The Story Behind Curated Pilates + Movement

Hi, I am Kaarin, the owner of Curated Pilates + Movement. I want to take a moment to introduce myself and tell you a bit about why Pilates is so important to me and how my journey led me to opening my own studio.

I have had a lifelong love of movement. Originally falling in love with Ballet as a little girl, I was first exposed to Pilates alongside my dance training. Early in my professional career I injured my left foot and couldn’t do anything weight bearing for several months. Along with physical therapy I sought out a Pilates studio to help me stay in shape. What happened was that Pilates helped me get in shape in a way I hadn’t even realized was possible. As a young ballet dancer I thought I knew how to use my abs, but Pilates exposed me to how to train my core in a much more effective, challenging, and useful way. I ended up coming back from that injury stronger than I started and was able to continue dancing. I didn’t realize until years later how pivotal that moment was in my life. 

As I continued training and dancing, Pilates kept reappearing. Both as an exercise practice I took with me to cross train as I moved around for dance contracts, but also as a source of information about how the body moves that I did not get from my classical ballet training. The more I learned about Pilates the more intrigued I was by it. The thing that held me back from pursuing certification was my fear of teaching. While I was comfortable dancing on a stage getting up to speak in front of people was my nightmare. So, I assumed I would not make a good teacher. 

After exploring other movement and body awareness techniques while finishing my degree at NYU, I finally decided to give teacher training a try. From the first day of anatomy, I was hooked. Pilates satisfied the ballet dancer in me who takes joy out of perfecting movement, but it also satisfied my analytic and research loving brain. While at university my focus was in history, specifically the intersection of dance and the state. What I loved about my time delving into research I was able to find in Pilates by looking at the body in detail and finding how that information translated into helping the bodies in front of me. Looking at the placement of bones in the body, affecting how the muscles work and therefore affecting and being affected by our movement means that Pilates provides endless ways to learn.

I chose Pilates Academy International as the school to begin my teacher training journey because of their commitment to looking for the “why” behind every exercise and always putting the body in front of the teacher first. In 2017 life brought my husband, Andrey, and I up to Vermont. I was lucky enough to find work teaching at Essential Physical Therapy & Pilates in Montpelier. Teaching Pilates in a physical therapy practice forced me to look very carefully at the exercises I chose and get very clear on why I was using them. I had the opportunity to work with clients while they were still in rehab or shortly after, which highlighted the method’s versatility and use in healing the body. I learned to program safely for osteoporosis and how to adapt Pilates to many different conditions. My time at Essential Physical Therapy & Pilates reinforced the lessons I learned at Pilates Academy International  and led me to create my teaching philosophy. 

It is my mission to always bring the method to serve the person in front of me so that I can help them develop a relationship with and awareness of their own body. They can then use the Pilates method to build strength, stability, and mobility that allows them to pursue the things that they most enjoy in life. It is this belief that Pilates can help people live fuller, stronger, and more comfortable lives in their bodies that led me to open Curated Pilates + Movement here in Stowe. In Stowe I see a community of people who love to move and want the freedom to use their bodies for the athletic and leisure pursuits they enjoy. 

As a Pilates teacher I see myself as a partner with my clients. Pilates has more of a learning curve than some exercise methods, but the benefits are worth the effort. Taking the time to build awareness in the body, learn to breathe in the movement, and focus on creating stability from the center out, gives one the opportunity to be an active participant in improving their own body. That is a skill that can be taken into your daily life or other activities you enjoy. Watching my clients gain this knowledge brings me so much joy and it is why I continue to believe in the method and work to build our community here at Curated Pilates + Movement.