This Mat & Chat was hosted on Wednesday, May 20th, 2020 on Instagram Live. The chat followed a 25 minute mat workout.
Victoria: For those of you who are just tuning in, below me is Noor AlAmer. She is located in Kuwait, which is so exciting! We are traveling around the world little by little in this Mat & Chat series. I am so excited to have her today! I said this earlier, but it is Ramadan currently, so Noor is fasting from sunrise to sundown, which is crazy. Now it’s 9:26pm there, but everybody is staying up super late.
Noor: Yeah, and we have two more days or three more days to go.
Victoria: Oh, you’re almost done! Great!
Okay, so as I said in the beginning, I invited Noor today because she has been a big supporter of my page from day one. She is constantly reposting my WTF Wednesday videos and shares my love for the classical work. But Noor’s story is interesting, as are so many stories in the Pilates sphere, because she started in a more contemporary setting with Stott. I would love to talk about your training with Stott. Also while you’re talking about it, if you’re fortunate enough to fall into a classical certification from day one, you don’t really necessarily know how it differs from a more contemporary program. So I would love for you to describe what you think the differences are because you’ve since gone back to a more classical certification, which we’ll discuss after. Let’s talk about how you got into Pilates and found Stott and how that differs from what you’re doing now with Jay Grimes.
Noor: I started Pilates by coincidence. I’ve always been a gym person and I came across Pilates with Stott, and it was very big at that time. Stott is very good with their advertisements, so I thought that it was the only Pilates out there. I didn’t know there was classical. My background is interior design; I’m an interior designer. I left that, enrolled at UCSD for a Health Sciences certification for two years. While I was there, I came upon a Pilates studio in San Diego, and at the same time they were offering a certification. I had done Pilates before, and I continued with Stott and I made sure that it was a Stott Pilates studio. I did that for two years and realized that was what I wanted to do. My parents weren’t really very happy that I left my profession.
Victoria: They never are. That seems to be a theme in all of these interviews.
Noor: *laughs* Yeah, so that’s what happened. I was in the certification for two years, and then I came back to Kuwait and started teaching. The scene here is mostly contemporary.
Victoria: I was going to ask about that. How big is Kuwait?
Noor: *laughs* Let me ask my husband. It’s smaller than Jersey.
Victoria: That’s what I was going to say- it’s pretty small! It could be very accurate for you to say: “The whole country is contemporary” because it’s a small place. You have a very good idea of what the scene is there. When you opened your studio, it was not classical right?
Noor: When I opened my studio no, it was not classical. There was Pilates in one gym that I used to go to. They had Pilates there. The first Pilates studio that opened here is still open and it’s Stott-based. They actually have certifications there. They do teacher training there. It’s called “Pilates & More” so it’s a gym and Pilates. I can say that I was the first to open a Pilates studio that was just completely dedicated to Pilates and nothing else.
Victoria: That’s a cool little badge to wear- the first!
Noor: Yeah, I know. But I remember all of the contemporary equipment, the colored springs, the big reformers. When I went on an 80” Gratz reformer I was like: “Wow this is so small!”
Victoria: Right? You’re like: “I don’t even fit!” *laughs*
Noor: Exactly.
Victoria: Okay so how long was your studio open before you decided to go back and seek something that was more lineage-based?
Noor: As I was teaching, my personal experience was that I wasn’t feeling it. I ended up teaching more than I practiced because when I did my practice it wasn’t enough. I didn’t feel it. And I thought: “No, I should go to the gym and do weights” because I wasn’t sweating in Pilates. So I was always at the gym as opposed to in the studio working on my own equipment.
