Episode Show Notes
Welcome to the Pilates Diaries Podcast.
Our guest on this episode is Ramona Peoples from London in the UK. Ramona is the founder of Body Orchestra and works across a range of modalities from Pilates, Myo-fascial bodywork, Scarwork Therapy, Yoga, Structural Integration, Somatic Movement Education, and holds a Masters of Science in Dance Science from Laban in London.
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.
Contact Ramona at Body Orchestra
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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.
Our guest on this episode is Ramona Peoples calling in from London in the UK. Ramona is the founder of Body Orchestra and works across a range of modalities from Pilates, Myo-fascial bodywork, Scarwork Therapy, Yoga, Structural Integration, Somatic Movement Education, and holds a Masters of Science in Dance Science from Laban in London. Ramona and I spent time together in the UK and struck up a lifelong friendship. Ramona, welcome to the show.
Ramona Peoples: Hi there, Bruce. Thanks for having me
Bruce Hildebrand: Ramona, we’ll start by taking a look back. Can you tell me about life for you 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?
Ramona Peoples: I was in a corporate job that I had fallen into- I arrived in the UK two years prior and I met the love of my life and I wanted to stay so I grabbed what I could to get some work. It was the two thousands, or just before. And the world was feeling full of possibility and I liked the life in the corporate world until I didn’t. And it got to a place where I felt I had no clear direction I was going to work and I liked my colleagues and I liked where I lived, but really job wise, it was a bit of a dead end and I no longer enjoyed it as much. Looking back, It’s not surprising that I am where I am now because I always enjoyed moving, I mean, my parents were surprised how well I did in school because they thought I would just bounce around, off the walls. I was a fidgety child and movement was always part of what I wanted to do, but I grew up in East Germany and I was not good in sports. And if you’re not good in sports at that time, you were just ignored. So I never really took it up in any way. Equally with dancing, I did some ballroom dancing as a kid and then I got bored and stopped there’s a little bit of regret in that. So there were signs then, but I realise that now I didn’t realise it then. So that’s where I was at the time.
Bruce Hildebrand: An interesting upbringing I recount chatting in the past about you were 21 when the wall came down, so sport and participation in physical activity wasn’t your thing initially when you were growing up, but you returned to it and it was Pilates that perhaps twigged that for you or what was it that was the catalyst to get back involved with movement?
Ramona Peoples: One of the things that I like about Pilates is that anyone and everyone can do it. So the person who really likes moving can come along and the person who’s perhaps even scared of moving can come along. These days Pilates is very much in the rehab world, so it might be an introduction for someone who is undergoing rehabilitation and then takes it up as something they actually enjoy doing every day. And that’s a thread in Pilates that I enjoy and that I still use today in my own practice, in my own work. Being in Scotland at the time, got me much more into the outdoors- I started hillwalking being outdoors much more- where I grew up it was very flat so walking wasn’t part of what was available. So yeah, definitely Pilates was that, you know, getting back to my body and when I say getting back- I really do mean that because I think a lot of the time in the modern life it happens in the head and what’s underneath the head is easily forgotten, you know? it gets me from A to B it enables me to do what I want to do in my head, but actually the joy of movement can be forgotten by so many. I mean, I’m generalizing because I know so many people who love movement and are very active in their movements, but for me, I could have easily had a down this road of, a very sedentary lifestyle when actually my personality is quite different, and it was lovely to rediscover that at the time.
Bruce Hildebrand: You got to embrace the fidgety kid, but as an adult.
Ramona Peoples: I guess I did- yes. Even today, I might have a plan for my class- I say I might- I have a plan for my class, of course. But then as I start the class, I go off on tangents because, oh, this is a nice move, and how about that? So yeah, there’s some fidgeting in my classes, in my movements, but sure. But in a exploratory way rather than in a random way,
Bruce Hildebrand: Maybe that’s at the very core of our friendship- the similar thread there that we can’t sit still?
