Pilates Teacher Interview with Dee Matthews
1. Which part of kent are you based/teach in?
I'm currently teaching classes in kent, at Aquamanda Spa and The Oast Osteopathy. I have a small home studio.
2. What was your first experience in pilates like? Do you remember your first class?
My first mat class was at the Laban Centre in 1999 which we took every week as part of our dance training. I remember my teacher Peter Curtis well (he was Alan Herdman trained) and I have lots of memories of all of our classes. We took mat classes once a week and I was pulled in to the Pilates studio for extra classes to help with my technique for dance. It was a very small but busy studio where only classic FM played in the background (Peter was an ex ballet dancer). Sometimes I was in there for up to 2 hours! I like how it really centered me for my classes that day. My body felt so different after Pilates and I definitely made me a better dancer. I also remember paying around £110 for my first block of 10 classes! it was so cheap!
3. Who or what inspired you to become a pilates teacher, what was that first moment when you realized a career in Pilates was for you! Believe it or not I never planned to be a pilates teacher. I immersed my self in the the Pilates foundation course as I wanted to learn more about Pilates. At the time after graduating and coming home I couldn't find a Pilates class that was anything like that I'd learn't so I felt frustrated. It was the only thing at the time that was keeping me strong and pain free from my dancing injury. After the course I landed a job straight away in a physio clinic and completely through my self in the deep end.
4. Is there anybody who has particularly inspired or influenced you in your career and why? at the moment i'm following Carrie Pages the winner of Pilates Anytime. I love her clips and passion for Pilates and divine variations. I'm also a fan of Blossom (Bridge Pilates), i love her Kathy Grants cats workshop. I'm taking my advanced seminar next week with Brooke Siler so I'm very exited about this and can't wait to learn from her. The pilates body was the first pilates book I brought back in 2007 when I started my mat training. I also like Ellie Herman's books.
4.b: Who did you undertake your training with?
Pilates Foundation 2007
Pre and Postnatal with Rachel Swindle 2009
APPI Modified Equipment 2011
ITEC Sports Massage L3 2015
I'm currently finishing my L3 Exercise referral and I have completed the L4 Back Pain course. So this is a work in progress which i hope to finish very soon!
5. What was the last workshop or course you went on?
The Basic and Intermediate Classical seminar with Authentic Pilates Australia at Exhale Pilates London where i'm taking my apprenticeship.
6. Explain what Pilates means to you in one sentence.
Movement, the ability to have clients connect with their bodies and inspire them to move better, more and to be able to take time out from their everyday lives to immerse themselves in Pilates. Also to leave everything else at the door when they come for a workout.
7. Which Pilates exercise is your favorite? There are too many! On the mat; the teaser and the boomerang! The Tree from the short box series on the reformer, especially on the ladder barrell! it's heaven!
8. Which is your nemeses or least favourite. The neck pull.
9. If there was one word in your Pilates vocabulary that get used the most, what would that be?
Scoop! or just 1 more! My clients would say " you make that look easy"
10. What’s in your pilates bag today? my manuals, a foot roller, alot of notes, a tennis ball massage lotion, biofreeze (oh and M&S chocolate peanuts) yes I do eat chocolate too!
11. If you weren’t a Pilates teacher what job would you be doing instead?
I think I'd like to have been a vet! a radiographer, perhaps a cake maker!
https://www.facebook.com/yourbodypilates
I think I'd like to have been a vet! a radiographer, perhaps a
