Episode Show Notes
On this episode we are joined by Katrina Edwards from Aligned For Life Pilates and National Pilates Training in Melbourne. Katrina has an extensive background in Pilates starting her journey in 1988 when training at the Australian Ballet School. Katrina opened her first Pilates Studio in Melbourne in 2000, and now consults to the Australian Ballet School, the Melbourne City Football Club and previously with the Western Bulldogs Football Club.
The mission of this podcast is to share the stories of the impact of Pilates to help you live and move with more joy, physical vitality, and renewed vigor.
Pilates was a somewhat unknown word until it started creeping into conversation somewhere around the 2000s- maybe even before then depending on who you asked and amongst which circles, and has largely remained and enigma for many reasons- one of which perhaps is that Pilates really has to be experienced to be understood.
There are now a wide range of Pilates styles available when you attend a Pilates class, perhaps borne from the variation of interpretations of how Pilates was originally taught by its founder, Joseph Pilates.
With The Pilates Diaries Podcast we’re inviting Pilates enthusiasts around the globe to share with us what they’ve noted down in their Pilates Diary. Our hope is that the Pilates Diaries Podcast goes some way to answering the question ” What is it that makes Pilates so special?”
We’ll take a privileged peek into the Pilates Diaries of our guests to gain a greater insight into the impact Pilates can have in all of our lives and contribute to the health and wellbeing of the community at large.
I welcome you along for the journey and welcome your comments and discussions through the links found on your favorite podcast platform
Enjoy.
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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 are joined by Katrina Edwards from Aligned For Life Pilates and National Pilates Training in Melbourne. Katrina has an extensive background in Pilates starting her journey in 1988 when training at the Australian Ballet School. Katrina opened her first Pilates Studio in Melbourne in 2000, and now consults to the Australian Ballet School, the Melbourne City Football Club and previously with the Western Bulldogs Football Club. Katrina, welcome to the show.
Katrina Edwards: Thanks Bruce
Bruce Hildebrand: Katrina, 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 see now were some little threads that might’ve led you to discover Pilates?
Katrina Edwards: Prior to Pilates, that for me is up until the age of 18, I grew up in Wagga, country town in New South Wales. I had a great upbringing, very family orientated. Fell into movement, I believe from his early as still being in nappies that’s apparently when I started dance. My auntie ran a dance school in Wagga and the story goes that I was put into the baby’s class and I never left. I have such fond memories- I did everything from Scottish to Irish to Classical ballet to Jazz, to singing everything. I used to spend every school afternoon there and if I could get out of school, I was there.
In fact, when I got into high school, I could get out of school because the nuns thought what I was doing was so fabulous that I went and spoke to the principal and said I wanted to have Wednesday afternoons off because that sport afternoon and she said, yeah, no problem- where will you be? I’m pretty sure I know where you’re going to be. I said, yeah, I’m going to be at my auntie’s ballet school, she’s going to give me some extra classes. The other thing that I remember during that time is how much fun we had- tight knit family, both sides both sets of grandparents in town big families, lots of cousins, lots of Friday nights in the pool playing ridiculous games. Lots of slip and slides down the hill in the backyard- lots and lots of fun. And then life got pretty serious though, because I auditioned for the Victorian College of the Arts and the Australian Ballet School when I was 15, still in year nine. So my life went from being fun, social, family, dance was just a hobby or pursuit and whilst I spent a lot of time there, it was still really informal. It was as much social as it was educative and formal study. But then at 15, when I got two letters back in the mail within the space of six weeks saying I got accepted into both and then sitting with my parents going " boy oh boy!" does that mean, I should think about taking one of those? Massive decision! I remember for the first time ever at 15 feeling quite traumatized going " wow!" that means I have to leave home no matter which one I choose. That’s a shift from Wagga down to Melbourne. Not that we hadn’t visited Melbourne and Sydney- I spent lots of school holidays with my grandparents family, everyone having a holiday because I was doing a summer school for dance somewhere, either in Sydney or in Melbourne. So it wasn’t that I didn’t know the big cities, it was just that it meant that I was going to have to live on my own and not have the supportive mum and dad and my grandparents and my auntie, my ballet teacher, who were my world.
I ended up deciding to take the Australian Ballet School that was so new- moving into a flat with three other girls, barely being able to cook an egg. In fact, I remember the first night I cooked an egg and it didn’t quite cook and I went to take it out and peel the shell and it was runny! And I remember sitting on my bed crying and then calling my parents going, I don’t think I can do this. I can’t even cook an egg, but then man I just got swept into this world! I was at the ballet studio at seven o’clock in the morning, getting ready for the first class that went all the way through to five o’clock in the afternoon and I moved the whole day- it’s all I did. And I was with people that thought the same. I have two very close girlfriends that I went through the Australian Ballet School with who in a way replaced my families, their families swept me up and my parents drove down from Wagga every weekend to make sure I was okay the first year. When I think about what happened before Pilates actually Pilates was just a flow on because I’d been moving since possibly two and a half, three and moving in lots of different ways- having to do impro from a really young age movement for me was like normal- it’s all I knew! Of course you move, what do you mean you don’t move? I move all day long. So when I looked at the Pilates Method, it was like, do you mean I could make a living out of something that is similar to dance that makes you move?
Bruce Hildebrand: It seems a logical replacement for what is, traditional sport in the sense for your Wednesday afternoon, back at school it was fantastic that your principal would identify that was equally as valuable to you in your education.
Katrina Edwards: How about that! For a conservatism, you look at religion and Catholicism for me at 52 there’s such a lot of conservatism that went with that, but at the same time, you’re right- what an extraordinary thing I didn’t even have to have a huge conversation. it wasn’t, like she said "we’ll have to think about that". She was of course you would do that. That was the response. Katrina that’s such a sensible way of using your time. It wasn’t even a "we must meet your auntie and we must get a letter". There was no transfer of paperwork. I think the only other question she asked me is how will you get there? And I said, mum will pick me up- she’s going to leave work early that day. It was a no-brainer and I think everyone at my secondary school had in a way become so involved in what I did. Most of the teachers knew my success of a weekend if I went away to compete news spread quickly- so on board, so supportive! But you’re right these days. I think we’re driven by such a lot of paperwork, these days if I’d asked that question, it would have taken six weeks to get approval. So yeah, I feel very lucky.
Bruce Hildebrand: Part of the fun of creating this podcast is to see what those forks in the road were that forged the way forward and I already see that early in our conversation Katrina is we reflect on the people who helped to pave the way. I see that decision from your principal is a pat on the back to her- acknowledgement that she’d already seen your leadership- you’d obviously demonstrated that very clearly through what you were up to and to take the initiative to do it. it really helped to forge the way for you.
Katrina Edwards: A hundred percent. You look back at that fork and think I wonder what would’ve happened if she hadn’t said yes? I wouldn’t have had that dedicated time with my auntie, which was one-on-one. And it was less than a year then that I got accepted into both the Victorian College of the Arts and the Australian Ballet School- so you also have to look at that and go, I wonder, if I hadn’t had that dedicated time that I’d said, this is what I want to do and really relished in my auntie saying, we could use that Wednesday afternoon slot. Interesting. If that hadn’t happened, would I actually have been ready to be accepted into both those settings?
Bruce Hildebrand: And we’re going to expand on this more and more as we talk, but with your leadership in the Pilates industry, as it currently stands it’s often not accidental that you’ve arrived at that position and depth of expertise and experience to be able to share in the industry. What springs to mind is the story of Bill Gates- he fortuitously lived short distance from one of the biggest and only mainframe computers in the whole of the US at a local university. And it was just lucky that he could access computer programming as a teenager. So it was his hobby, like you’re talking about to go up and pay something like a dollar for five hour access to this relatively powerful computer at the time and access it and learn how to program. So when it became more and more accessible, that computers were as we well know, these days very available, he was ahead of the game because he’d already had that time and preparation and access to computers. So for you, when Pilates got some momentum, you were in the box seat because you’d already moved and you already knew movement so intimately in your body.