Ramona Peoples: Very likely Bruce, is very likely.
Bruce Hildebrand: Ramona, can you tell me a story of when you first arrived at Pilates?
Ramona Peoples: I was in this corporate job getting increasingly unhappy because I had been moved to a different team with a different manager- he and I didn’t get on- and I had a shoulder problem I went to a Physiotherapist and he became a great friend and he actually plays part in this story. But at the time he was treating me and I would offload how unhappy I was in my job, and he then said to me out of the blue one day during one of those treatments- he says, I know what you should do. You should go and become a Pilates teacher and come and work with me. And my response was ” What is Pilates?” So he explained a little bit about it and, I mean, we’re talking two decades ago, there wasn’t much Pilates around so I went to a mat work class that I found and fell in love with it. And, I haven’t looked back! So that’s how I arrived at Pilates- not knowing what it was…. now being a Pilates teacher.
Bruce Hildebrand: It’s a beautiful story. What would be some of your first impressions of Pilates Ramona? Your teacher, the other people in the class, and even some of the perceptions of the people in your life when you told them that you’d begun Pilates?
Ramona Peoples: I’ll start with that last one. When I told people, I mean, the common response at the time was I have no idea what that is- what is Pilates? So most people didn’t know it. And there was some curiosity, but it took a while for people to go ” Oh yeah, I do Pilates!” Nowadays you throw a stone and you hit a Pilates studio particularly here in London, so yeah, my first experience in the Pilates studio was ” Oh, here’s something I can do! I love movement and I can do this.” And there was no competitiveness about it, and there was an element of exploration, there was an element of ” Oh, you want me to move this? I don’t even know where that is!” You know, discovering my own body. What I was also becoming aware of though, was that there was a bit of exclusivity and inclusivity. So you either were included or you were not. I think looking back, it was possible to do with the fact that a lot of the Pilates world was immeshed in the dance world. I wasn’t a dancer, so depending on what class you went to, it was a bit of “Oh, this is not for me.” When actually I so had experienced that it was for me, so I sought out classes that would suit me better for the general public. I’m not seeing that shouldn’t be specialized classes, not at all, but I think it’s very much in the attitude of the teacher to either make it very clear what kind of class it is, or if you rock up to a class that is specific for a population that you are not part of- to open the door, if you want to open the door and then make sure that you are included. If you feel, no, this is definitely more for a particular population and it wouldn’t be suitable then, okay, here are a whole bunch of other classes that you can go to. So that was something I became aware of very quickly, and on the other end of the spectrum was this Rehab Pilates, which to the extreme was like you did five movements in an hour! It was in Scotland, the rooms were drafty- you get bloody cold, if you do five movements in an hour- and sometimes there wasn’t much in between. I mean, It’s changed a lot now, but there was a huge opportunity in that here’s something really interesting, really accessible, and so few people know it and so few people do it. That was one of my realizations as well that made me move more into the Pilates world.
Bruce Hildebrand: Do you think the fact that it doesn’t require a certain baseline to actively participate in it, like you and I could probably have fun on the dance floor with two left feet each but the fact that doesn’t really matter in Pilates, you can pick it up where you’re ready to, and where it’s appropriate for you?
Ramona Peoples: Absolutely. Yeah, for me, that is a big plus of Pilates. And I see it in yoga classes as well. I became a yoga teacher some time ago and already at that time it was much more inclusive. So there’s the Instagram world of yoga and Pilates where you see the amazing young bodies and amazing clothes and all of that.
But actually the reality is, anybody and everybody can do Pilates and yoga. And I’d like to think a whole bunch of other sports and physical activities and it’s really nice to see that is changing and much more open across a variety of sports and physical activities.
Bruce Hildebrand: And your understanding of Joseph Pilates’ approach to it- was there a level of expectation when people first arrived at his classes or was he all embracing and all encompassing with different people that he worked with?
