Walked into the studio as the mat class was ending with Frontal Support and heard her comments admonishing the group of the importance of matwork and its “feed” to  the mind and body for everything else in the Pilates system.

I was guilty.  I admit it I haven’t done a mat class in years.  I teach it and I use mat exercises and concepts in all my apparatus work, but I am not the best fan of matwork.  Probably because it actually requires more work. Some days I roll up with ease and grace, some days,  I just get plain lazy and use the damn strap.  I know I would have been the sloppy one in the corner.

However, walking into the room, she had everyone in complete control, in synch and uniformly executing the work. I met Sonje’ three years ago when I drove to Stamford, CT in a snow storm for a two-day workshop on Pilates and Scoliosis just to meet and experience her.

She blew me away then and continued to do so with the Wunda Chair yesterday.  Sonje’ taught with the use of the pedal and used a pillow/plug (for the lumbar curve, where necessary), for the Hundred, to roll like a ball and roll up into a Teaser.  An engaged backline (with the use of the pedal) and an abdominal scoop supported by the plug was hugely more satisfying.

Nothing she asked of the group was fast or jumpy. Every movement was held for a minimum slow count of 3; non-conventional combos were the challenge and the only music in her voice was for “Frogs Facing Front (Back) Hands On Pedal” or as she learned it, “Piano on the Pedal.”

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I love the chair. Always have.  Sonje’ told us that Joseph Pilates named it the “Wunder Stuhl” and that she doesn’t know how that “a” got there!  The chair was initially used as part of the C-section of the workout for individual need focus.   Full sessions on it are hard core and probably why I have always been so enamored by using it.

Surprised myself jumping onto it from the back to prepare for #ClimbingDownTheMountain and needed that deeper c-scoop to pump the pedal but lost the power of my knee halfway thru.  I will come back to it.

I was made aware of her nuanced corrections the next morning when my lats screamed at me for using them so intensely with the #PullUpSide and #Twist.

“Very few of our clients/students….be they male or female….. are dancers,” Sonje told the group, being a former dancer and one of few that trained with Joseph Pilates, so she basically ditched the ballet turnout, coupe’ ankles, and the “leg attitude,” as many of the ballet-infusions from Romana.  Instead, she cued more C-scoop, hugging the midline, and stand in parallel,  like “normal people.”

 

Small  –  Controlled  – Gradual Movements

 

 

The other joy to this workshop was  the fact that many of us were able to reconnect LIVE and in sweaty, fully-present and fully-vaccinated living-color.  For most of us, this is a first since the Spring of 2020.  Erica Almodovar, and her team in Mahwah, NJ, hosted and warmly welcomed the small group of us.

 

 

 

 

The unanimous consensus was, every minute spent with #PilatesElder #SonjeMayo is an invaluable gift.

We all know this work, and yet with her subtle, sweet nuances, deep focus on precise, smaller  movements and adjustments, we were all instantly reminded and immensely grateful for the gift of being a student and practitioner with her eyes and words guiding us.

Do yourself a favor, if given the chance or opportunity to deepen your practice and work with #SonjeMayo, take it.  Do not pause,  hesitate or hold back.