Katrina Edwards: Yeah. I think we talk serendipity if we use that word, when I cast way back being in that box seat, also another pivotal man in helping me position myself was me arriving at the Prahran Sports Medicine Centre with an injury. Again, right place- right time- right day- there’s Craig Phillips having just come back from three weeks with Carola Trier needing staff and wanting to open a studio in six weeks, and I walk in with an injury, not being able to dance.
Bruce Hildebrand: Tell us more about that story when you first arrived at Pilates.
Katrina Edwards: I’d never done a session, hadn’t seen anything about it before had no idea, 18, just arrived back from Monte-Carlo because I had torn a cartilage in my knee, that forced me to travel home and have an operation in Melbourne I was at Princess Grace’s School in Monte-Carlo doing further training, I was using that as a place to reside because they had a boarding school attached and a teacher from the Australian Ballet School had shifted over to teach there. I’d been traveling around Europe trying to get a job in a ballet company. So I was really missing home at that point so landing in Monte-Carlo was a moment to go. I’m going to know some people there’s some Australians staying the boarding house. This ballet teacher that I got on really well with, I really admired her and respected her, was teaching there. But unfortunately, physically I was so out of shape that the technique, forcing my feet to stand on a line on the wood- that external rotation, that force on my knees. Bang! I’d only done classes for a week and my knee swelled up and went to a doctor in Nice and he said in his limited English, I think you’ve done some serious damage. And then calling my folks, they were like, that’s it, you’re on a plane home. So landing at Craig Phillips, you know, him just having come back from The States- three weeks with Carola Trier- he’d videoed the whole thing. So having a physio treatment and Craig said well you’re going to have to take some time now. You don’t have to do some serious rehab on it- you’re not going to be able to dance for awhile. Do you want a job? I’ve just come back from The States and he started to talk to me about the Pilates Method, I was like "Oh?" He said, look, just go up and watch the video- tell me what you think. The studio is going to open in Melbourne in six weeks time, there isn’t another Pilates Studio in Australia- we will be the first! Even that for me, wasn’t really a " Oh, let me be the first!"- it was more that I watched the video and was like " Oh my God- who’s this woman, she just looks so graceful and so strong and the movements I think were so aesthetically pleasing. I think that’s what drew me in initially- it was the aesthetics, it was the flow, it was the uninterrupted- her physique, there were so many things that pulled me in and aligned me. And I ran downstairs and said, tell me more- What is the job? He said well, you’d be teaching. And I was like, but how do I learn it? And he said I’ve got tapes and tapes and tapes. I’ve got three weeks full of tapes. I’ve got all the movements across all the apparatus and the apparatus arrives Monday. At that time my dad wasn’t with me and I said, oh, I, to mind, I feel like I need to go out and get my father- because I’m only 18! He’s in the car park waiting for me. Yeah, no problem. Bring him in. Craig re-explained everything to my dad in more detail again. And long story short, I started work the following Monday in the first fully equipped Pilates S tudio in Melbourne that had a Physio Clinic practice attached. You talk about that fork in the road and you talk about being in the box seat, just serendipity, how lucky to have just booked a physio appointment on the day that he happened to be looking for staff and I needed rehab. So when he said to me, you’ll rehab your own knee, you won’t need me- there was a part of that that was like I want to be able to claim that, that I did that myself. So I was also drawn to that autonomy, that independence, that sense of being able to thrive and flourish, learn from myself, learn on my own, figure it out as an 18 year old being through what I’d been through- I was like, yeah, I’m all over that. That has my name written on it!
Bruce Hildebrand: Those are very internally driven motives to get onto this and to resolve lots of stuff for yourself. You’ve achieved so much up until this point as an 18- year old that you didn’t need to be asked twice to do that, obviously.
Katrina Edwards: They’re interesting things you’ve brought up- those internal drivers, those already rehearsed self-regulating strategies that when you talk about it like that, you go, wow. I thought I was struggling at 18, but yet on lots of levels clearly potentially not.
Bruce Hildebrand: Can you tell us some of your first impressions of Pilates you’ve touched on those briefly, but also Craig, did he actually teach you many things? And what about other people around you- were there other teachers who were given a similar opportunity to work alongside you and also other people in your life- what did your dad and your mum and other people that you were dancing with at the time, think of this thing when you mentioned the word Pilates?
Katrina Edwards: My dad is a huge fitness advocate. He’s currently 77 and it’s all we talk about on the phone- how far he’s walked that day how many kms he’s done on his stationary bike. He’s come from a athletic upbringing- ran at the Stawell Gift, coached footy, played footy, national swimming. I have that as a huge influence and had that as a huge influence growing up his dedication to his physical fitness- all self-taught, thrived on coaching, thrived on developing young athletes, booking them for running sessions of an evening, them booking him because they heard he was a really good coach.
So that’s my world. But then also having an auntie who was a dedicated teacher- that was her vocation the ballet school was everything. Two really key influences, but then also when you talk about the new workplace setting with Craig just incredibly supportive. There was I at 18 having learnt the Pilates Method off videos. All he really gave me as notes were stick figures. I had a stick figure to start the position and then like a cartoon strip two or three more and then showed the end position. It was up to me to figure out, combined with the video footage, what was that exercise? What was it for? Who am I going to teach it to? In terms of him being a mentor, I think if he hadn’t given me absolute right of way, and I still remember that first day when you walked out- we’d opened up the practice and it was 8:30 in the morning and he’s first patient had come in and I didn’t understand the rhythm of the day, what was really going to happen.
I felt ready, but at 8:30, when that first client had their physio treatment, which only lasted 20 minutes and by 9:30 his cubicles are full- he’s got four on the go and they’re having treatment and then being shot out like what felt like a cannon out into the Pilates studio. By 11 o’clock I had six people in the room. It’s my first day- it’s day one! I still remember when the first person came out of the cubicle, Craig hugged me around the shoulder, and he said meet Mary, you know, she’s got X and X and X and X. She can’t do this and this. I remember looking back at him after I’d kindly said hello to Mary and gone over and laid Mary down on her back.
I ran back to Craig and I was like- "What am I meant to do!? You’ve given me three sentences, aren’t you going to stay with me? Can’t you coach me through her session? He was like no, you’ll be fine. I’m like really? And he said look, my first piece of advice and last piece of advice, cause I’ve got another three in the cubicles- he said just trust yourself? Look at the human being, get to know the human being, build your trust by getting to know the human being. and I promise you she’ll lead you! Just talk to her, do instinctively where you think you should start warm her up and by the time you finished the warm. I promise you, Mary is going to either look fatigued that’s enough for today, send her home, maybe give her a little bit of homework. And if something hurts, Mary’s going to grimace. So as soon as Mary grimaces stop and talk to Mary, ask her what’s going on. So I got to the end of my first day, pretty keen to show up again for the next session the next day. But I came in an hour early to run myself through a session, because I was like, I’ve very little to draw on at the minute apart from my own personal experience with my own body on these pieces of uniquely designed spring-loaded equipment. So by the time, the second day hit the Prahran swimming pool was next door. I signed up every day- I swam a km in the pool just to have enough courage to come back for the afternoon and go again.
Bruce Hildebrand: Those are incredible stories
Katrina Edwards: Crazy when you think back on it! When students say to me now, you know, I really don’t feel like I’m ready for this. I go, oh, you’ve no idea. What do you mean? You’re not ready- you’ve had contact days, practice sessions, practicums. lectures. tutorials, you’ve got six manuals, repertoire workbooks. You have no idea! You’ve got so much information. I had nothing!
