6th International Polestar Conference in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil

By Jonathan Urla

Every other year or so, I am fortunate enough to be invited to present at Polestar Pilates conferences. Being a truly international Pilates organization, they have branched out from their Miami center and hold their events in different countries. Last year they chose Germany to hold their event. This year the destination was Salvador/Bahia, Brazil.

It took me more than thirteen hours to get there, but the location was incredible and well worth the trip. The conference was hosted by PhysioPilates, the Polestar license representative in South America. The location was at a beautiful hotel/conference center, the Pestana Bahia Hotel, which sits on low rocky cliffs right on the ocean. If you ever plan visit Salvador, this would be a great place to stay as it has four star service, good restaurants, and a large pool to play in.

The theme of the conference was “Pilates in the Community” and even though there were more than four hundred attendees and presenters from around the world, it had a small, intimate feel to it. Much of this I attribute to the fact that Brazilians are a very warm and friendly people. They don’t have as many artificial boundaries or pretensions as Americans do, and are genuinely interested in all aspects of Pilates. They also don’t let the passion of their focus take them away from their connection to the human spirit and nature. Natural wonders are abound in Brazil and the people who live there are always aware of their heritage, their mixed blood, their duty to the planet and each other. Oh, and they like to have fun, but more on that later.

In addition to the opening and closing ceremonies, the conference program included classes in the morning, two hour workshops in the mid-morning, panel discussions/lectures, and more workshops in the afternoon, and then more classes. I personally presented two classes a day on how to teach Pilates with a Theraband.  Some of the other presenters included Polestar president Brent Anderson, Sherri Betz, Alastair Greetham, Shelly Power, Kyria Sabin, Dawn-Marie Hicks, Ann Toran, Dawnna Wayburne, Alexander Bohlander, Miriam Ritter, Alice Becker (PhysioPilates Director), Serafino Ambrosio, Nancy Myers, and Pam Downey. The list of courses presented are too long for me to name here, but they included workshops on using the Reformer and Trapeze table together, using the Exo Chair and Spine Corrector, Pilates for Children, Fletcher technique, Cultivating a New Awareness of Space, and Dancing with the Equipment of Joe Pilates. I was able to sit in on a couple of the classes and they were all very interesting.  One in particular, “Confrontation with Gravity” presented by Dawnna Wayburne, was very indicative of the innovative approach toward the practice.  Based out of Hong Kong, Ms. Wayburne has an extensive background as a professional dancer and over thity years as a Pilates instructor.  For this course, she had wonderful slides with images, information and quotes from different leaders in the field of mind/body techniques, including Milton Trager who said, “An ageless body is one that gracefully moves through space.” Somehow she managed to connect different methodologies with a unified focus on how the body responds to gravity.  Magic!

Expanding from the “vibration option”as postulated by Alexander Mikuliu, which includes tapping on the bones to awaken and strengthen them, Ms. Wayburne taught us an exercise where we stood up on our toes about an inch and then dropped back down onto the heels. We repeated it over and over to feel how it shook the body into a more relaxed and centered state.  She then introduced us to the work of Ruthy Alon and her Bones for Life method, which incorporated bouncing twice in a heartbeat rhythm and puffing the breath with the beats.  This felt like Feldenkrais technique, and indeed Ruthy is a senior Feldenkrais teacher.

It was interesting to see how Dawanna had created Pilates exercises on the apparatus that progressed from the awareness of the body to real lengthening and centering. Very functional was how to induce traction for the back and hips with simple changes to foot positions while on the Reformer and Cadillac. It all gets very far removed from the traditional style of doing Pilates, which made me use my mind and senses more.  This style of teaching is different as well in that it is less about directing and more about encouraging them to feel whatever they feel – no right or wrong connotation.

Another very interesting workshop during the conference was presented by Nancy Myers, who also has an extensive career as a physical Therapist.  She presented us with the somewhat revolutionary idea of letting go of the pelvic floor muscles to help facilitate better movement. I was so glad to hear this as I have often thought that some Pilates schools were over emphasizing engaging this muscle, which is more of an autonomic muscle (reflexive), and can cause people to hold tension in the body unnecessarily.

After hours of teaching and doing Pilates, it is healthy to let it all go and have some fun. Needless to say, the Brazilians are very good at this. On Saturday night, there was a big party in the ballroom of the hotel with a DJ and then a live Samba Drum band that shook the whole place.  Luckily, the ballroom was open to the outside and the strong breeze from the ocean helped cool us off.  Everyone danced, everyone sweat, and we could barely hear each other the following day due to ringing ears!

In the end, the 6th International Polestar conference was a great success. My hat goes off toe Alice Becker and Brent Anderson for a great effort and for promoting social awareness in addition to Pilates education. I’m sure we will not forget Bahia, Brazil and the lovely town of Salvador anytime soon.

About the Author: Jonathan Urla, MFA, Certified Pilates Instructor (Power Pilates, PMA) was a professional dancer/choreographer for 8 years before becoming a personal trainer. He began directing himself toward more mind-body techniques after studying yoga off and on for 15 years. His formal Pilates training began in 1996 with master trainer Phoebe Higgins in New York city. He enjoyed integrating his practice of yoga with Pilates and soon created Yogilates in 1997 as an alternative system for optimal fitness. He has since published a book on Yogilates(HarperCollins), produced several video programs of Pilates and Yogilates workouts, and over ten years has developed extensive continuing education courses which he presents for various organizations. He also is an avid runner and sports enthusiast and participates in running club races and triathlons. He has his own Youtube channel (www.youtube.com/jonurla) where segments from his programs can be viewed.

Tags: Alastair Greetham, Alexander Bohlander, Alice Becker, Ann Toran, Brent Anderson, Dawn-Marie Hicks, Dawnna Wayburne, Jonathan Urla, Kyria Sabin, Miriam Ritter, Nancy Myers, Pam Downey, Polestar Pilates, Serafino Ambrosio, Shelly Power, Sherri Betz