The Pilates Center has been teaching teachers to the highest standard for over 25 years. Our community has grown to over 900 teacher training program graduates and we now have 23 host training studios around the world – quite a leap from our humble beginnings here in Boulder, CO all those years ago.
We thought it would be nice to chat with graduates – recent and not so recent – about how training with TPC has changed their lives.
This week we chat to Alicia Gyetvai. Alicia graduated in 2001 and is the owner of Pilates Bodies in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Hi Alicia, how are you today?
I’m lovely! We’re having amazing weather and it’s a holiday weekend!
Where are you right now and what are your plans for the day?
I’m sitting in the backyard under an umbrella, enjoying the late spring, Santa Fe weather. Because it’s a Sunday and I’m a workaholic, I keep Sunday plans pretty relaxed, as is the case for today.
How did you find out about TPC?
Unsure of what I wanted to do for a career or work after graduating from The University of Denver in 1999 and because of previous Pilates experience in Santa Fe I researched Pilates studios in the local phone book. The Pilates Center had a listing, which included an advertisement that they were a teacher training school. I phoned and had information sent to me.
What was your reason for choosing to train with TPC?
I began taking private Pilates lessons in Santa Fe at the Physical Mind Institute after a dance injury in 1996. I was 22 and I didn’t really get Pilates but found the equipment amazing. Even though I didn’t really understand the traditional Pilates system, it helped me tremendously – I just knew it was smart and for me.
I had been working for a Soy Foods Company in Boulder for about 6 months when I finally made my way through the doors of TPC in February, 2000.
As I walked past the windows that looked in to the studio I saw someone doing Squirrel and I knew right then there was so much more to Pilates than what I had been doing previously. I knew it was powerful and I knew I wanted to do Squirrel!
I had just received my holiday bonus from work and as soon as I walked through the door, I wrote a check in the full bonus amount of $1500 to enrol in TPC’s 6 month pre-training to get accepted in to the teacher training program.
I was delighted that TPC had a laid-out curriculum and standard requirements before they would allow someone to begin the training.
Why do you think TPC is the best option for people wanting to become Pilates teachers?
Their standards, curriculum, resources, encouragement, mentorship… TPC is confident in its perspective – they teach a very rigorous program that does not come from a place of fear. This allows them to encourage their trainees to grow with a constant wealth of support. The training program has phases of tremendous difficulty, but they want everyone to succeed. It’s tough, but incredibly nourishing and fulfilling.
What was / is your favourite thing about The Pilates Center teacher training program?
Same answer as for the question above plus I was healed in so many ways by TPC’s training. I knew they cared and were willing to share as much as they knew with me –with everyone – in the program. I still have contact with some of the people with whom I went through training. How wonderful is that!?
What do you think your experience at TPC has given you most?
Wow. Where to begin? I was certain I wanted to be a Pilates teacher and to someday have a studio. TPC gave me the tools to achieve both of those goals and now I have a career that continues to support and interest me.
Beyond that, training with TPC helped develop personal skills, confidence, empathy, an eye for body movement patterns and they so enthusiastically shared the authentic Pilates system, which continues to intrigue me! As I had come from the world of gymnastics and dance, I was quickly humbled to healthy movement with my studies at TPC. I had been a person who trained in extremes in both body and mind – I was nervous if I didn’t train enough and I would continue to train through injury for fear of losing ground. The Pilates Center offered me a healthy recalibration to a more neutralized concept of body and mind. Instead of being perfection and trick oriented it offered me appreciation and compassion for what each and every body NEEDS to achieve a skill. The simple perspective of “nature” conveyed that all layers of Pilates, including the very advanced, are healing. There is nothing missing in the classical repertoire and The Pilates Center offers a confident, nurturing environment to support that perspective.
The TPC community has grown a lot since I graduated and with my continued commitment to The Pilates Center, I have enjoyed meeting and networking with so many additional graduates that live around the world. We are really the luckiest people. It is the best job. It is the best decision I ever made and I remain forever grateful to Amy, Rachel, Debora and the TPC training program.
What would you say to someone who is considering training with TPC?
Do it!
It is more that worth it for the experience alone. It will enrich and prepare you with the best possible training and more than that, completing the training better prepares you for life. There is an enormous transformation that occurs while in training and the metamorphosis is beyond worth it.