It has been a very exciting year here at Pilates Technique Certification! Our training program remains the industry standard, with many mimicking programs popping up trying to emulate ours. Congratulations to the 25 graduating students this year. Studios, Gyms, PT offices and the like continue to call and request our Teachers. We are very proud of our Pilates Technique Certified Teachers, who not only learned how to teach Pilates, but also, had a wonderful experience transitioning into their new career, loving their participation in the Pilates Technique Certification program and learning all of this new knowledge. It's a wonderful thing to see these students' self confidence grow as well as their self-esteem. We really are so proud!
On a sadder note, the Pilates Community lost Ron Fletcher on Dec 6th, 2011.
Ron Fletcher worked with both Joe and Clara Pilates in New York, first in the 40's, then later in 1967 specifically with Clara after Joe passed away. Ron opened the first Studio of Contrology with Clara's blessing, in Beverly Hills, CA. His work has become known as the West Coast Style of Pilates. Click here to read his obituary.
In 1995, I worked along side Ron teaching a Training program that mixed all the different styles of Pilates. I would teach the classic style of the exercise and Ron, his variation on that movement. I found Ron to be a delightful person, full of passion and humour, and just an all around great guy. He was very spiritual about the movement, the breath and how to impart this knowledge onto another person. I also loved his humour! At that time, there were a lot of politics in the Pilates community. A man named Sean Gallagher claimed to own the rights to the Pilates name (this eventually came to a court trial, with him losing the case and the Pilates name becoming universal like yoga). Sean Gallagher was heavily promoting my mentor, Romana Kryzanowska. So, one could say there was a bit of contention between Romana and Ron. One of my fondest memories of Ron, that truly made me smile was a little comment he said the he felt summarized the whole situation. He said, "You know why Romana is not pleased with me? She wanted to be the Queen of Pilates, and it turns out that I am!"
We will miss you Ron! Thank you so much for all of your creativeness and especially your towel and Spine Corrector exercises.