Bruce Hildebrand: Do you still use that advice of trust yourself?
Katrina Edwards: I still use the advice of trust yourself, but you know what I talk about more than that, I think what I absolutely drew on from that time was when Craig said you have to be there with the person- you have to talk, converse, feel, listen, sense. I think that fear of not knowing is that lack of sense of just putting yourself in the setting and being with the person and being able to learn together, explore together and let the session be driven by that. As soon as you put yourself in that place, yes, it’s frightening and yes, you feel really nervous all the time, but the creativeness that comes out because you put yourself in a position with the client to just explore and let the session run away.
Bruce Hildebrand: I had a great conversation a couple of days ago with a relatively new teacher who had just come through a training to say that she’d really learnt the value of being present with her clients. I gave her a huge pat on the back because you just can’t put enough value on that!
Katrina Edwards: Totally, because then it means that coordination, that synergy between two human beings is the unlocking is where the body starts to feel safe. And because it feels safe and because there’s a sense of trust that’s been created, then you know where to start the body kind of presents itself.
Bruce Hildebrand: I always loved the image of a ballroom dancing couple who move around the floor flawlessly pushing and pulling on each other so much but moving in unison so beautifully.
Katrina Edwards: Yeah. That’s a great analogy.
Bruce Hildebrand: Tell me about your time at the Australian Ballet School- there was no mention of Pilates up until this point. Craig, as you mentioned, was one of the first to explore beyond Australia’s shores to go looking. It’s a phenomenal story and foresight on Craig Phillips’ behalf.
Katrina Edwards: Absolutely. That’s amazing isn’t it- when you think back on that, there was nothing from my time at Australian Ballet School- 15 to 19, no such thing! We didn’t have gym sessions, we didn’t have conditioning sessions. You danced all day and if anything got sore, you usually never spoke up. It was usually just get on with it, hopefully you wake up tomorrow morning it’s not as sore. We didn’t even have a Physio on staff there was no kind of physical treatment there. So a practice like Craig’s the Prahran Sports Medicine Centre with elite Physios all working out of there and Sports Medicine Doctors, we knew of that kind of place, and I did definitely seek treatment through my time at Australian Ballet School I definitely sought massage and deep body work from therapists. But yeah- I agree- huge moment for Craig and huge moment for us as a industry we’re now or part of- huge thank you to him.
Bruce Hildebrand: Absolutely. Can you tell me about other people in your life when you first mentioned Pilates? Did they look at you sideways and think you were speaking a different dialect?
Katrina Edwards: Yeah, my dad was pretty excited. I think it was a no brainer for him to say yes, he felt like I was in a good, strong workplace- The Prahran Sports Medicine Centre was flourishing- it had athletes walking in and out of the door, so he also saw it as a massive opportunity to just be present at that kind of workplace- he knew very well I was going to learn a lot and it would fill a void because at that point being injured at 18 and having my dream shattered about being a professional dancer, having spent all this time dedicated for four years at the Australian Ballet School to have that whipped out from underneath your feet, I think as a father, he was looking for how to fill that void and help me fill that void. So he saw this as a really important stop gap for me.
Bruce Hildebrand: I had a conversation recently with an Olympic medalist at the 2000 Sydney Games, we share time in the sports field together with our kids and he mentioned that he’d been to see Craig Phillips in 1994 for a spine injury, that he had as an Olympic diver. And he said it absolutely put him on the right track to recovery from that injury from Craig Phillips’ fantastic work and particularly Pilates.
Katrina Edwards: Amazing- and that’s the thing, because it was located above the Prahran Sports Medicine Centre everybody downstairs had been up visited, looked at what was going on. Craig was incredibly pivotal at that moment and everything that happened in my next few years talking about being in the box seat, all came out of those connections I’d made with elite sporting Physios there at the Prahran Sports Medicine Centre who had the opportunity to come up and watch what Craig was doing.
Bruce Hildebrand: Katrina, can you share with us the experience when you first noticed that Pilates was starting to have an impact on your life from your own movements, you were recovering from a knee injury, you mentioned what was the real change going on? You started to notice some specific things for yourself?
Katrina Edwards: Just that understanding of alignment, as a classical ballerina, you thought you knew it, but actually interesting- not really. You’d learnt to do movements for an art form for a certain aesthetic and style, but you’d never really learnt about function, biomechanics or alignment. And whilst I didn’t get to study those theories when I first learned the Pilates Method, teaching myself off a video with cartoon sketches that rehab phase of my knee, that six week period just an incredible sense of empowerment that I understood my own body and that it wasn’t rocket science that my knee had been rehabbed. Just the early leg and foot work and doing leg and foot work every day and putting, my lower leg joints into positions don’t get me wrong- Carola had still talked through clear guidelines in the video- it wasn’t like she just threw herself into the movement patterns and gave no advice there was still a lot of really valuable information that had been transported through that video footage. So alignment, I think was very early felt from the practice of the work, also the ingenious equipment- the dimensions, the design, how that influenced the movement, how my connection to the movement felt really clear, actually felt like I didn’t need a lot. a lot of the teaching came out of how the piece of equipment felt when you started to grip and grab through those portals of hands and feet I felt like there was an incredible amount of information being transported in and then nevermind, trying to coordinate my breath with every movement and make it looks silky smooth. I had enough to work on for more than six weeks every day. So that mind, body coordination still really spins me out and still really spins me out when I get it- when I’m totally there have given over, have relinquished, have given in- it’s transforming and transporting. The breath and the coordination of breath with movement- I definitely felt like I got a tangible sense of that in those six weeks and was blown away because I could feel the change in me and also the confidence it gave me. If I think back to my role and what I was doing at age 18 with everyone else around me way, way more mature, more experienced, more educated, more articulate than me. I also think it gave me tangible confidence. It really lifted me up through that internal experience of the Pilates Method.
Bruce Hildebrand: And they talk about the environment that you put yourself in having a huge influence in pulling you forward- certainly sounds like that was the case where you were working, what a incredible environment to immerse yourself in.
Katrina Edwards: Yeah, because even to this day at 52, I get a bit frightened with peers! There’s a huge part of me that goes, someone’s gonna find me out. It takes a lot, even still at 52, when I go into a new workplace I go, do I really know what I think I know? Is this going to have enough meaning for people like it has meaning for me? They’re gonna think I’m crazy, they gonna think I’m a witch doctor! I think I’ve actually, over the years, got a lot less courageous than I was at 18. I just so believed it and was just so engrossed in being in the moment, developing relationships, building trust, having Craig’s absolute backing and then all the Physios downstairs being so intrigued by it. I was just totally swept in with the people and with the environment. As the years have gone on. I don’t think I’m quite as brave or as courageous as I was- I really have to talk myself into that now!
Bruce Hildebrand: I often refer to our students coming through various training programs is that your greatest strength also sometimes shows up as your biggest challenge- my perspective is your willingness to be open and to be vulnerable, to learning and never resting on your laurels that you know, enough or know everything for certain that keeps that conversation very live and very real that I think is very endearing in the way that you approach things Katrina.
Katrina Edwards: Thanks, Bruce- I now feel a little more courageous and a little braver.
Bruce Hildebrand: Can you tell me Katrina at this point in the experience early days, was there parts of the new role, parts of Pilates in particular or parts of the general feel of the landscape of movement and Pilates that you didn’t like, or you didn’t want to accept was even perhaps challenging you in ways that you wanted to improve down this track, but you felt some blockages.
