Jillian Hessel’s “Learning From Two Masters” DVD Review
By Siri Galliano
Kneestretch Four has never looked as beautiful as on the cover of Jillian Hessel’s “Learning from Two Masters”. Top and bottom bordered in maroon it looks like a Monopoly card and in the game of Pilates, Ms. Hessel would like you to acquire this valuable piece of property to broaden the understanding of teachers not fortunate enough to know the work of her mentors, Carola Trier and Kathy Grant.
Carola Trier had a lot in common with her country mate Josef Pilates, both being German immigrants, performers in the circus world, and interred in a war prison. Like Joe, who would have taught her the work in German, she was very regimented and strong in her teaching, which began in the late 1950’s.
Kathy Grant, the first Black Pilates teacher and only one of two teachers in 1967 to receive written documents qualifying her to teach, was more of an intuitive teacher. Grant came from the world of theatre and concert dance, and she brings her own more subtle and nuanced interpretations to the work.
Jillian first started healing exercises with Kathy Grant for a pronounced scoliosis, and later began an old fashioned apprenticeship with Carola Trier, who for two months would only allow Jillian to offer clients a towel and assist them by holding their feet during Footwork exercises on the Universal Reformer.
Hessel demonstrates in this re-released DVD, that she has listened, she has heard, and she has learned the work in her body from her teachers. The DVD is filled with many techniques and anecdotes. “With Kathy’s help I developed a completely new paradigm with which to observe, translate and process movement,” the lucky Jillian reveals. “Kathy evolved props, using not only tennis balls but also the tennis ball cover itself, wrapped up and squeezed between weak inner thighs. “She also trained her students to become self-reliant,” comments Ms. Hessel, “so she could check up on another client’s progress, or keep up with her bookkeeping.” The best of Kathy Grant’s advice is the awareness of the happy “singing” of the springs on a properly worked Reformer, and according to Hessel, she constantly admonished her students to resist the recoil of the springs as the carriage slides home.
Carola, famous for her fanaticism for precise placement of the feet in the Footwork, passed that intensity down to Jillian, and she firmly maintains the original classic four foot positions. She especially reinforced the second position “prehensile bird-on-a-perch” where she reminds us “the knuckles of the feet really need to pop out.” She is equally concerned that the root of the baby toe is pulled from its evolutionary downward spiral to an important part of every exercise.
There are no photos or archival footage but Jillian has lots of stories to intersperse about the two very different teaching styles of her teachers, of which many new dialogue lines and movement combinations will be added to your practice the very next day.
The main legacy Jillian Hessel embraces, is transferring the movement fundamentals of the Matwork to the Reformer and the fluid transitions. “Carola, while teaching how to mount the Reformer, would say ‘sit down like you are at a cocktail party.’” In other words, don’t throw proper form away during the mundane everyday movements–rather, integrate the form into your lifestyle.
There is no similarity to Romana Kryzanowska’s work here, as Jillian believes that sitting up to remove springs during a Footwork-to-Hundreds transition with a Teaser or modified Teaser is not good for a bad back and emphasizes straddling the Reformer instead. From Carola she also learned service and how to treat the client. “Carola called certain exercises ‘candy’ and she would say “candy always keeps them coming back” shares Jillian as she demonstrates the more addictive exercises. Another fond memory is when Jillian does an excellent imitation of Carola’s German accent “From the head to the heel you’re a piece of steel.”
From Carola’s background as an acrobat Jillian shares many of the more enduring combinations, such as Teaser-with-Hundred-Leg Beats, ten Scissors-in-the-Backstroke, and an exciting long box sequence of Teaser-to-Double-Leg-Stretch-to-Rolling-Like-a-Ball, that will give you stronger choices and stronger abs.
The easy to navigate chapter buttons make studying the most forgotten archival exercise from Kathy Grant, what she calls “Reverse Horseback” easy to review. Jillian does instruct for the injured as well as the athletic, reflective of her background, smoothly within the same format. She uses both ballet and anatomical descriptions with her own additions, such as the exercise positions for Backstroke Swimming (Cry-Baby Hands), and Semi-Circles (Butt in the Hole). Even though she may use terms the beginner is unfamiliar with, such as transverse longitudinals or neutral spine, her hand presses the pubic bone or foot down to reinforce her message.
Her language is a fusion picked up from many others besides the two classical masters, however after two viewings I watched her DVD thereafter in silence. Observing Jillian teach without the audio cues and perky personality, I see a woman who really has been trained to use her hands in cradling and supporting people; a gift truly from the Masters often lost in today’s trainings
A new position for me was seeing Jillian’s fists lift the buttocks during Semi-circle. She also shares how Carola taught the teachers to protect their own bodies.
