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Romana, Africa, And Somatic Integration

Posted by Carole Amend  Icon, 16 July 2010 - 08:40 AM

A few days ago, three topics dovetailed in a post I made on the AASI Blog, The Global Pilates Spirit:
1) Romana's Pilates (now merged with True Pilates),
2) the pilates legislative issue in South Africa, and
3) the idea of the "somatic integration" loop.

I'll try to sum it up here, with quotes from the blog in purple; for more links, please go to the blog. Here's how it came about:

First, please give The Romanas Pilates Dvds; considering classical training/info? begun on 4-10-10 by vlissa7 on the PCDB a read. In this post, I made the distinction between three different "loops": learning, teaching, and somatic integration. My desire is always to foster a cooperative, as opposed to competitive, mindset.

Being that it involved Romana, this discussion was another one of those controversial threads. Siri made the comment, "There are more Romana teachers out of the loop than in the loop. Don't get looped in."
The reality is, however, that whether in or out of the Romana "loop," all teachers can still consider themselves part of the "teaching" loop. There are those who would consider themselves in the "learning" loop, that is, the public, and those getting ready for pilates teacher training. Conceptually, the "teaching" loop is a section of the "learning" loop.

Pilates is about seeing the whole. Even if you have die-hard loyalties and need to maintain requirements as set by the organization with which you wish to identify, you can still consider yourself part of the greater pilates community.

Recent events in South Africa concerning pilates and fitness legislation created an opportunity to put this idea into context (Please see my AASI Contributions Blog entry Legislation: South Africa).

At the legislative level, there's really no time for bickering over whose training program is the best. The main thing is to declare pilates as a discipline unto itself. So, I do hope that you will read my post on the AIM Academy Forum, URGENT: Call to Action from SAPEPA and please sign the petition.

Finally, SAPEPA member Yasmin Lambat's suggestion to "have a separate Movement Education Board that includes representatives from Every discipline to regulate the industry" is an example of opening the loop beyond pilates. I call this the "somatic integration" loop, a community committed to human evolution through somatic practice. AASI is a community of dialogue committed to this idea. See the blog for links to international organizations, which have been envisioned since the 70s, that are designed to support this community at the legislative level.

What's true here is that the mindsets exist, no matter what you call them. And it's also true that not everyone committed to pilates will be passionate about the greater somatic practice community, within which pilates can be viewed to reside. Some will most surely stay within their "pilates" loop within the "somatic integration" loop. To each his own. Hopefully, though, the jargon will evolve enough to support pilates pedagogy in reaching its full potential and benefit to the public. It would be senseless (indeed!) to limit our work to either the fitness or physical therapy realms.

Cheers!
Carole : )

AIM Academy for Somatic Integration website

Filed in 'Legislative News', 'Pilatics/Unity'



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