Studio Schedule Week of 9/13/2026 | Why not you?
A person's forearms and hands extended toward the camera, palms open and fingers spread, against a dark background.
image by Mikhail Nilov via Pexels
Now that we’ve found our permanent home, you might think I’m busy with design-related decision making. That planning is fun for me, but I’m still in the same educational phase of work when meeting with tradespeople and introducing myself at the nearby coffee shop: what is GYROTONIC® exercise?
You might be saying to yourself: Yup. I’ve been wondering this, too. I’ve been reading these emails, and I still don’t understand.
When my family attended my daughter’s school picnic and I’m asked the inevitable equivalent to “what do you do?”, it’s not uncommon for very modern-minded people to remark, “that sounds like something my wife would really be in to.” Fair, but (not that I ever say it) why not you?
More and more, our culture has increasingly accepted an app telling them they need to work out, how many steps they achieved, and they just need to move for 2 more minutes to reach their daily fitness goal. I certainly use those reminders for myself to be sure I don’t get glued to my stool all day. I’ve tried tracking a Gyrotonic workout using my fitness tracker, and — similar to ballet barre — it’s an underwhelming report. But are those metrics the most important part of exercise?
It brings me back to my first Gyrotonic experience when I was in-between dance jobs. I had a limited budget, but saw dancers I admired emerging from a Gyrotonic studio with grace, power, and confidence that I felt I was lacking and decided I should try it. Many of you have heard me tell this part of the story before: we sat down on stools facing each other, we rubbed our hands together, then the instructor told me to separate my hands and “feel my chi”.
Excuse me. No one seems to have told them that I’m from the East Coast where we don’t do “chi”, we work out because I have auditions coming up and I really need this job. How long did it take for me to come around to the benefits of the Gyrotonic approach to exercise? Embarrassingly long, despite practicing the work regularly. It was when I was seeing the benefits in my clients — particularly the benefits of coordinated rhythmic breathing — that I realized there’s more to a workout than “feeling the burn” and “getting my sweat on”.
Years into my practice, after twenty Gyrotonic courses, about 520 hours of Pilates education and certification, and various related continuing education seminars, I’m able to appreciate the benefits of adding a workout to my exercise menu that teaches full body integration in a way that doesn’t take coordination for granted but still moves, rather than breaking exercises down into movement breadcrumbs so tiny it doesn’t satisfy our appetite for movement. Something that works on mobility while keeping an eye on the functional reason for that mobility. Although Gyrotonic lends itself well to the ebb and flow of our busy schedules, it’s the boring, consistent addition of a regular practice that helped me realize a connection with my energetic body. To rub my hands together and appreciate my body’s power of proprioception, to have awareness to feel the circulatory changes in my hands, and to let all of that analysis go and feel my chi.
You may have noticed instructor Rowan has been away from her usual Saturday morning teaching time. She has the opportunity to focus on the professional dance aspect of her work this season, the culmination of her own consistent practice. She is back in the studio this Saturday to bring new insights obtained from a different mix of modalities, perspectives and experiences to her 12pm Community Gyrotonic class. She also has openings before class for Individual Appointments. I know Saturdays have felt different without her, so this is the week to get back to it.
WHAT I’M READING
"How Kudzu Was Supposed to Save the South" (JSTOR Daily)
A government-endorsed, once-celebrated solution to soil erosion — until the definition of what the land needed changed, and the plant that was supposed to save it got recast as the villain. A good reminder that "this fixed things once" and "this is still the right fix" aren't the same claim.
"The forgotten empire: When Russia colonised California" (BBC Travel)
Ninety miles up the coast, there's a fort that was Russia's for thirty years before it was anyone's idea of California. Worth a visit if you've never been — a strange, quiet reminder of how much of what we assume is permanent was actually decided by someone else, once, and then just stuck.
Mindset by Carol S. Dweck (Elliott Bay Book Company)
The book that put "growth mindset" into the general vocabulary — worth revisiting now that the phrase has drifted pretty far from what she actually argued. A good check on whether we're using her definition of growth, or the app-notification version.
