- can you tell me more about what this turning point was for you?
Tania Huddart: Actually it was the death of my best friend. He was a dance teacher that I worked with in Stockholm. He was critically ill- he had liver cancer and I had been in Stockholm visiting friends and specifically went to go and see him because I knew he was in hospital. He was such a beautiful soul such a highly articulate dancer and seeing this man bedridden and in so much discomfort I just said to him, look, do you want me to give you a Pilates class? I was busy working with him and figuring out what he could do in his hospital bed there was this moment where he stopped and he looked at me and he said "Tania what are you doing? I’m going "I’m teaching your Pilates". He’s going " No Tania, what are you doing? I know you’re a great dance teacher, but this is what you should be doing. I didn’t know what to say to that. And he was right. He was right. that was the catalyst. Less than three weeks later, I lost him- it’s still hard, but he’s with me in the studio every day.
Bruce Hildebrand: Thanks for sharing.
Tania Huddart: No problem. You’ve made me cry, but yes, he was the biggest inspiration because in that moment I could help him, and in that moment, he helped me because I was in a very dark place in my life at that time- and so I think he brought the clarity with that one comment that changed my life.
Bruce Hildebrand: That’s pretty special.
Tania Huddart: So it’s not only Pilates that I’m grateful for, but definitely for that clear as a bell moment- and he’s still with me every day when I work.
Bruce Hildebrand: What a celebration and what a triumph of coming to that conclusion. And at that point, was it mostly a sense of calm or peace or relief or excitement, or perhaps even overwhelm of what was still to come and what you knew at this point that you’re obviously had the press forward with
Tania Huddart: Total calm- it’s like he cut through all of the noise in my life at that point. That was when I got back to California, not long after that 9/11 then happened and then my journey started. That’s also probably why the desert in Santa Fe had such a huge impact on me. It really is a magical place- Santa Fe has a lot of really beautiful energy and I really came home to myself from this sort of fractured person that I’d become over a period of time due to various different reasons- that was the beginning of my healing- it was a very intense time. In many ways I could say Pilates saved me. That whole experience was magical I was incredibly lucky to have experienced what I have experienced. It’s been a very rich journey.
Bruce Hildebrand: Thanks so much for sharing . From that point Tania, can you expand on the path that’s been for you since that time?
Tania Huddart: Oh my goodness. So much Bruce, so much! Because you’ve been part of that journey with me. I met you first in 2003 in Auckland when you did those workshops? I’d already been delving into the Franklin Method because that was part of my Dance Philosophy degree that I was studying- I did a whole thing on visualization. And then fast forward to 2012 when I celebrated 10 years of Hearts and Bones and organized the conference and had you come over and teach and we had an absolute blast and I launched Always Pilates which was a complete and utter disastrous flop.
Bruce Hildebrand: Tell us about Always Pilates?
Tania Huddart: Oh gosh, I knew the internet was important and I was determined that I was going to try and understand this at least to a certain degree and wanted to create an online resource for teachers and clients alike with prerecorded videos and things like that.
Bruce Hildebrand: Sounds like 2021.
Tania Huddart: Yes. The world just wasn’t ready for it at that stage. But I wouldn’t have the skills to do what I’m doing now if it hadn’t been for that. It was wonderful to connect and reach out to practitioners in Australia and across New Zealand that presented on Always Pilates- yourself, Sally Anderson, Shanina who’s no longer teaching and a variety of other people. Wendy LeBlanc Arbuckle came out at the same time. That was wonderful to connect with her- she was the person that then introduced me to Phillip Beach who also went on to change my life completely. Phillip’s teachings are with me as I work, it’s become a very strong focal point in my business his model for movement I use every single day. He is my mentor, he’s become a really good friend. I’m still meeting these incredible people, these incredibly passionate people that inspire my life and inspire how I work. And they’re with me all the time. So I left Wellington because I burnt out completely- I was too proud to ask for help along the way.
Bruce Hildebrand: A good thing to recognise!
Tania Huddart: Yes, it’s taken awhile, but I am glad in many ways I went down to Dunedin and I studied a Post-graduate Certificate in Public Health. I wanted a different perspective on health. Pilates is very privileged in many ways- we have people with a disposable income that come to us. They live a good life, they don’t struggle necessarily for much in life. And it is still one of my passions to see how I can bring movement to people without the price tag. I would really like to see movement and it might be Pilates, it might not- I actually think there are far simpler ways that we can get people to move more. One of my biggest passions is childhood obesity. I did a number of papers on that using community gardening as a catalyst for healthier bodies, minds and spirits. So that’s still on the back burner somewhere I’m going to find the knowledge or the way forward to do that as well.