Katrina Edwards: Oh yeah cause I had the classical ballet technique- you develop lots of habits, lots of preconceived ideas, lots of movement patterns that took a while. There were lots of exercises that Carola made look really easy. Lots of them were way beyond my physical capacity initially- lots of the Cadillac Trap work took me ages to have enough physical strength, but also facility, my hips were really tight, my back was really tight. Those areas took a long time. I worked at Craig’s studio for two and a half years before I got back into Phantom and then went on a journey of actually becoming a student in Pilates and I still had some serious areas like my back and my hips that even though I’d learnt The Method and had got to a certain confidence level in communicating and teaching it still physically, for me, there were huge restrictions and I think I needed that expertise going back to being student to really understand them and really unlock those areas. My lower back and my hip lower abdominal area were key areas for me.
Bruce Hildebrand: You touched on it before a moment ago- it was the apparatus in particular that gave you an incredible connection. I hear there an amazing acknowledgement to Joseph Pilates’ design of the apparatus, and that helped you access your low back and access your hips in a really unique and new way?
Katrina Edwards: Absolutely, and I had two really incredible experiences- one with Rael Isacowitz at McDonald College really early on. I’d only just left Craig’s was up in Sydney with Phantom I’ll never forget learning the Roll Down against the wall with Rael an extraordinary moment of going I’ve never felt my back like that. I’ve never had this interpersonal relationship with a teacher- incredible! Even when I think about it now, my hair’s standing up on my arms! That session I don’t actually remember what else we did but I significantly and can clearly remember the experience of learning Roll Down with him. And I remember after we finished it, he said "So how are you?" And I was like, I have never felt my spine like that, I’ve never felt my lower back like that- huge insight into being in, but also articulation of the spine. Needless to say, Roll Down is my favorite exercise and it still is today! That for me was a real eye-opener into the stress we carry within the spine and I truly think that was my hip- unlocking my hip I learnt from doing Roll Down with enough detail and spending enough time with my spine. So I think he was key. I also around that time met Sally Anderson- she was teaching at Megan Williams’ studio in Double Bay. I’d had this moment with Rael, it was a one off session and then landed at Double Bay the sessions there with Sally and Megan Williams- amazing! Sally really helped me then get a full body, a total experience, and she really helped me navigate I had so many areas so many more than just lower back and hip! Helped me with my ankles, my feet, I never really felt like I had good arches for classical ballet for dance, she really helped me with that. I had an injury during Phantom, which I rehabbed with her. How to truly look at the ankle that had the issue I’ve never asked Sally whether she can remember back to that time, but I really know it was through lack of articulation and lack of full understanding of how to use my ankle and feet. So they’d be two key people- Rael and Sally, back in that time.
Bruce Hildebrand: Incredible. And who are some of the other people that you met along the way that helped to shape things for you Katrina- you mentioned Craig, of course then this new experience with Rael, Carola, and then Sally Anderson, there’s some others along the way that shaped how you move forward?
Katrina Edwards: As I started to get more involved with musical theater. I was pretty fortunate for 10 years that I did pretty much back to back shows. When I was back in Melbourne wanted to get back involved, finding a teacher, Andrew Baxter had just come back from England, studying Body Control Pilates having retired himself as a professional dancer. He was teaching at the Australian Ballet School. The Australian Ballet School had shifted from Flemington into Southbank. So to go in and do sessions with Andrew fortunately we were able to talk the Phantom of the Opera stage management team into taking it to a higher level to see if we could have those sessions included in our week, which we managed to get. So all of the dancers at Phantom were able to do a session with Andrew once a week. That was an extraordinary time- we all did two sessions a week, he’s a beautiful man, a stunning teacher educator nevermind his understanding of the body and his ability to integrate the Pilates Method with his philosophy, his thinking, his beliefs.
I treasure that time- he’s such a quiet, calm man who says very little but doesn’t need to say much more. You get all your need out of that if you truly listen, and the rest is up to you, lie down, practice and experience which I really respected because that’s how I’d started, trusting that the information was inside. It was just being put into a new position, a new setting with a new piece of equipment.
Bruce Hildebrand: I’ve been fortunate to meet Andrew a handful of times, and I’m well aware of the huge impact he had in the early stages, particularly in Melbourne Katrina, can you reflect on a specific time that you knew you were getting hooked on Pilates? Was there some moment that it was like, Bam!, This is what I meant to be doing. This is an important part of what I do in my body.
Katrina Edwards: Well I think that hook was there literally that first day when Craig threw me the videos and said, push play and away you go, you need to know it all in six weeks. The physical experience that I got out of that I was hooked! In terms of how it made me feel mentally, how it made me feel physically, I talk about that confidence, that sense of being brave and that sense of having courage to talk about it, even though I knew I was surrounded by people who were way more educated than me. I knew right at that moment that this was going to be something I needed to do. And even when I got into shows, I was still addicted to the practice, I still knew I needed to find a Pilates studio. Doing that session with Rael and experiencing that Roll Down- I’m like what do you mean you don’t want to learn this? What do you mean you’re not doing this? I was like, you buy your oats to eat for breakfast in the morning, and then you find your Pilates studio and then you’d go to the swimming pool and you swim.
For me, it was just ingrained already I was hooked I just think I was very lucky with the people that I came in contact with who were superb human beings, lovely people, open and willing to share the information. I kept arriving in these situations which continued to help me flourish and thrive with the practice of the Pilates Method, but I never thought I’d open my own studio. I was involved in it for the pure purpose of how I felt how it made me feel.
Bruce Hildebrand: The Phantom of the Opera phase- you spent 10 years in musical theater. I was lucky enough to see the Phantom of the Opera in London- for you to be involved for such a long time, Pilates was able to contribute to your longevity in that? It’s a long time to be performing! Was there was something about Pilates that had crept under your skin or you couldn’t resist continuing all that time.
Katrina Edwards: Totally! It’s eight shows a week for two and a half hours- that’s a hell of a toll on your body! You’re doing the same choreography- then I was understudying a principal role. I was in Tuesday and Thursday afternoons to rehearse to be ready- but I loved that sense of being that physically fit and also ticking the boxes with your two Pilates sessions a week. So the learning, the personal growth that came out of the practice of Pilates, it felt like you were so in tune with your body. I look back on that period of time now I think Pilates had a huge impact on my capability to tolerate the workload and sustain the workload for that amount of time.
Bruce Hildebrand: You mentioned you had some challenges with your back and your hip at this time, how did you manage those things so well to have such amazing longevity?
Katrina Edwards: That practice, that rigor of moving through Pilates Mat work- dedicated, deliberate practice that the Pilates Method invokes and invites you in was very different- even though I had a deliberate practice with classical ballet, you know it takes you so much deeper and I think I was able to transfer those skills into practicing better when I did ballet. I incorporated a lot of it in warmups, Phantom was a classical ballet piece so we were en point but having to sing at the same time, huge learning curve- I’d sung as a kid, but nothing like singing professionally.
We were very fortunate cause we had, Brian Stacey, the late Brian Stacey our musical director in Phantom, he swept the eight ballet girls- the white fluffies that was our nickname- that were the Corps de ballet and Phantom in and taught us all to sing. So we had music lessons every week,
Bruce Hildebrand: I’ve always been in admiration of stage performers across many different artistic pursuits- the amount of work that goes into being able to perform professionally, I think is wildly underrated the amount of work, both classically dance trained and then if you like " post-graduate" singing training to combine all those things in your physicality- what a richness that you bring to your Pilates now.
Katrina Edwards: The use of your voice, it’s such a huge part of being a teacher and educator that capability that physicality, you bring to enriching the conversation through communication. That early training I had in being able to speak dialogue and do acting classes and do singing classes and do your movement work. It’s all part of connecting you as a human to your being side of you.