I was working in the studio swapping sessions with someone who was classically trained in Kuwait. She moved, but she was working out of her house. We would swap sessions and that’s how I learned about the big umbrella of Pilates- so many methods. That’s when I thought, “Yeah, I am missing something” and I was missing something. I went on Google and I Googled: “Where can I get a classical certification?” And Vintage Pilates popped up. That was in 2012. I did not know anything, I didn’t even know who Jay Grimes was. I went on the website and thought: “Okay, I’ll email them.” And I emailed them, and they sent me back this whole list of requirements of what I needed to do to audition, and to record. At that time I don’t think they were using Skype. I remember at that time reading about Jay Grimes and thinking: “Nope, I’m not going to do it.”
Victoria: Too intimidating.
Noor: *nods and laughs* After I read about him, I’m like: “Nope, I’m not going to do it, I’m just not ready.” So I waited, waited, waited until 2016. I reached back out to Vintage and Sandy Shimodas helped me. I met her in Dubai and that’s when I said, I’m going to go to their camps, I’m going to participate in their camps and see what it’s all about. I was really eager to change and also to learn more.
Victoria: That’s great! And you finished that program when.
Noor: I finished that program in November of 2017.
Victoria: So did you then transition your apparatus to something more classical?
Noor: Yeah, so when I first wanted to go in to the program with Vintage, I had to prepare. I didn’t want to go not knowing anything. I was working classically on the Stott equipment, but it did not work out. They were too big and too long, so I said: “That’s it. I’m going to sell it.” I ordered my Gratz in 2016, and that’s when it arrived and that’s when I started to practice on it. I was in the States for four months before assessing for my reformer because they start out with the reformer first as an assessment. I was there with Andrea Maida, she helped me- @pilatesandrea. So I was in San Diego for four months doing reformer every single day.
Victoria: Oh my gosh- that’s kind of a dream.
Noor: Yes, so I could not understand why people sometimes said they were bored. I was doing the same repertoire every single day and practicing and practicing until I assessed and got in.
Victoria: And it was still interesting to you every day.
Noor: Yes. And then after the reformer assessment, it was mat. So I was doing mat, mat, mat, mat, mat every day. I remember I was in Kuwait and I couldn’t practice one-on-one, so I had Skype lessons four times a week.
Victoria: Wow, that’s awesome! I’ve heard this before, but a lot of people certify based on what you said. I know a lot of people say: “What’s Pilates?” -this is so curious! And you know, there is no trademark on Pilates anymore, and that’s a good thing, and it’s a tough thing, because it’s then hard to kind of weed out what is and what isn’t. I’ve heard from a lot of people: “Oh you know, I just did this program because I though it was all the same!”
I’ve been very open about my experience. I approached Real Pilates, I wanted to do their program. I went to Core Pilates in New York City, Real Pilates, and then a studio I’m not going to name. Core only had a mat certification and I didn’t know that I only wanted to do mat. I talked to Real Pilates, but they were very early on in their teacher-training program and they had just started a cycle, so the next cycle wasn’t going to start until 6 months from that moment and I thought: “I don’t know where I’ll be in 6 months!” So I went back to the other studio and it was just funny that it happened this way, but they said: “Yeah! You can start tomorrow!” And I should have understood that their lack of structure meant something more, but I felt: “Okay great! They said I could start today! And they’re cheaper than the other places!” And it just seems like it’s so easy to get fooled and tricked into thinking you’re going to get the same quality as you would get anywhere else. The place that I trained was totally a crapshoot- they didn’t even have seminars. It was just: “Observe, and take classes, and then eventually you’ll be ready to teach!” I was keeping track of my own hours in a notebook, and then one day they came up to me and said: “How many hours do you have?” and I said: “Um, I think I have like 140 or something” and he said: “Great, you start teaching next week.” And that was that!
I know that Stott is way more organized than that. I’m not trying to compare my certification to Stott. But the truth of the matter is, there are a lot of people that wind up in those settings where they think they understand the Pilates system, and then they’re teaching this system that isn’t a real system, and I think it’s important to talk about that. For people who really want to seek the true classical work, it can be tough. It can be hard to navigate that. Like you said, you went onto Google and typed: “classical Pilates” and found Jay Grimes, and even then it took you four years to get the strength to even approach him. So I think if people have questions about that it’s okay to ask. I certainly think that people who are in contemporary and may be confused about what they’ve learned- they should keep asking questions, and they should keep questioning what they’ve learned.