Ramona Peoples: I would like to think he was embracing an all encompassing and not to forget his wife, Clara, who I think played a big role in that. But we both know he was very much involved in the dance community in New York, so I guess there were certain expectations around what you can and cannot do, but also when he first started, he started the prisoners camp and so he would work with whoever. I do like to think that he was all inclusive but he was a man of his time. Look at his pictures- in the little trunks in the snow. I don’t really know, but I think he was because in order to develop the method, you need to work with an open mind to see, okay, this is not possible for this person- what do I do instead?
Bruce Hildebrand: It would be remiss of me not to ask any alignment that you feel with a similar cultural background to Joseph Pilates with your German heritage- Anything that parallels there with the approach to Pilates, the gymnastic culture in Germany.
Ramona Peoples: I mean, some of what he represents and stands for was certainly very present in my school life, for sure. But to be honest, I don’t think it’s fit for our time anymore, it was interesting. looking back, it’s almost a little bit funny, but maybe I say that with a slight cultural embarrassment, But yes, there’s a recognition of a cultural influence for sure.
Bruce Hildebrand: Very interesting. What was your experience Ramona of when you first noticed that Pilates, was beginning to have an impact on your life?
Ramona Peoples: It’s what I mentioned earlier- the enjoyment of movement, and also here’s something I can do, and if I can’t do someone is trying to help me to do it and he explains it so very different to my experience in childhood with sports- you either good at it or you are not! And if you were not, no one paid you any attention and didn’t try to make it any easier for you. That was a big impact! Those were the two main things- the enjoyment of movement and the inclusion in this class that I could participate in.
One of the other things that I like about Pilates is that it was just a beautiful thing to discover the language of my body as a way to communicate how I was doing, how I was feeling and what I was capable of. I think that’s sometimes forgotten about-, the expression, the self-expression in Pilates, in yoga- we think of capability, but actually it’s also a self-expression in my mind.
so the body language is something I rediscovered, that comes natural to children. and then we lose it a bit, a lot of us, I think.
Bruce Hildebrand: With the extensive body work and hands-on manual therapy that you have now branched into. the amount of touch that you now experience working with your clients that addresses that idea of expression and how much perhaps it’s bound up within our body, within our fascial system and otherwise.
Ramona Peoples: One of the things that, comes to mind when you’re talking about touching somebody with my own hands and that in itself being communication it’s something one of my first bodywork teachers said when we put our hands on somebody’s body- it’s not that we’re trying to manipulate anything or impose anything, but it’s a communication between two intelligence systems. So my hands need to listen first, before I can actually talk to a body. So that’s a beautiful thing, and it’s a privilege.
Bruce Hildebrand: I agree- it is a huge privilege to be in the position we are and that’s obviously a huge part of what you lay a lot of importance of with your teaching.
Ramona Peoples: Absolutely Bruce. And as you’re talking about this, I’m remembering, we were both in the same room when this was ignited for me with our beautiful teacher Erich Walker back in Switzerland who taught us touch. We were placing our hands on his body and he was guiding us, can you feel this? And now you feel that, and here you are in this layer. And to me, this is just like a big, wow. This “Narnia” wardrobe door opened into a whole other world that I could enter into and he invited us- I remember that fondly, with huge gratitude.
Bruce Hildebrand: It was a privileged time for sure, and for listeners to be looking out for the episode of the podcast with Erich Walker, a wonderful, mentor of ours from our special time in Switzerland together- such a wonderful fellow.
Ramona, was there part of the experience that you didn’t like this point in your progress with Pilates that you didn’t want to accept or that you found a little challenging in your pursuit of wanting to improve.
Ramona Peoples: No, not so much for myself in my own body challenges- yeah, there were things that I couldn’t do, that didn’t bother me too much- it was more the occasional teacher that didn’t speak to me or where I didn’t enjoy the class- but it’s horses for courses, so if that happens, you just go to a different class. At the time it was perhaps a little more difficult because there weren’t that many classes around, but nowadays you have much more choice to find a teacher that you like working with. And there’s a time for working together and then maybe there comes a time when that journey comes to an end and you move on to a different teacher or you reconnect with someone from your past because that speaks to you much better again. So I think it’s really important that people trust, is this right for me at this point in time where I am in my life.
