BalleCore BARRE PILATES - What is it?

How is BalleCore BARRE PILATES® different from other popular ‘barre’ programs? 

•    BalleCore BARRE PILATES® is the original and only barre program that is purely Pilates-based and uses the patented BalleCore Barre created by Molly Weeks.
•    BalleCore BARRE PILATES® sessions are not scripted, corporate classes.  Using the BARRE PILATES exercise guidelines, instructors use their own training, creativity and ingenuity to design their classes for their students and clients
•    A certified BalleCore BARRE PILATES® instructor is first a fully certified Pilates Mat instructor (in accordance with standards set by the Pilates Method Alliance), who has been trained in all protocols to safely and effectively interpret Pilates exercises with the BalleCore Barre.
•    Certified BalleCore BARRE PILATES® instructors have had to test out with BalleCore, LLC in order to call themselves BARRE PILATES instructors.
•    Look for the BalleCore, LLC seal on all BalleCore BARRE PILATES® Certificates to verify their qualifications.  See Teacher Training information at Playhouse Pilates and nationwide links.

© 2011 Charlyn d’Anconia.  All Rights Reserved

Walk-N-Roll Pilates Workshop

Saturday's Walk-N-Roll Pilates Workshop was truly amazing - if I do say so myself!  To see someone's posture transform in a matter of minutes and actually help them sustain it.  I saw my client Barb on Monday and was astounded that she was still more upright than usual - a woman in her sixties who came to me with severe postural issues, back pain, knee and ankle pain - and she can maintain it without discomfort! It is so worthwhile to teach this work and to know that she now has another layer of understanding and core body knowledge as to how walking is healing.    ¶ This is one of the most challenging things to accomplish in my practice: Teaching - and being the best example I can be of - the fact that self-care, healing and sustaining the body are where any 'exercise regimen' should lead us.  If we are tearing up our knees, wearing down our joints, tightening and stiffening up our muscles and backs, the body is less and less able to sustain itself the way it is ingeniously able to do.   ¶ The breathing-walking connection was what she found most effective in continuing to build her posture with little effort, doing something she does all day anyway, walk!   ¶ Thanks again to Walk-N-Roll Pilates Workshop co-creator, Lisa Bloomquist, for making it so fun and always teaching something in a fresh way!!   
© 2011 Charlyn d’Anconia.  All Rights Reserved

YAMUNA FACE MASSAGE

Yesterday I hosted a small Yamuna Face Saver Workshop and following it I had a Duo scheduled. It turned out that a woman in the workshop, Sharon, knew, Terrie, one of the women in the Duo.  Terrie was bowled over at seeing Sharon's post workshop fresh, rested and 'wrinkle free' face!  Apparently the two had been out late the night before and let's just say she fully expected Sharon to look like she had!  Well indeed, the dark circles and puffy eyes that came in the door with her did not go out with her!  Sharon was excited not only about how she looked, but how she felt - enlivened and ready for the day.  Not just another wrinkle treatment indeed!  More on this and acupressure facial points in the next post...!

BalleCore BARRE PILATES

Amazing that it has been since May that I last posted something here!  Busy.  The business of setting up an out of State BARRE PILATES teacher training was filled with missteps and totally unnecessary bureaucratic twists and turns reminding me of how much corporate structures can muck up a simple, elegant idea!  At last I got to the training and had a great group of instructors who really seemed to embrace the unique BalleCore Barre and BARRE PILATES program and we could finally enjoy the process of the workshop! 

Though it seems like it should be straight forward, it is actually a fragile process where we all come together hoping we'll get what we came for!!  And in my case, that I will be able to give what I came to deliver in an accessible way!  I fully enjoy this work and the transformative potential it offers people, particularly women, for their posture, balance and sense of connection to their core.  Let's face it, once we have THAT so many things, literally, click into place...

The BalleCore Barre

This weather is fantastic!  Spring cold and rain are different from winter's offerings.  The rain brings all the promise of a great Spring garden and the cold is just the last gasp before Summer heat settles in! 

As usual, I am fully enthralled right now with BalleCore and BARRE Pilates.  I am exploring some fun, intricate and effective moves with the BalleCore barre and just looking forward to more and more depth with these programs and this odd devise!

The simplicity of the BalleCore barre is so deceiving.  I have been working with it in every way, I thought, I could think of for 9 years now and recently I have turned another corner of understanding that there is much more to learn!  Completely inspired by Madeline Black and Elizabeth Larkham at Pilates on Tour, AZ (where I presented BalleCore Master Classes in April), I have not only significantly healed my own wrist by another huge leap, but have found new ways to use the BalleCore barre to heal my own and my clients' wrist, elbow, shoulder issues with it!

At first glance, the BalleCore barre is simple, elegant and useful.  It intrigued me from the start and teaching teachers to use it is so much fun because I can see the lights going on in their eyes when they think of or, talk about all the different clients that will benefit from using it; they can see how it can get results. 

I spoke with a potential client today who said that she and a couple of friends wanted to come and try a Pilates class in the evening and I explained that we currently only offer a BalleCore Workout class in the evening.  She said she was interested but that on of her friends was looking for a Pilates class and she wasn't sure she could get her to come to a BalleCore class.  I explained that if her friend liked Pilates she would probably love BalleCore, but she would have to come and try a class to know.  I promised her that even if she still prefers just straight Pilates, she will get a great workout!  There is no time to waste in life and I try not to disappoint!

The BalleCore Workout class really moves so most people enjoy the feeling of total body conditioning that they get, but life doesn't come in one-size-fits-all packages!  I love teaching it and my classes are usually full, so I let this guide me forward and the people who come regularly are on this journey with me.  My weekly client Julia who drives from Brentwood (!) shakes her head and says, "How can you make it just different enough every week to keep me coming back?! I love it!"

Post Polio Syndrome

Just had a session and then dinner with a client with post polio syndrome and always find myself inspired by his truly optimistic outlook on life; he is one of the most positive people I have ever known.  He told me, as he has over the 10 years we have worked together, how much it means to him that I have a level of expertise to really help him remain strong and energized from the Pilates and Yamuna Body Rolling that we do.  In fact, the hands-on Yamuna Body Rolling has been instrumental in helping him get the resistance training he needs for his legs since he cannot put full weight on them and he is at risk for osteoporosis.  He is an amazing and dynamic friend and mentor to me too!  What a life I'm living!

BalleCore BARRE PILATES

Feeling fantastic after my BARRE PILATES noon class today!  The class is small, but dedicated and the coolness of the air conditioning, the great music and incorporating the foam roller and Orbit made the moves challenging but fun and uber effective on my posture!  I love this stuff!