Industry Insider
Kathy Corey of Kathy Corey Pilates
It’s been nearly 30 years since Kathy Corey founded West Coast Pilates and made the leap from fitness trainer and journalist to Pilates instructor, educator and innovator. Whether she is training students, instructors, doctors or university professors, Kathy’s unique methodology of teaching Pilates is world-renowned.
Kathy began her career with Pilates as a determined writer would – with in-depth study, many interviews and hands-on practice of the Method itself. What differentiated Kathy from others was her opportunity to do all this work with the original Master Teachers who taught with Joseph and Clara Pilates in their New York studio. As the Publicity Director and feature writer for the Institute for the Pilates Method, Kathy’s job was to interview, study with and take instruction from Ron Fletcher, Kathy Grant, Lolita San Miguel, Carola Trier, Eve Gentry and Bruce King and take workshops with Romana.
“My work is a synthesis of the Master Teachers’ work,” Kathy says over the phone from California where she lives. “I see myself as a disseminator of this incredible amount of knowledge I’ve been given.” She believes it is her responsibility to share the Master Teachers’ stories and techniques while continuing worldwide education efforts. In this last year alone, Kathy traveled to Prague, Columbia, Argentia, Western Europe and across the United States. One month Kathy will be educating the medical community in South America and the next month be found in Spain, working at Alcala University outside of Madrid with an innovative group of educators creating a degreed program in Pilates.
Here at home, Kathy continues to cultivate a small, quality-driven instruction program that emphasizes education over certification. She is famous for insisting that is it is more important to teach the work correctly rather than to hand out certifications. Because of her stress on the importance of fully cultivating the student, the training program includes a solid foundation of the original vast vocabulary of exercises, the history, the philosophy and the principles of Pilates. Once that base is established, Kathy then instructs how to approach those exercises to teach the body in front of the instructor. Kathy Corey’s believes that “One size does not fit all.” With this theory in mind, the West Coast approach is to make each exercise fit the needs of the client. Through learning the original work as taught to the Master Teachers and handed down to Kathy, West Coast instructors are empowered to use their intellect, knowledge, skill and ability.
It’s hard to believe that between the travel, workshops and certification programs, that Kathy has had time to create a new series of DVDs to add to her repertoire of books and videos. The new West Coast Pilates DVDs are for both consumers and instructors alike. With detailed instruction from Kathy throughout each workout, students are exposed to Spine Corrector Choreography and feature her pioneering CORE BAND©. With strong transitions that emphasize the importance of flowing movement, the DVDs leave the user with a feeling of connectedness in mind, body and spirit.
Keep a look out for Kathy at upcoming conferences and workshops. But you better be quick, this is one woman on the move!
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