Bruce Hildebrand: I think it’s exciting that there is so much Pilates available these days because it gives us a wide range of choices of what we are aligned with as participants in Pilates and as students of life. It would be a shame if you didn’t get along with Joseph Pilates in the early days because that was really the only place you could do it.
Ramona Peoples: That’s very true, yes.
Bruce Hildebrand: Ramona, you’ve done a huge amount of training across the years with the preamble that we ran through. Can you take us through some of the people who you met along the way with your Pilates progress that really helped to shape your experience?
Ramona Peoples: I credit Bill Taylor in Edinburgh, a Physiotherapist- he has his own Physiotherapy practice that he only just set up at the time I joined his team. He’s now a well-regarded specialist in pelvic floor rehabilitation for men and women. He saw something in me that I was unaware of, and It was his words, go become a politeness teacher and come and work with me. He pointed me in the direction and after a couple of years in London, that’s exactly what I did. It would be remiss of me not to mention him. And then in London itself there was Helge Fisher, a big influence for me. I was mesmerized by what she could see in somebodies movements. I remember thinking I want to be able to do that! I don’t know how she does it, but I want to be able to do that. I think what it comes down to is that it’s innate curiosity, what is happening here and what is happening for this person as a person, the whole person- body, mind, soul!- that’s what Helge represented at the time. And we just mentioned Erich Erich Walker such a beautiful teacher of movement and touch- even though he’s not to pull out his teacher, he was a Franklin method teacher at the time- but that became part of my journey. So those are probably the three main ones. First of all, I mean, there have been many since, but if I had to just boil it down to Pilates then that’s those teachers. In the body work world, there are many others
I also met another co-worker Nikki on the Franklin Method training- what a journey. we would cocoon ourselves and explore movement and have a laugh with it and develop workshops together. I’m forever grateful that she gave me a platform in Cambridge when I first moved from Scotland to London. Every week I stayed with her and we just had such a connection- still have- So that’s something you find rarely in a colleague, where you share so much and explore so much together. That was a very special time where we were in this movement and exploration bubble and learning so much about the body in movement, the various systems in the body that are involved in movements, not just muscles and bones and ligaments, but organs and fluids and all of that- and it was just special. It’s special.
Bruce Hildebrand: Ramona, can you reflect on a time when you knew you were getting hooked on Pilates? There was lots of journeying as you’re sharing with us just now, but was there a specific time when you found that your participation in Pilates became something that you couldn’t ignore had gotten under your skin and was something that you couldn’t resist scratching?
Ramona Peoples: Yeah it’s the curiosity of “Oh, what’s going on here? What’s happening. And the sheer joy of movement which I think I could sum up in one word awareness- becoming aware of your body, becoming aware of movement and the uniqueness of each and every one of our movements. In a way I could teach the exact same class and it would be an entirely different experience if we were focusing on different parts of the body or in different aspects of a movement and that was something quite special. That’s when I discovered the somatic world of movement- I didn’t know it at the time, but that’s what it was- but that was the inquiry, what’s happening here. That was the hook and remains to be so to this day.
Bruce Hildebrand: For listeners who might not have dipped their toe in the water with the somatic side of Pilates yet, how would you best sum it up? How would you best describe the somatic approach to movement and Pilates?