Bruce Hildebrand: Coming back to what we talked about earlier, Tania what are some of the changes in both the body, mind, and even in your spirit as Joseph Pilates put it that are now second nature to you in the way that you do Pilates and that you’ve even managed to carry over into your daily life that you couldn’t imagine that were possible either before you even started Pilates or that you couldn’t have imagined were possible during the time when you were wrestling with the things that we talked about earlier. Can you share some of those changes .
Tania Huddart: The thing that I can do now that inspires me is I can even at the age of 52 swing on monkey bars, that I have the upper body strength to be able to do that- and I use movement opportunities throughout the day. I don’t find anything in Pilates particularly difficult anymore. There’s some things after my hysterectomy that I choose not to do because it feels uncomfortable and unsafe. But Pilates and the other changes like a floor living lifestyle that I have and barefoot walking that I do all inspired by Phillip Beach means that I don’t live in a 52 year old woman’s body. I’ve gained longevity, and that is my goal to be able to be really comfortable in my body, even into my old age. Pilates has given me that I don’t think I would have had it without- my body was in a sorry state from dancing. And like I say, I’m still a work in progress- I’ve been doing it for so long but my body is still a work in progress, but I can hand on heart say now that my body is better at the age of 52 than it was when I was 22.
Bruce Hildebrand: That is an amazing thing to say!
Tania Huddart: I feel very lucky that I found this amazing method when I did because it has quite literally changed my life on so many levels. You can’t do Pilates without inquiring within so it’s not just been a physical transformation. As I’ve worked through the layers of my body, it’s brought up emotional things, it’s brought up mental blocks, limiting beliefs that I’ve also had to address and a way of healing for me through all of that has been movement. It’s an active inquiry into dealing with stress as well. That’s my journey at the moment is dealing with stress- putting lots of things in place, I’m very lucky to be working with James Crader- I really value James’ work- he’s my number one teacher at the moment. So I’m still learning, I’m still exploring, I think part of being a good teacher is being coachable and continuing to take class with other people- it just keeps going, Bruce, it doesn’t stop.
Bruce Hildebrand: On top of that Tania and beyond that where do you sit now with Pilates? What does the future hold for you with Pilates in your life? What plans to you have in store with your Pilates involvement? I imagine there’s ample! Also what do you wish you knew at the start of the journey that would make the biggest difference to someone who might be considering starting Pilates or facing some of the struggles that you did in your various stages of Pilates progress?
Tania Huddart: I think business knowledge is important. I think too many people jump into running a Pilates business without realizing the toll that takes- thinking they can only go in and teach the classes and everything else will take care of itself. Not understanding about clear communication with clients is not just about how you cue them, but actually how you run your business as well. A lot of people have policies in place that they never enforce- cancellation policies and things like that. I think that same clarity about why you teach and who you teach needs to extend to your business as well. That’s one of the main reasons that I do business coaching with fellow Pilates teachers. Also, you know, you’re still doing the dollar value for money per hour. There are better ways of doing business and I wish I’d known that teaching more hours is not always the answer. There are smarter ways to do that. And that took me a long time to learn. So I wish I’d known that from the start.
In terms of me going forward, my biggest push at the moment is online training and coaching. I’m developing a program called "Teaching With Confidence"- we’ll be launching later on this month- there’ll be both a U.S. cohort and an Australia/New Zealand cohort that I’ll be working with. My biggest push is in supporting teachers- I absolutely love training teachers and supporting them- I love the conversations, I love the community. Going forward I guess I’m in the phase now where I’m looking ahead at retirement- whatever that’s going to look like- I don’t think I could ever fully retire. I’ll always be involved in some way but I do have to create more longevity in my business, just like I have in my body. That’s where the internet and online courses come into play. Certainly really keen to be doing a lot more coaching passing on knowledge helping people to step over those stumbling blocks, and understanding that asking for help is not a weakness that it is actually a strength and that you can only keep doing what you’ve done, because that’s all you know- you need somebody else to help give you that perspective. If I can be that perspective for somebody I feel really grateful to be able to do that. Those are my next steps, Bruce. I do a lot of art- so I would like to have some more time for that- I do enjoy painting and I felt, and I create stuff that keeps me inspired and I think it’s that creativity that allows me to be quite fluid and flexible with how I approach my business and it took me a long time to realize that. For me right now my core values are freedom and fun. That’s how I teach- we just have fun. We throw balls around and we balance on one leg with our eyes closed and go walk outside in bare feet and on the rock boards in the studio and get up to all kinds of crazy stuff- massaging our jaws yeah , we just have fun- that’s what it’s all about.
