Blossom announced it was KSG week and shared memories, exercises, videos and virtual sessions all week in honor of her teacher/mentor, Kathy Stanford Grant. I booked two early afternoon sessions, on Monday and Wednesday with her; Chris Robinson was already booked on my calendar for Friday on the Reformer. The shit hit the fan on Wednesday.
It may have been Reiner Grootenhuis book about Carola Trier, it may have been KSG and BLC, it may have been my shoulder telling me it needed a ‘body whisperer’ but I woke up at 4am and wrote a note to book a private session with Deborah Lessen. She asked what I wanted to work on, I said “I want to simply be led by you. Your voice and spirit are the draw. Period.”
Then the shit hit the fan Wednesday afternoon with George’s death and the protests began. Covid-19 pandemic stress would not be enough of a deterrent to hold back the reaction and response to decades of violence and racist oppression.
Blossom Honors Kathy S. Grant
Truthfully I didn’t look at who else was in either class — her classes are usually fill up quickly — but at this writing, I am now wondering how many other black or brown women or men took advantage of the week celebration of this extraordinary teachers work – that of both Kathy S. Grant and Blossom, as her mentee, and one of the current-day voices.
Kathy’s heritage as a dancer, teacher and Pilates Elder is well documented. Read about her here, here, here and here. Yet it’s the events of the rest of the week and the fact that Kathy’s living, teaching and experience in our country back in the day — is the still the same today and gave me pause to reflect.
I always cringe when I hear that Kathy was relegated to a separate room – in the back – while teaching in Joseph Pilates studio. Silence and avoidance of the racial issues of the time permitted and necessitated that was case. I still cringe nonetheless.
Blossom said, in “Voices of Classical Pilates,” a collection of essays from twenty-eight accomplished 2nd generation Classical Pilates teachers about their lives and work:
“Kathy was a woman unto herself. Each person brings his own point of view and life experiences to Pilates. Kathy’s life experience of the work came from a place of rehabilitation. She had had two knee surgeries in one year with no rehab, and when she chose to go back to dancing, she was in ridiculous amounts of pain. So when Kathy went to study with Mr. Pilates, she didn’t do the Hundred. Her approach to the Pilates work was different, and I think that really shaped her teaching.
She was very independent: she was a black woman going to Mr. Pilates in the 1960s.”
Her work is different. She made you sing, count and breathe with percussive sounds while moving. She added more rhythm and nuance to every movement and Blossom works hard to hold fast to these aspects of Kathy’s work and carefully imparts Kathy’s intention when she teaches. Why aren’t more teachers of color taking advantage of this virtually?
Symbols & Memories of a Past Still Here
This old artifact of an iron happens to be from India. I purchased it as a symbolic memory of my great-grandmother and the millions of women of color that used irons with hot coals inside of them to press white linens for families other than their own. It sits in my home studio space on an equally ancient 100-year old wooden ironing board. Both are symbols. They are memory markers. You see, it was in the 1960s that I remember being in the back seat of my parents car, as a kid under 10 years old, riding from NJ to VA to visit my grandmother. There was always a shoebox in the back of the car, with fried chicken wrapped in tin foil for us to eat. It was a necessary “security blanket” for the family. It eliminated the stops on the road along the way down south. That shoebox was the silent way my parents and grandparents used to avoid racial oppression on the road.
Minneapolis blew up on Wednesday and the rest of the country followed up reeling and crying in horror and protest. I reached out to every black male I know to just check in on their psyche. The pain for most would not allow for words.
Doing Pilates and posting about Pilates felt so ridiculous at this point in the week. While it is a safety net I allow myself to fall into, it is such a privileged place to hide. It hurts to say that. But it is truthful.
Thursday came and after teaching my own morning students, I had a session with Brett and Chachi. I ddin’t film anything. We simply helped each other work thru angst that reading the news brings about. We could see it in the energy and faces of each other at the start of the session.
Chris Robinson & George Floyd
Friday was a very fast paced session with Chris Robinson on the Reformer. Truthfully as the hours went by and the week wore on me, I considered leaving the class fee as a donation 
to him. Ironically it was the same denomination that caused George’s brutal death.
I love Chris, his powerful energy and am grateful to be in the mix with him, but I wished the pace of the session was slower. I needed it to be much slower. For at 4pm on any day – but especially this particular Friday – I had very little juice left to keep up with this young whipper-snapper. #justsayin Chris 😔
We were all muted and I skipped my usual hated moves (Breaststroke, Rocking) and watched his Headstand Prep; did Snake & Twist with the bar down, he did it with the bar up. Messed up the Tendon Stretch sequence badly, got two Grasshoppers and enjoyed Russian Splits as well as the Big Split. I rallied but I pushed myself. Chris is an athlete and he teaches with a fierce and powerful presence that demands you know you stuff.
The class was filled with women and again, no other faces of color. A point of fact I have become sadly used to, as I am sure, has he. So, I observe, share here and encourage much more participation with much more of all of us and every one the #2ndGenerationMasters. Each is imparting, in the most intimate and illustrious ways, the diamonds and gold gems that were given to them. In my opinion, this is the time to be an active taker, participant and learner.
Silence in your practice and work is not what we need right now.
“Many people see this logo and think it’s a cop, but it’s really a black man. This logo by Chuck D represents the target on black folks backs. If you saw the logo differently, think differently: This country was built on the backs of our ancestors backs that had a target the entire time and this month is no different with more black lives caught in the crosshairs. Too many look at us as public enemies, only some see us as humans, and yet we need to be superhuman just to survive. We must strategize, organize, and train ourselves as we demand more.
One arrest isn’t enough. This is just the beginning. ”