Ramona Peoples: We mentioned Franklin method there a moment ago- that was my first foray into the somatic bodywork. There are fantastic methods- Feldenkrais, Body-mind Centering that influenced me over the years and influenced my Pilates experience and my Pilates teaching. The somatic aspect of all of those and the common part of somatics for me is to take time to pause and to notice and to have that opportunity to notice perhaps before and after. So, we come into a class, we lie on our backs or on our front, or even just coming in and standing and taking that moment to arrive and notice what’s happening, what’s present, is there something uncomfortable? Is there something that feels good? And then we do something, whatever we do, we roll on a ball or we do a Pilates exercise and then we take that pause and notice again, and what’s happened- it can be as simple as that- somatics body-mind connection. So we can have a workout and still notice.
Bruce Hildebrand: And the mastery of that is to have that presence ongoingly through the day?
Ramona Peoples: Yes- throughout the day, that’s a challenge. I challenge anyone and everyone to walk down a London road and be present every moment- you have to pay attention to the cars but maybe that’s what makes it so special to come to class because we take that time out and allow ourselves to do that. And then the hope is that seeps more and more into everyday life. And that’s what I hope I impart in my teaching that people go out of the class and take that with them- not even exactly knowing how a particular movement happens or happens for them- but that they have moments in the day where they go, oh, this reminds me of what we did earlier in Pilates today, or I’m encountering an issue here but I remember we did something in Pilates that helped me with that. And that to me is more important than doing the Pilates exercise itself- so it’s a tool, it’s a tool, and because of its inclusivity it really lends itself to be used by everyone in that way.
Bruce Hildebrand: Beautifully said! And Ramona were there factors that had you fall more deeply in love with Pilates at this point? Or was there some elements of Pilates that you were finding were perhaps rubbing you up the wrong way? There was some hidden conversations in the studio or the industry at large that you didn’t like. And I’m curious to see if they were perhaps the fork in the road to have you go explore a little more with hands-on therapy, manual therapy, more bodywork down that avenue?
Ramona Peoples: The thing that made me fall in love with it more was that I met people and teachers and colleagues that really invited the inquiry as opposed to here’s an exercise and that’s how you do it, and oh no, you don’t do it like that. No, no, no. Do this, but not that. I didn’t like the being instructed- teaching for me is very different in that it invites the inquiry and we teach ourselves. And I facilitate somebody teaching themselves- that’s what I liked in others, and that’s what I hoped to emulate and bring into my own teaching and into my own practice. And you’re right- it was the people that worked with I want to say exquisite touch to enable movement. And when I say exquisite I mean it’s informed, it’s inviting it’s a touch to go, oh, what’s happening here without being pushed anywhere or pulled anywhere. So the touch itself becomes the invitation and that I really enjoyed.
When I was first training there were teachers there that came from a competitive background and they brought that into the teaching and that I didn’t like, and I didn’t go back to them. And if it was part of my teacher training to work with them I would stay back more and not get involved. Whereas people who were inviting the inquiry, I would step forward and soak it up like a sponge. Like I said earlier- it’s horses for courses I don’t even know if those teachers are still around. They might be, they might not be, I haven’t sought them out, but the ones that I still see are the ones that I still like working with.
Bruce Hildebrand: One of the key takeaways for me from your comments just now Ramona is as a listener of the podcast if you’re not necessarily smitten with your Pilates, or if there’s a few question marks for you like is this working for me or not? Get a little curious- go looking, go exploring see what’s available because there are many approaches to Pilates and I’m quite confident in saying there is an ideal fit for anyone with the right Pilates teacher for them.
Ramona Peoples: I totally agree! I’ve come to a part in my life some years ago where I thought I’m going to try this yoga and I totally fell in love with yoga and then went on to become a yoga teacher. And it serves for me different parts of my personality that we’re right at the time and equally it’s the same with Pilates- there’s commonalities and differences and we each find what works for us and what suits us. If something doesn’t feel quite right try another teacher, try another studio, try something else- but keep moving!
Bruce Hildebrand:
Ramona, it’s often at this stage that you’ve been in the game for long enough to be getting a really good feel for Pilates and what it entails and participating in it deeply, being so present with it, it’s a great place to be able to determine how you choose to move forward with it. Can you tell us about that fork in the road for you that determined yeah, this is something I want to move forward with in a big way?