Noor: I agree. And it’s not about paper or the certification. I’m going to talk about the Vintage program. The work with Vintage- I always felt: “How can I teach if I don’t feel it in my body?” I think what I was missing was my own practice. The work with Vintage- what’s so amazing about it- is that it was all about me. Not about the student, and the client, and what you’re going to give them, or “Oh they’re going to be bored, so you’re going to have to create exercises.” No. It was just about you. Through that year, I felt my body had become the manual. Now when I teach, I really feel when you’re going into that saw, or that teaser, because I practice every day. It’s a part of me. If you can feel it in your body, and you practice it more than you teach it- make your practice important. It’s not about always teaching, teaching, teaching.
Victoria: I spoke about this with Karen [Winselmann], but it can be so difficult sometimes to motivate yourself to practice, especially if you’ve had a long day of teaching. But at the end of the day, anyone who has ever stayed the extra hour or hopped into a class- nobody has ever regretted it. And we all know that every time we work out, or hop into a private or a semi, or a session, that we take something away from it. Just like you said, the deeper we get into our own practice, the better we are at translating that to our own clients. And then we can communicate with them in so many different languages. For example, spine stretch forward. You can say: “Actually, here are five different ways I can cue this for you” because you have five different ways that you know how to feel it.
Noor: Exactly. I believe that your practice is as important as your client’s practice. And sometimes for me, I might be selfish. It could be an hour where I could get a client, because the hour is in-demand. But no, that’s the hour where I most have energy, so it’s going to be my time. The more I prioritized myself and my practice and thought: “Me, me, me” the better teacher I became for my clients.
Victoria: It makes so much sense and I think any instructor would agree with that, that prioritizing your own Pilates practice does make a difference that translates to your clients, for sure.
Having been a part of the Vintage program, what can you tell us about Jay?
Noor: *laughs* Jay is not a man of many words. He is such an amazing man, I just love being around him. He’s great, the way he teaches. He might not really give you what you want at that moment, because you really want that answer right here and there, but he gives you just a little bit for you to kind of search for yourself. It’s about you exploring. He will guide you, he will come to you. I’ve been in his VP classes and he will come and give you a correction, but he won’t give you more than what you need. He’ll give you exactly what your body needs at this moment, and then he will leave and let you explore it and find it.
Victoria: He lets you interpret the exercises for yourself.
Noor: Exactly, and that’s what I loved about him. I think the less the teacher spoke, the more it gave me the freedom to explore and find it out. It really made a difference. As I said, I was going with a lot of Skype sessions, and then I started to reduce. Now I’m done to one session a week. Because I’m down to one session a week, I thought I might not be accountable to my own practice. Like you said, we get tired and it takes discipline to do your own. But now that I’m doing it on my own, I found more freedom to explore and see what I come up with with my own body.
Victoria: You mentioned something like that when we spoke on the phone, how now- especially in quarantine when you’re teaching so many Skype sessions- you’re kind of pulling away from being more verbal and taking the time to really watch the body that’s in front of you on the screen. I feel like that’s a way that you’re really channeling Jay in your teaching now.
Noor: Yes, exactly.
Victoria: And for those of you who watched and maybe did the workout earlier, you could maybe see that Noor had told me: “You know, I’m not really going to be talking the entire time like some of the other instructors.” She told me in advance: “I’m just going to tell you what you need to know.” It’s important. You don’t need to talk- I mean, I talk the entire time- but you don’t need to talk the entire time. The body that knows the exercises doesn’t need to hear feedback every single second.