Bruce Hildebrand: Katrina as we progress through this privileged peek into your diary was there any factors at this stage in your Pilates that had you fall more deeply in love with Pilates? Were there some elements that were rubbing you up the wrong way, some hidden conversations in the studios that you’re attending or the industry at large that you didn’t like, or you weren’t aligned with? Maybe some people that you’re either drawn to or that turned you off put a few question marks in your mind?
Katrina Edwards: When I first started National Pilates Training and we started to deliver to students so many moments in that as you grow and you build and people start to understand who you are, or potentially not understand who you are. There was some really challenging moments in there where people take things out of context, they might’ve come in for a fleeting moment. They don’t know the full context of the situation, they don’t have that intimate relationship that you share with the client. they’re looking at it from outside in I’d several of those moments where you go Phew! Not sure what’s going to come out of that. That’s been inviting somebody in that I’ll think twice about inviting in again, because it can be so destructive- they make their call there and then without fully understanding and fully appreciating. I haven’t had a lot of those, but then I can equally talk about, I’ve done so many teacher training programs I think when I had such little to begin with and everyone else around me was getting involved in education and we were getting involved in education, I thought it was really important to drop myself in and continually feel like it was to be a student. I tried to not stop doing that I can think back to one particular time where I dropped into become a student again, and it was just a complete collision with philosophy, in the respect that there was a whole set of rules. I’d come from a place where I’d learnt the work, which was, I was hugged and encouraged to explore, to be intuitive, to think on my feet, to think for myself, even at 18 and to trust myself. So to be put in a position where I felt, and it was explained this is what you do, this is what you say, this is how you get on, this is how you get off. It was hugely confronting for me. The training was in Sydney so I was traveling to and from, I had a really young family, I had an incredibly supportive husband who was just like do it. . It’s really important. You want to do it.
But every weekend I’d come home shattered, personally shattered, physically shattered from the whole experience. And at one point my hubby turned around and said, you need to write a letter and you need to physically and emotionally explain what’s going on for you right now. You’ve been teaching for a long time, apart from anything else, this is just a total lack of respect. I also feel like it’s almost happening on purpose, I almost feel like the decision had been made upon your enrollment, that this is how you’d be treated, which was to put you back in your box and to level you. Well it didn’t really level me it just really disappointed me that anybody could treat another human being like that! At the same time, I’m so glad I went through it because I would never treat another human being like that. That’s not learning, that’s not educating, that’s not teaching, that’s not coaching, that’s not mentoring!
Sure, in coaching we have to have some really difficult conversations, but it’s never to pull another human being down. I think you have those difficult conversations with students sometimes to really open up the conversation to open up the situation and go, you know what lots of things aren’t working. But I didn’t get that opportunity it was just being told that everything I cued was actually incorrect. I was like, wow, how can you own queuing? Because actually it’s my voice, my interpretation of the situation. Where is that written in a book that actually there are key phrases to talk about. I’m like, that’s really bizarre that you could give me a list of cuing tips and these were the only queuing tips I’m allowed to talk about in a particular exercise. The communication for me was the largest part of that collision and it made me feel destroyed- I’d get back to the airport after the three days straight of practicing and going through tutorials and lectures. I’d be sitting at the Sydney airport wanting desperately to burst into tears, but knowing that it was a completely un- adult thing to do. I would wait until I’d get on the airplane and then hopefully no one watched me fall apart! My hubby was distraught six months into the journey- it was like, that’s it, you have to pull the pin. So that’s some really vulnerable moments and some moments that, they’ve really shaped me- I’m glad that I’ve been through some of those that everything hasn’t been like the Rael and the Sally scenarios where I’ve been completely spiritually, mentally, physically involved and having a lovely time- because I’ve certainly had experiences when I haven’t felt like that.
Bruce Hildebrand: It’s really generous of you to share such a beautiful story. Katrina, there are so many different schools and there’s so many different ways to approach Pilates, how much does it boil down to the individual’s way of engaging with Pilates. I don’t know if it’s actually Joseph Pilates’ design or that’s just part and parcel of moving the human body. It is an individual experience when we really tap into the personal engagement with it.
Katrina Edwards: Absolutely! No two people move the same way. I think when you acknowledge that it’s exciting, because then your communication, your relationship really drives the experience for that person, but equally their interpretation of the movement on the particular apparatus you’re working on drives the situation. I think it’s absolutely individual. I think it’s uniquely designed to be individual and, that idea of it being an open gym back in Joe’s days. That’s what it was like for Craig and I, it was open gym, I had six people per hour and a half. My experience with Andrew Baxter- open gym, six people per hour and a half, no piece of paper, no programs, you memorized everything. I think that allows that individual a unique moment that it is about you and how you’ve understood, perceived that particular movement on this piece of equipment today. Because tomorrow when you try it, it’s going to feel different again. I think that open gym scenario really facilitated for Joe that I think everybody gets to be themselves because there’s more space- there is six to one, and you’re there for an hour and a half. Whereas the mini size that down, you have to be so disciplined as a teacher to give that amount of space. I think Joe spent considerable amount of his learning journey with lots of people in the room, so you all had lots of space to individually interpret what you think the exercise was about- it was up to you. You have to find out the recipe- there’s no IKEA workbook, there’s no instruction manual- you have to figure it out. And whilst that’s frustrating, it’s incredibly liberating.
Bruce Hildebrand: I think there’s an incredible parallel there with you having to figure it out for yourself being given such little guidance at the very start.
Katrina Edwards: That’s right- I think if that hadn’t happened, you’d be looking for the recipe
Bruce Hildebrand: I think you’re a wonderful person to ask Katrina where do you feel from your extensive working knowledge of Pilates that Joseph Pilates was able to strike this balance between doing things the way that he knew them to be done, because he had a life long movement knowledge, and he obviously had formulated the methodology. Where do you feel Joseph Pilates drew the line between doing it his way " No, don’t do it that way. Do it this way!" And like you just mentioned giving people the freedom to be able to go exploring themselves. How do you feel Joseph Pilates struck that balance?
Katrina Edwards: Wouldn’t I have loved to have been a fly on the wall in order to be able to answer that factually- because I can only surmise now. The only thing I can lay on there is Eve Gentry- I’ve heard what her experience in his studio was like- most of the movements were too difficult for her and the story goes that she would lie down and create her precursor versions of those. I can only assume that the way he taught was very much, you need to be able to do the hundred and if you can’t do it, then it doesn’t happen. The story goes that when he died he still had pieces of equipment with rubber bands tied around with people’s names on them, demonstrating that he was still building things and ingeniously creating things because for whatever reason, you couldn’t do X and X. And so here was this marvelous little thing that was going to help you get better at whether it was breathing or ankle movement, whatever it was-
I don’t know- was he strict- you can only do it this way? There’s a part of me that goes, have we said he was, has that been Chinese- whispered down or was he a man that gave particular movements out and then the interpretation of that exercise and the movement pattern had other things in it but then it’s really flourished and grown because he purpose-built movement patterns for you, depending on what you needed, what he saw on that particular day you needed.
Bruce Hildebrand: If I flip the question on to you, Katrina- it’s often an interesting balance to find the ability to be strict and know the guidelines or the parameters of good Pilates and critiquing and guiding within that what you know is really effective Pilates versus letting them argue ah, that’s the way I interpret it. Why can’t I do it this way? And you’re like no, no, that’s not going to be helpful- do it this way. There’s a challenging balance there, I think to find as a great teacher.