Ramona Peoples: Way back when I first encountered Pilates my lovely Physiotherapist friend, Bill Taylor in Edinburgh encouraged me to do that and then invited me to work with him. I think that was the big thing- I was unhappy in my old job, I liked doing Pilates, I’d moved to London to learn about it and then after two years moved back to Scotland and started working with Bill Taylor in his Physiotherapy practice. When you’re working with people who can’t do this, that and the other, and in fact, some of them mustn’t do this, that, and the other you got to explore, you got to find out what you can do. So this started me on this massive journey that I’m on still two decades later, learning and learning and learning some more- and I think it’s the beauty in this profession that we got to keep doing that because science moves on, research moves on, and what we thought was ” the holy grail”, shifts and changes, and actually, you know what, there is no holy grail, it’s all an exploration and we got to keep up to date. So it was this need to work with people that needed different approaches. I couldn’t do a spine curl with someone who had back surgery, okay. So what do I do?
I remember one of my very first clients a patient of Bill’s spondylithesis grade three. He walks in with her meet Jane- and she can’t do this, this, this, and this. And it’s like, well, what’s there left to do? You explore and you learn and you make it work! So that set me off on this lifelong journey of learning about the body and movement and coming to hands-on body work as well. So it almost wasn’t a conscious decision! It was “ah, I got to do this!- there’s no other way I’m not going to do this!”
Bruce Hildebrand: You mentioned about the hands-on bodywork a moment ago- can you share with us how that integrates with your Pilates and what it brings to make it work so well together.
Ramona Peoples: I would probably say Bruce it’s not just the Pilates- it’s movement. Pilates is great because it is so inclusive, but the challenge and you might see this yourself in Pilates students who come, they do a fantastic class, they step off the mat or the equipment and they walk out in almost the same way they walked in. So what is it that we might be missing there that transition from the mat or the equipment into day-to-day life? I think it’s that that I’m also looking for when somebody comes to the treatment- how do they come off the treatment table and can then take some of the shifts and changes that we managed to facilitate together in this communication between two intelligence systems how do they manage to take that into their day-to-day lives? So, a manual therapy session for me starts with movement and it ends with movement. I look at how they move, how it affects them. We do the treatment, I ask them on the treatment table to move and then when they stand up again. Or I might even treat them while they’re seated or while they’re moving and then give them some movements that they can do. And that is informed by Pilates, that is informed by yoga, that is informed by functional movement science as well. So whatever they need at that time and whatever, they might come with themselves, the questions they have.
Bruce Hildebrand: Coming back to your comment about when you found yourself and found your time with Bill in particular in Scotland, and you came to that conclusion that it was something that you couldn’t not do, it was an obvious step forward for you. What was the experience at that point? Was it a sense of relief or calm that you’d made this discovery? A bit of excitement perhaps, or even overwhelm of what you knew was still to come and what you knew still laid ahead for you?
Ramona Peoples: Looking back it was excitement for sure- excitement and joy I feel lucky to have found something in my life that I love doing and people pay me for it! It’s my job and I love it! You know, of course you have a bad day in the office like everyone else you need to recharge your batteries. But it hasn’t taken away from loving what I do. And it’s a privilege to work with people and help them feel better and facilitate some change- however small- and have them walk out with a smile or have them walk out with a bit of curiosity to want to come back, and move some more.
Bruce Hildebrand: Can you take us through the pathway Ramona of this Pilates time initially, and then where you’ve branched out to when it comes to all these different other modalities that you’ve explored what were some of the catalysts or maybe some people that you met or some therapists that you’d crossed paths with- you’ve done lots of different angles of Pilates training itself, but also yoga and a lot of different body work approaches. What were some of the catalysts to go venturing on that journey?