Despite her level of expertise, this DVD does demonstrate some safety no-no’s, such as when Jillian steps inside the Reformer. This could be forgiven inside the pulley of the frame when it is realized the Reformer has grown from Joe’s original length of 80 inches to 90 and even 99 inches; however it is always taboo to step into The Well between the springs and the carriage.
Although fundamentals may transfer well to the Reformer, not all spotting assists do. It is with great trepidation that I watched Jillian transfer Jacknife-on-the-Mat to actually standing on the moving carriage, with her feet on the outside of the shoulder rests, bracing the client’s feet on her forearms. She learned this Assisted Jacknife from Carola Trier and this exercise is made even more awkward when Jillian jokingly comments “make sure you have no holes in your crotch while straddling the client’s head”. I checked with other teachers trained by Joe and Romana, and no one had ever seen that before. This, and the worthless “Inhale for nothing” or “”exhale for nothing” breathing cues, as well as the percussive breathing into the microphone are the only annoyances. It is unclear whether she learned that from her two masters or not.
Jillian inherited Carola Trier’s equipment built for Carola’s studio by Joe Pilates himself. She understands the changes modern manufacturers have tried and even though she explains that part of the Reformer’s mat is gone now and several inches are converted over to cleats and ropes, it makes the Assisted Jacknife even more dangerous to do. This is one exercise that should have been omitted when editing the original 2000 format down.
There are many times during this Reformer workshop Ms. Hessel gets frustrated with the equipment. “Boxes were so much smaller when I learned,” she confesses. “I don’t like short ropes” and rather than lengthen the ropes on adjustable machines she recommends “move the spring bar to second gear. The length of the straps are crucial and everyone should know about the changes current concepts (Balanced Body) makes.”
While instructing a short person on the KneeStretch series, adding Carola’s cue to “put the belly button between the knees,” an attendee inquired by asking “couldn’t she just use the higher, modern second footbar lever to make it fit?” Jillian, a witness to the changing Pilates world, gives an excellent explanation on how changing that ratio puts the body in the wrong position in a negative way. She knows authentic versions such as when she announces during the footwork “originally the breathing was inhale on the extension” or “Running-in-Place was classically put at the end but California put it in the beginning”. “It’s a different day and age and we don’t necessarily put people through this same routine,” confides Jillian. And although the viewer is not sure that it matters to her what California has done, she herself is so sure, so strong, so grounded, you just want more of her.
She promotes Ron Fletcher and his “beautiful transitions… although not classical”, and you can see much of his influence on her throughout many of the exercises.
Jillian, a charming presenter, is comfortable in her flesh colored tights, healthy and happy, and often has the workshoppers laughing. To just refresh, review, heighten up your footwork, and the instruction to pull your belly in as you change feet positions is worth the watching of this DVD.
“Learning from Two Masters” is accompanied with a Teacher’s Manual written ten years after the original workshop was filmed and displaying Ms. Hessel’s direction deeper into the anatomical world. She hopes the DVD and manual will become an important educational tool for future generations of teachers. It is in addition to, not a transcript, the DVD and beginner students may not know terms such as supinate, lateral, anterior or coronal planes. The postural analysis is very technical, the terms therapeutic, the illustrations simple and comfortable with the mainstay of modern teachers.
In today’s commercial Pilates market, where students are training on bungee cord Reformers and multiple brands of equipment with variable springs, the equipment description of the Teacher’s Manual has taken for granted that some machines may not have one light spring or even a medium spring. Just an oversight of a senior instructor who has no one to edit her except herself, but could be an issue for this manual to stand on its own accord when it comes to the Reformer. The best part of the Manual is that Ms. Hessel herself writes quite well, explaining the limits of capturing the life works of two direct Pilates descendents in a few hours. For fifty dollars, less than the cost of a private lesson, you get two products filled with new insights and information. Now, after over teaching twenty years herself, this DVD could be retitled “Learning from Three Masters.”
About the Author: Siri Galliano of Live Art Pilates travels to big and small studios all over the world to teach workshops and safety on equipment with the traditional work. Certified in Pilates by Romana Kryzanowska, Siri will be presenting at the upcoming Dallas, Texas Pilates Intensive in April.
Tags: Carola Trier, Jacknife, Jillian Hessel, Kathy Grant, pilates, reformer, siri galliano