Katrina Edwards: That’s so true isn’t it? I think over the years, as you evolve as a teacher- I think back to early teaching at 18 compared to teaching at 52 for me, the boundary there is guiding students going through a teacher training program versus working with people on a day-to-day basis. I compare my guiding and mentoring students in understanding the repertoire versus for example, teaching athletes at Melbourne City Football Club. There are certain things when I work with athletes that are about " okay, you’re close- that went pretty well" is what I always say. Now, when you turn around the second side, what I’d like you to have a think about is X, X, X, and X. That’s the typical Katrina Edwards at Melbourne City Football Club teaching conversation. Whereas when you’re students in training, my typical conversation is: " You weren’t there, you weren’t really in the soles of your feet and the palms of your hands, those two portals connecting you to that piece of equipment- you haven’t done enough practice yet. You’re sitting on the surface of that movement! That’s the typical Katrina Edwards that I get cast as strict! I go well, hang on a minute- you’re trying to be a teacher of this- you can’t see on the surface of it. That strictness, which often get labeled with I go, but deservedly so- I’m director of training, running a teacher training program so can I talk to you similarly to I do my athletes- NO! They’re not spending countless hours or should be spending countless hours to become a professional Pilates teacher.
I think there’s a huge area there and a huge void, which unless I fill it- you don’t come out of the course as a professional Pilates teacher. So for me as a duty of care I go " No, I’m going to call you out on it when you’re not really delving deep enough and not really enriching yourself and immersing yourself in the experience. The strict Katrina Edwards is going to come out as duty of care to the industry, to the people you’re about to teach and work with and expect money from. Versus the athletes- I’m much more of the stroking the ego a little. I love that banter. I love that moment that if I stroke the ego a little bit. When I asked you to turn around the second side and be a little stricter, improve your form, get a little deeper, attempt not to work your eyebrows and wrinkles on your forehead, but can you drop that energy down a little bit lower. You can’t have those detailed conversations unless you stroke the ego a little bit. There’s two polar opposite scenarios in hopefully understanding m e the teacher educator, coach and mentor a bit more.
Bruce Hildebrand: That’s a skillset to be able to tap into the audience in front of you and connect with them for what their needs are and what’s going to have it land for them most effectively. I think that’s a quality of an amazing teacher. Do you enjoy seating your elite athletes on their behind as much as you do stroking their ego?
Katrina Edwards: Oh, yes, there’s a huge part of me that landing them on their ass is the best moment because you stroke the ego at the top when they feel very successful and then you give them an impossible task. Something that you know is well beyond their physical capability right now. And often in those moments, I might jump up and demo. It’s the Teaser, or it’s the Front Splits and it’s just it’s that moment where you’re able to go. Yeah, let’s see how you go now! Just when you thought you were at an advanced level, Kat’s pulled another one out of and there’s a really good chance if you don’t focus and concentrate that you’re going to land on your ass. Of course I bring out those moments, I love those moments. I take quite a decent step back at those moments and I just stand there very quietly watching.
Bruce Hildebrand: Delivering that without ego is the real kicker.
Katrina Edwards: Yeah, because you’ve got to be absolutely engaged seriously when you’re whipping the Teaser out- a good Teaser that comes up smoothly and rolls down smoothly, cause if your ego’s out of check, you do a shocking Teaser, and so you’ve almost spoiled the moment!
Bruce Hildebrand: Striking a fine balance. I think with baiting the competitor in all of our clients
Katrina Edwards: Absolutely! That ego check moment… do the a hundred, do step up on the Wunda Chair, do Teaser! Humbling! Good ego check!
Bruce Hildebrand: Katrina it’s often at this stage that you’ve been in the game long enough to be getting a really good feel for what Pilates entails. Were you’re beginning to sense a little that the time was coming that you’d have to turn a little bit more inwardly to set up for yourself what the future was going to look like, how you going to move forward with Pilates? Whether you were actually going to dive in even deeper with your Pilates participation or maybe that it wasn’t really for you. I’m assuming of course that because where you are now you decided to move forward- can you tell us about what that turning point was for you when you decided to progress more with your Pilates?
Katrina Edwards: I think I’ve peaked and troughed with that over the last 20 years of my journey. The two and a half years at Craig’s was a peak then moving back into musical theater, I taught intermittently, but I didn’t teach a lot. There were moments in between musical theater jobs that I would land at the Victorian Institute of Sport and be involved in the gymnastic program teaching conditioning and using my Pilates background in those settings but they were short lived until I got the next Musical Theater job. Those troughs gave me moments to understand, explore other things, but I came back to it. I always felt it was that other thing that I was reasonably good at felt reasonably confident about, but I never stopped the practice. Even when I wasn’t teaching- those troughs where I was stepping back from being a teacher were actually peaks for private practice study and study of the work on my own body. You know, even just recently, over the last five years really stepped back from the teaching educating side of it fully immersed in the teaching of it, but in different settings where you feel like you start again, you feel like you have to really turn the cardboard box upside down and lay all the pieces on the floor again and leave them spaced out for periods of time. That’s a trough, but it’s also a peak at the same time. Within that period of time, I always study other things. Go and do Feldenkrais classes, Alexander Technique classes, Ideokinesis classes, read books from those other Somatic practices. So they’re troughs in terms of typical within the fully equipped Pilates studio, but at the same time, they’re peaks for fueling the body and diving deep back inside again, because I can’t deny that at 18 what I really believed was happening for me was intuition and teaching from any intuition source inside of myself. So my peaks and troughs in coming out of formerly teaching back into different settings and discovering other practices I did Iyengar yoga every morning for five years in and around performing with Phantom that was at the same time I was studying Pilates but I actually wasn’t teaching Pilates. That coming back inside has really been through other Somatic practices as well. And the want to understand the body more from lots of different angles and perspectives.
Bruce Hildebrand: We touched on the turning points, the forks in the roads and the different decisions and opportunities that have forged the way for you in this direction, when you really saw these peaks and troughs as a really natural thing for you. Was it a sense of triumph at that point when you knew that Pilates was going to be this cyclical refreshing of you moving forward? And was there a sense of relief or calm or peace or quietness, or even overwhelm of what was to come because you’d made that distinction for yourself?
Katrina Edwards: Such an interesting question, because a lot of them came out of feeling burnt out. I know a couple of those decisions that I’ve made to go off and do other Somatic practices and get involved in other Somatic practices for sessions for myself, have often come about from feeling like I’d hit ceiling and feeling a lack of creativity and a lack of having that moment in every session where I just get into the flow zone, get swept along within the journey, feeling like I was being repetitive like I was just rolling out what I’d already done. So a lot of anguish came about in those moments, but at the same time wanting to do other movement practices spurred me on to take jobs outside the studio. Those calming sensations and those senses of the relief that I had have only come about from acknowledging I’d hit a ceiling and lacking creativity, not exploring, feeling like I wasn’t really sure where my Pilates journey was going. Feeling exhausted from running studios, from leading the training organization, feeling like people were always looking up and I’d hit a point where I was just mentally and physically exhausted. I reckon I must’ve told a few people at that time, because very quickly, the two job offers came out of nowhere.
Andrew McKenzie calling me up and wanting me to come and work at Melbourne City Football Club. It didn’t take much convincing only asking me to take a day out of my studio to work there- so that was a no brainer for me. But the job at the Australian Ballet School was a huge decision. I knew that potentially for the business it wasn’t a great thing but at the same time for me personally I knew if I didn’t do it, that I was potentially at a point where I was going to sell, move out, walk out. I think I would have been devastated looking back on that now, if I hadn’t taken up the opportunity. I can’t say they were moments of calm because I think they were moments of complete devastation, exhaustion, lack of self regulation but what transpired out of those moments has been very calming and a huge relief not to have been teaching so much working with clients so much. I learnt a lot about myself!