Ramona Peoples: I think working in a Physio practice where no one client is the same and every client needs some very individualized Pilates so I needed to learn, I needed to understand the body I needed to understand movement and Bill- bless him- had a book by Tom Myers called Anatomy Trains, and he said you need to read this and I started, and I didn’t understand the word of it- it was too early for me. But lo and behold, a few years later I trained in the Anatomy Trains Structural Integration methods and it is fabulous to think of the whole body and its fascial connections. That was definitely a catalyst. Franklin Method we mentioned that was a big catalyst to open this door into the somatic world. Then a discovery of Body-mind Centering, I worked with the Body-mind Centering practitioner and teacher in Cambridge for a number of years. And what’s beautiful there is the overlap in all of them is hands on and movement. For example, in the manual hands-on body work there are two main goals in everything we do when we’re working with someone, and that is “How can we provide more options for movement” and “How can we refine proprioception?” And that’s key, that’s awareness options for movement- it encompasses so many things in that, I don’t have to do a movement just this way, I can do it that way and I can do it another way and I can do it any way in between. So over the years, that’s what’s kept me interested and kept me searching for more. More recently, I also trained in Scar-work Therapy and it’s not yet well-known, but if you think about a scar being an interruption in your fascial network, and it could be a contracture, it could be an adhesion, it could be fibrotic. It’s easy to see how that could interrupt movement and movement flow. So manual work and movement becomes very important in somebody’s healing after injury, surgery where they sustained a scar and that, is a more recent addition. I think it’s also very important to mention at this point that I’m very interested in Women’s Health- so that plays a big role where I can help women in recovery post-surgery or as we enter changes in life- menopause and so-on – Pilates plays a big role in that and so does yoga.
Bruce Hildebrand: And geographically you’ve been centered in the UK, it’s been home for you for a long time London.
Ramona Peoples: Yes, it has I’ve been here 26 years now! But still traveling and starting to travel again now that things are opening up after the pandemic. Travelling to The States, to Switzerland and connecting with teachers and practitioners and colleagues whenever I can across the world.
Bruce Hildebrand: I think it speaks volumes for the exploratory nature of your inquiry and your willingness to go to the far reaches of the planet to find things out.
Ramona Peoples: Yeah, I guess so. I hadn’t thought about it in that way myself, but I think you might be right.
Bruce Hildebrand: Ramona can you share with us some of the changes in both your body, your mind, and even in your spirit as Joseph Pilates liked to put it that are now second nature to you in the way that you do Pilates, you’ve managed to carry over into your day-to-day activities, that you didn’t see were either possible before you started Pilates, or couldn’t have seen possible when you were wrestling with some of the earlier challenges with Pilates and what laid ahead for you.
Ramona Peoples: For me Pilates was the door opener into this world of movement and exploration. And it’s still very much part of my day-to-day life as a teacher of Pilates and doing my own Pilates practice. So I can’t imagine now not being interested in movement, not being interested in other people’s movement, my own movements, body awareness that somatic aspect of taking time out and pausing- those are probably the red thread in my life, really! You know, for the last two decades- it’s my work. I make my income from it, but it’s still the love that I experience from it every day it sustains me, it sustains me even when I’m not that well- in illness or in the pandemic that we all experienced- we can roll the mat out and do some stuff- we don’t need fancy equipment, we don’t even need fancy clothes to do it and that is I think the beauty of it!
Bruce Hildebrand: Sounds very impactful – the sustainability the endurability that we can develop by a regular practice of movement and keeping up the participation for our wellbeing.