Noor: Yeah, it takes practice. Sometimes I catch myself, because I was a teacher that talked. I felt like I needed to cue every single time, but now recently I’ve just started feeling like I need to trust the process. I have a client who I cued all the time, and today I told her: “Okay, this is what I’m going to guide you in, now let me see four more of these and find it on your own.” And she did better! Better than when I was just kind of talking the whole time and cueing her.
Victoria: I think it’s an important lesson that you’ve learned and it’s a skill you’ve acquired that I don’t even have yet.
Noor: Independency.
Victoria: No and that’s important! You want your clients to be independent, because that way- as you told me on the phone- your clients know the drill. If they leave Kuwait and they go wherever around the world, they know their exercises, they know the setup, because you’ve trained them to be independent of you.
Noor: Yes, and even transitioning online, it was easier. Because like I said, they are just really independent.
Victoria: No that’s really important and it’s stressed in our teacher-training program as well. Every single time you say the name of the exercise before you do the exercise. It saves so much time too, because I don’t think we give our clients enough credit. Sometimes you’ll say: “Okay, now spine stretch forward” and suddenly they’re just there. And you’re like: “Oh! You do know what it means!” It happens over time, and then when it does you’re just like: “This is so great! I don’t need to be like: “Okay, now stack your spine and reach your arms forward”- no. They know what it is and they don’t need the whole explanation anymore, they can just go right into it.
Noor: Right, and then you have the energy to guide, because they’re already there, they’re already doing it.
Victoria: I think that’s a big turning point and I agree. Now that we are teaching virtually so much, I’m like: “Oh, thank God I prepared my clients before.” They know what things look like now, so they’re just trying to use me as a guide.
I wanted to finally ask you about your transition from contemporary to classical, and why in that transition you’ve become so strongly outspoken about classical Pilates, just like me.
Noor: Because of the things that I’ve seen and the things that I believe- that we have enough exercises in the system to keep the client from being bored. I think that’s what most teachers are afraid of, that they’re teaching the same thing over and over so they feel like they need to take out their balls, and their Bosu balls, and their foam rollers, rubber bands, and I feel like you don’t need these things. You have so much in the system to teach that I feel like you don’t need these things. And I’ve seen things like functional training from the gym done on the reformer, and I feel like when a client comes to me, and I ask them: “Have you done Pilates?” And they say: “Yeah, so many times!” But then I put them on the reformer with the simplest exercise: “Go into your hundred” and they don’t know. They’re absolutely just looking at me. And I’m like: “Oh, okay, so you’re the client that I just need to cue.” And then they start to understand. I have to say, teaching that way has helped me to filter the clients that maybe I don’t want to work with, or maybe don’t want to work with me. It has brought in the clients that really want to work and understand the Pilates system. That’s what I love about the method.
Victoria: It’s true, and it’s so telling about the current Pilates climate. If you don’t know what a hundred is- what are you doing? That’s the most basic exercise. There’s a lot of people that only know the classical matwork, and then whatever they do on the apparatus is sort of just something they’ve created. But if you don’t know the hundred, then you don’t even know the matwork, and that’s the smallest building block of the system. It’s crazy that somebody could think that they’re doing Pilates and not have any clue at all. That’s an issue. That’s an issue with people being able to market themselves as Pilates professionals, or our ability to use the work Pilates as freely as we like. It speaks volumes to where we have arrived as a greater Pilates community, and that’s why I’m so hell-bent on bringing attention back to the original work, back to the lineage, and what Joe intended.
Noor: Exactly. When we graduate from these primary certifications, like contemporary for me- it’s very dependent. The client is very dependent on the teacher, for everything. Taking the box, putting the box on, changing the springs, cleaning the apparatus after. Where now, it’s very independent. No, I need the client to know their stuff, for the client to change the springs, and to put their box on. You need to take Pilates into your daily life! How are you picking up the box? How are you cleaning the apparatus in front of you? It all comes together.
Noor’s Speed Round
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