Bruce Hildebrand: A couple of key things there, Katrina for you to be able to identify those discoveries you’ve made along the way as having two sides. From I’m completely exhausted to look to the other side and find the opposite to exhaustion by finding some sort of inspiration. The other key thing is this leadership quality that I see in how you show up in the Pilates industry, is this ability to take action finding for yourself what’s going to keep you inspired, what’s going to keep you. well, nourished, well fueled, well educated, and on-goingly inspired to keep at the top of your game. Not because you’re aspiring to be the leader of everyone, but because it’s most true to yourself.
Katrina Edwards: If I think about, what I felt at 18 in first learning that work, that sense of empowerment, autonomy, independence. For me, when I feel exhausted and feel tired, I have strategies now that pull me back in but that pulling back in is a moment for me to take some time to read, to look around, to do something new. The something new is always a new body practice working with a new teacher, working with a new approach. So it is coming back to me and it is coming back to the source cause that’s how I started, and that’s what I initially fell in love with.
Bruce Hildebrand: It’s incredible to hear that insight that you have with the experience that you’ve worked through and you’ve been so generous in sharing. For teachers coming through the ranks through their own journey with Pilates, to be able to identify that is going to allow them to stay really present and energised in the profession, rather than hit that end point.
Katrina Edwards: Yeah, because teaching takes a lot of energy and ironically when I said I’d hit a ceiling feeling really tired, not creative lost my capacity to feel like I was exploring. I actually ended up turning around and working twice as hard! My week was actually bigger than it was when I was exhausted and had hit a ceiling, but it was because it was a new setting. So many more people around me to share, to build, to be influenced by, to be inspired by. So I suddenly had 20 teachers to draw from and a hundred students to draw from and medicos full health team. So I think it’s interesting when we talk about energy- it’s about who we allow to be around us or what situations we put ourselves in order to have reciprocal energy and that transfer of energy. That’s that key word energy- the situation can either be draining or the situation can be energizing and then be careful because that energizing can equally drag you in, and before, you’ve done 40 hours and you sit on that treadmill for too long, that’s equally as tiring. I think energy is a really interesting discussion especially as a teacher and an educator. It takes a lot of energy and you need to be aware of that in terms of remaining creative and remaining true to yourself in that creative moment, because teaching and educating should be about creativity and innovation.
Bruce Hildebrand: You make some beautiful points- the other key words that spring to mind for me is the ecology of the whole setting, the whole environment- and how efficient you can be to make sure there is a return of that and find the fulfillment in it for yourself as a teacher that you can continue giving cause you got so much information to give. One of the biggest shames I see is when really experienced and talented teachers just stop. It’s a real shame because there’s been so much value being developed and grown in that teacher’s skillset for that to then not be available and not be shared and not expanded on, I think is a real shame because it just stops there at a dead end.
Katrina Edwards: That’s so true. So to have hit that wall and not found the space and time to know where to leap to next- that would be a huge shame. If you are in the teaching and educating spaces, potentially the advice is to be aware of overdoing it and not taking enough time out for yourself. Becoming a slave to the profession is really unhealthy. I don’t think it was ever meant to be like that- it’s a part of it you have to really manage and understand these strategies to self-regulate.
Bruce Hildebrand: And that’s the inspiration chatting with you, Katrina- if the Pilates industry is to move forward and be sustainable as a profession and continue to grow and evolve, I think the experienced nature of all of us as teachers has to stay strong and grow otherwise you keep hitting these dead ends and it goes nowhere and it circles back on itself rather than actually evolving. Katrina, you’ve mentioned your involvement with the Australian Ballet School, the Melbourne City Football Club. You also had involvement with the Western Bulldogs Football Club for a long time. Can you expand on your pathway since this discovery for yourself that there was an ecological way to move forward- there was a way for you to fill in these voids that perhaps crept in, in your intensity of working in ways that weren’t going to uphold you, but you found these new outlets and contributions elsewhere.
Katrina Edwards: That’s an interesting discussion, because what I’d started to feel in a fully equipped studio and through no fault of anybody else’s but my own- I’d set up a regime that I couldn’t see another way. I’d set up a working week where I felt like everybody else relied on me to maintain- clients expected me to be there at those times, the business had new clients coming in and those new clients expected me to be there for extra hours, and then the business expected me to be there for extra hours. So when the opportunities came up to work within those elite sporting settings for me, such a relief, driving to a setting that I wasn’t going to be the boss where actually I was going to meet everybody else who was going to boss me around was such a delightful feeling. So yeah, that lovely moment of going, oh, thank God. I’m not the boss anymore. And no, one’s expecting me to make all the decisions, but actually I’ve learnt a lot from being a boss. There’s some things that I need to make this situation successful.
Being able to take my expertise, experience and knowledge, courage, bravery, speaking up for myself- those moments are really important to anchor, to establish, to set some frames. I’ve been there six years I’m the only female on staff, it’s that yin yang, but the rest of the medico team rely on you to deliver. So it’s not just have a lovely time with Kat! It’s how did you help so-and-so and so-and-so. Being able to develop a fruitful program that is actually measurable. I must be doing okay because this year I’ve been asked to do two days a week. So two programs running in conjunction with each other, one being more meditative, one being more mobility based versus the other one- " Can you play smash them on the Reformers" is how I get spoken to! Smash! Okay. How do I feel about the word smash? Could we say " Can you use the Pilates Reformer to strengthen?" Anyway, so that setting I love, I love being put on the spot because that’s how I feel when I’m there, which reminds me of how I felt that 18- constantly being put on the spot and having to run with it, having to get comfortable in the moment, having to find a thread trusting myself in those moments. So that’s what I’ve got out of Melbourne City Football Club.
And then the opposite to that- you go to the Australian Ballet School and everything’s calm. You walk into the ballet studio and it’s just peaceful. There’s beautiful music playing, everybody’s aesthetically pleasing stunning bodies, artistic expression. They’re like polar opposites in terms of environments. But talk about the strictness- you know, at The Australian Ballet School strictness goes up another level, so I found that I was the person in their week that was the nurturer. Those gorgeous conversations with teenagers most of them really open conversations. And then , implementing a program there, having to justify why you do things and is your program measurable and is your program improving this, this and this? And if so, how do you know it is? So in both of those settings, I’ve really had to stand up. I’ve really had to question what it is the Pilates Method is? Why is it so special? Why do I teach it? Why do I believe in it? Why do I practice it myself? I really feel like that’s what I’ve got out of those settings apart from the incredible relationships- the team environment is what I was really missing and that’s about feeling like I’d hit a ceiling and I was so exhausted. I think a huge part of that was not really exhausted from teaching, but exhausted from having not very much support from making decisions and feeling like it was up to me to make groundbreaking decisions every day. I’m like they may not be groundbreaking every day- some of these are just going to be decisions cause we have to make a decision and I might be wrong. I might get it really wrong!
So I think that’s the other thing those settings offered was I had a team of people to hear, to listen, to get a sense of you can hear in my voice, I’ve been highly entertained and really thrived professionally and personally.
Bruce Hildebrand: It’s great to hear that because you’ve got so much to contribute to the industry. I think for you to stay on top of your game, it’s your responsibility- like you knew from a very early age, it’s not surprising at all that you finding that way and I say that happening for many, many years to come.
Katrina Edwards: Yeah, I agree- think you got to keep putting yourself out there, putting yourself into those uncomfortable situations where you wish, you didn’t walk out of that lift door into that new workplace and new setting but at the same time incredibly grateful you did.
Bruce Hildebrand: Katrina, what are some of the changes in both your body and your mind, and even in your spirit as Joseph Pilates, like to put it that are now second nature to you in the way that you do Pilates and you’ve even managed to carry over in your day-to-day life that you couldn’t have imagined were even impossible before you started doing Pilates or couldn’t have imagined even possible when you were struggling with some things that we talked about?