Ramona Peoples: Absolutely, yeah! It gets bandied about a bit- this whole “oh, you just need to do some movement from mental health”. And I say that a little facetiously- I don’t mean that, but it’s undeniable that movement of any form brings benefits mentally, physically, but also I do think spiritually. You mentioned the breath earlier and I do remember being in a very tricky time of my life. I remember exactly where I was at the time I was on a bicycle, cycling over a bridge to Laban at the time. I wasn’t feeling very well at all and I had this thought pop into my head- I don’t know where it came from and at the time I didn’t even quite know what it meant. It was the thought that said “But you’ll always have your breath!” You know, I get goosebumps thinking about it! The breath at that point stood very much for life itself for inspiration, and the practice of life, and the practice of breath. The sitting down, taking time out and just breathing or the ” Hey, let’s go for a run and really get the breathing going! There’s so much in “You’ll always have the breath!” which over the years, I think I have started to understand better what it meant, and there was an inspiration that kind of hit me and you got to keep practicing it regularly in some form or other to not forget about the beauty of it!
Bruce Hildebrand: Beautifully said, it makes me think of one of my best mates who is not at all in the bodywork field, however, he has a tattoo on his left shoulder that says “Inspirar”, and it reminds him of his time when he was traveling across Spain and the inspiration of life. So it can have obviously many meanings in our line of work very much to do with the health and the breath work in a simple sense, but on many different levels that can have a lot of meaning.
Ramona Peoples: Indeed.
Bruce Hildebrand: Ramona, where do you now sit with your Pilates? What does the future hold for you with Pilates in your life and what plans have you got in store with your Pilates involvement? I can see an exciting journey ahead for you!
Ramona Peoples: It’s still part of my professional life, my private life, I still teach every week Pilates classes I have one class with some elderly ladies- one of them is 91! She comes every week and gets down on the floor with her creaky knees and does what she can. She has a chair beside her mat that she uses to come back up off her mat. So if a 91 year old keeps coming to my Pilates classes I keep teaching them. The journey continues for sure- with the Scar work right now I’m working with my Scar-work teacher. We plan to do some collaborations around episiotomy scars, the impact on pelvic floor movement. So that’s in the pipeline. hopefully that will be coming up sometime soon. And it keeps informing my manual practice, like I mentioned earlier, I give homework to people, I keep teaching it and I keep doing it to myself, so I can’t see that stopping to be honest! Give me a mat and I’m on it!
Bruce Hildebrand: You might still be teaching when you’re 91 by the sound of it!.
Ramona Peoples: Yeah. Why not?
Bruce Hildebrand: Ramona, if I was to ask some advice, what do you wish you knew at the start of the journey that would have made the biggest difference to someone who might be either considering starting Pilates or facing some of the struggles that you may have along your Pilates journey?
Ramona Peoples: I think the biggest thing is that it is our individual journey, which involves maybe two steps forward, one step back and it involves meeting the right teacher that you want to work with, maybe even the right group that you want to practice in. For a time there I taught a group of women who all met in a childbirth class, and they all gave birth around about the same time to boys- they all had boys- and they all came to a postnatal class for two terms. And that was easy- they were already a cohesive group. And sometimes you have very disparate groups and you need to work out how that works, but for somebody participating, find the person who involves you and includes you and make sure that it is your journey and it is an exploration.
Of course you can go to teacher where it’s repertoire and repertoire and more repertoire and do ‘x’ repetitions of this and ‘y’ repetitions of that, if that’s what you want, then do that. There are so many different teachers out there and no one is better than the other. Is it a right fit for you at that point in time in your life? Even that changes- I used to like really hard workouts and now I don’t. So my body changes and with that my practice changes and the classes I go to change and the classes I teach change. That’s the biggest message find what works for you!
Bruce Hildebrand: Very sound advice! Ramona, thank you so much for your time on the call today. It’s always wonderful chatting with you. What’s the best way for podcasts listeners to reach out and get in touch with you?
Ramona Peoples: Thanks, Bruce. It’s been so wonderful- I thoroughly enjoyed it! People who want to reach out they can go to my website bodyorchestra.com I’ve got a Facebook page “Body Orchestra Works”. You can find me on Instagram Ramona Peoples.
Bruce Hildebrand: Thank you so much.
Ramona Peoples: Thanks Bruce. It’s been a pleasure and thanks again for having me.
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. 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 at www.TRIMIO.app.
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