Bruce Hildebrand: I can hear loud and clear Tania the place that you’re coming from is so heartfelt and so genuine and so authentic when it comes to sharing your wealth of knowledge with so many teachers coming up through the next generation of Pilates- so to be able to help them out in such a range of different ways, I think it’s genuinely exciting and why should everyone have to struggle with the same things you and I had to struggle with through the years? Why not pay it forward and really give the opportunity? Because at the end of the day, for me, Tania the results of not doing that is Pilates actually stays on the same level.
It doesn’t get better, it doesn’t get more available to people, it doesn’t get more expanded, it doesn’t reach these corners of the globe that we both know it’s really critical that it does in whatever shape and form, but really having the mechanisms in place and the success and the profitability and the sustainability and the longevity in place that is going to make Pilates reach everyone that it needs to reach because, and of course, we’re very biased in this, that how much it contributes to everyone’s life that participates.
Tania Huddart: Absolutely, and there’s nothing wrong with us as Pilates teachers making money too. That’s one of the biggest things that I see next to the confidence piece for a lot of teachers is that there’s this belief that you can’t make much money from teaching Pilates. It’s simply not true- it is possible- but you need to be smart about it and you need to understand that your business needs to be running on your energy and you need to decide how much energy you have to give. Then what are you going to do so that you don’t run out of that energy? So how are you going to maximize the time that you do teach? And do you really want to keep exchanging dollars per hour or is there a better way? I still enjoy the dollars per hour that I’m working with my clients, but I have drastically reduced that because I don’t have the energy that I used to have. It’s important to me that I find other ways to generate that income, but it’s also important to me that I’m supporting and guiding and building a future for the people that come after me. There is a better way to do it- hands down- you don’t have to burn out like I did, you don’t have to move your entire family to be able to create a new vision and a new version of how you are going to interact with this wonderful technique.
So create your own business model, and it’s exciting. There’s so much scope of the things that we can do. God, I wish I’d known this 20 years ago!
Bruce Hildebrand: Do you think to a degree Tania there’s a hangover of the way that Pilates was originally taught? The face-to-face, the one-on-one, the exchanging time for money, bricks and mortar sort of scenario. Do you think there’s a fair bit of hangover where because of what we’re afforded these days in our modern world is that it opens up the opportunities for Pilates to find a new way for it to be more accessible to people and to be much more affordable, like you mentioned earlier, and to make its way into our lives in a plethora of mediums.
Tania Huddart: I absolutely see a future like that. I know that what’s happened with COVID is horrendous on a global scale, but what it has done is it’s also given us a great gift of having to work in a different way. It’s cracked that little nut open, so instead of resistance, we now have people willing to explore different options, which I think is incredible the gift that so much loss and devastation has also brought us, and I choose to see it from a positive standpoint rather than from a negative because we have to go on, we have to find a way forward and to find a way forward means that we have to change. So that’s what we’re going to do- we’re going to change, where are you going to take this and we’re going to run with it and whatever direction it’s going to take us until we find a better way forward.
Bruce Hildebrand: Exciting Tania it’s been an absolute pleasure chatting with you today- thank you so much for your time on the call. Can you finish with outlining for us the best way for the listeners to get in touch with you?
Tania Huddart: Email me I’m on Facebook. You can send me a messenger. Go to my website heartsandbones.co.nz. Yeah, drop me a line. And if you ever in Nelson New Zealand come and see me
Bruce Hildebrand: It’s a stunning country of course New Zealand so it’s never struggle to get across and enjoy the beautiful people and the country. Thanks so much Tania, it’s been a pleasure chatting. And I look forward to catching up the next time we do.
Tania Huddart: Thank you, Bruce.
Bruce Hildebrand: We hope you enjoyed this episode of The Pilates Diaries Podcast. Drop us a comment online at the links in the show notes, and be sure to subscribe and rate the podcast to keep updated with episode releases and hear more stories from our guests’ Pilates Diaries. This podcast is made possible by the following sponsors- keep an ear out for exclusive Pilates Diaries Podcast listener discount codes. Thanks for listening.
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