Katrina Edwards: Optimism! I feel, and this gets spoken about in terms of young players at the club, a player last week said to me "Wow, Kat, you’re so optimistic- it’s even in your walk. He said "I feel like when I walk next to you, I feel your optimism!" That’s something that I can definitely say Pilates makes me feel space possibility and optimism. I feel like when I practice the work, there’s that sense of that didn’t go so well, let me change the spring and let me shift my pelvis a little bit more to the left or right, and maybe let me bring a box in. I think that the nature of the practice of the Pilates Method, what I’ve learned over the 52 years is that like his equipment he was a genius because it does invite you into that intero world to find space, to find possibility, and it really changes your perception and perspective. You definitely feel more open after it- there’s physical openness that comes out of the practice of the Pilates Method. But also it’s possibility. There is never a "I can’t do that. Well it’s always " Yes, you can, because you can shift it from here to here and suddenly you can." you practice it often enough that that exercise on that piece of equipment, you couldn’t do it- you can now do!
Optimism and possibility and space has shifted into my personal life. It’s in my personal life! I’m going through a huge personal family long-term health crisis at the minute with my husband being terminally ill and people close to me have commented constantly on our family’s capability to get on with it. And I go well, is there any other way to be? Like for him I can’t sit on my hands and weep and cry. Having said that behind closed doors I’ve wept and cried a lot, but at the same time you have a life to live. And that’s the first thing we spoke to our kids about when we found out that Brendan was really unwell was you have a life to live and we want you to live, so at any point, when you ask, can you help out, I’m going to say, if it’s necessary and essential, and I need your help, I’ll ask for it, but never feel like it’s going to stop you from going out and doing things and living your life and growing up. And that’s how I’ve looked at it from my own perspective too- it was never going to be good for Brendan if I closed off from living and growing and personally, professionally developing. I’ve been able to draw on my background over the last 20 years to get us through this moment in time.
But also the pandemic, there’s been so many people around me that have spoken about how hard it is and have wanted to know how I’ve dealt with it. We all found out in March last year, we’re all going to be locked down. For the first week, the realization that I could lose both businesses that should now be celebrating their 20th year- it was devastating! I realized in those moments that actually small business being so hard, the thought that I wouldn’t have them, I felt like I grieved for a week. And the thought that they weren’t classified essential- I was like, what do you mean we’re not an essential service? I was in shock. physical health and mental wellbeing- what do you mean I’m not an essential service? That was a shocking moment for me. I couldn’t contemplate that I couldn’t have a discussion that actually we were part of essential services. I can definitely attribute the Pilates Method and say "Thank God for being in that box seat at 18 at that particular moment", because I don’t think I would have got through the pandemic, I don’t think my kids would have got through the pandemic, us as a family, but also our businesses without this amazing thing called the Pilates Method. I can seriously hang my hat on it and go, I’ve learnt strategies that have affected my life that are part of my life that are in Katrina Edwards’ DNA now.
Bruce Hildebrand: Resilience is that huge word that jumps out for me there as well?
Katrina Edwards: Yeah, absolutely!
Bruce Hildebrand: Katrina, can you give us a wrap of where you now sit with your Pilates. What does the future hold for you now with Platas in your life what plans do you have in store with your Pilates involvement?
Katrina Edwards: There’s a lot of unknown in that for me at the minute. My personal situation has made me really take a step back. The pandemic has made me take a step back. I don’t like to teach eight hour days anymore. I relish waking up in the morning- reading, exercising, walking, writing. There’s certain personal space that I’ve given myself that I think have been silver linings from the pandemic, but also silver linings from Brendan’s health scare that have really forced me to flip. I feel personally really grateful for those things because at the same time I can’t answer your question very concretely. We’re diving deep on the digital side for National Pilates Training. Melbourne City Football Club- my two days there are a lovely part of my week. I can’t imagine not teaching at Aligned for Life Pilates, but I do it very sparingly now. And I can’t imagine not working with students and mentoring students for National Pilates Training. Behind the scenes, we have plans in place, but at 52 with what’s going on in my personal life, I’m also at a place where I have to be able to shift and adapt. I actually haven’t written a personal plan because I think I’ll just be led. I think I’ll just for the first time ever in my life, go with the flow and just see what opportunities and possibilities come up.
Bruce Hildebrand: It seems that approach has served you well in past forks in the road- I’m excited for you!
Katrina Edwards: Yeah, good point!
Bruce Hildebrand: Katrina, what do you wish you knew at the start of the journey that would have made the biggest difference and to someone who might be at a similar point for themselves right now, considering starting Pilates or facing some of the struggles and challenges you have along the way with your Pilates progress. Any advice?
Katrina Edwards: Yep! Be careful of your insatiable appetite cause if I look back on that now, whilst everything that I’ve told you has sounded the exciting, I have been my own worst enemy in terms of that insatiable appetite for growth, for learning for knowledge. And that’s often been to my own personal detriment. So in hindsight, when I look back I wish I’d enjoyed space and time a little bit more. I wish I hadn’t felt like I had to work because I think work’s overrated! A little bit of work is necessary, getting up in the morning and feeling like you’ve got work to do and purpose in your day is hugely important, but I don’t think it needs to take up eight hours. I’m still dealing with that side of myself, still trying to self-regulate that side of myself that still feels like I’ve got an insatiable appetite for work, and not so insatiable appetite for play because Pilates is play for me, but it’s my work at the same time. So if I look back on me at 18, I’d be saying yeah, it’s good but what else are you going to do? you’re going to need other things to pursue, you’re going to need other things to take up your day. So if I was talking back to my 18 year old self right now, I’d be having a fairly serious adult conversation to say " Yeah, it’s good and it’s clear you love it, but be careful because you have a tendency to let your personal passions pursuits take over your entire day. That would be my hindsight advice. Be careful of thirst- what’s that Chinese proverb that says fill the well before it’s thirsty. I think I’m only just understanding that now 52, I wished I’d had that proverb earlier on, and I wish I’d had a deep conversation with somebody earlier on to really understand what that meant.
Bruce Hildebrand: And your two children have been fortunate to hear that sage advice?
Katrina Edwards: Yeah, they’re very good at that, yeah- they’ve both got it figured out!
Bruce Hildebrand: Maybe there’s some osmosis there happening with the great advice feeding down.
Katrina Edwards: Let’s hope so
Bruce Hildebrand: Katrina, it’s been an absolute pleasure chatting with you on the call- thank you so much for your time. Can you share with the listeners of the podcast the best way to reach out and get in touch with you?
Katrina Edwards: My contact details are on the Aligned for Life website and they’re also on the National Pilates Training website. Also got a Facebook page and an Insta page so you could easily leave me a message that way.
Bruce Hildebrand: It’s been amazing having you on the podcast thanks again for your time. I’m excited for all the listeners to have been able to go on this journey with you. That’s the intention of The Pilates Diaries there’s so much richness with such an early discovery of Pilates and such a longevity in it- and so many people have been in contact with you, I think very few of them would have probably heard that entire journey. To hear it through in totality, I think is really rich for listeners of the podcast and the whole industry actually- so thank you. It’s a privileged to bring it to life.
Katrina Edwards: Thanks very much.
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. The Pilates Diaries Podcast is a proud partner with TRIMIO. Set to launch at the end of 2021 TRIMIO is a much needed space and time utilization booking system for the Pilates industry. With TRIMIO you can return your focus to delivering the highest value to your customers. No longer be lost to the encumbrances of inefficient interactions and experience a new level of working freedom with the power of technology automation doing what it should. Maximize your profitability by optimizing the utilization of your time and physical space with TRIMIO. Find out more and register for pre-release updates at www.TRIMIO.app.
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