Robyn Stuart
Pilates Instructor
BSc, PhD, BA(Dance) & MA(Collaborative Arts)
I have been teaching Pilates since 1994, before it became ‘in vogue’ in Australia and when there were still only a handful of Pilates studios. I broke my foot in my final year of a dance degree and began Pilates classes as I needed to maintain fitness while injured.
Pilates allowed me to do much much more – my dancing bloomed, my core strength increased, my body streamlined, my back pain was managed and so I became an instructor.
My teaching draws from a myriad of training I have received, from several different styles of Pilates, (e.g. west coast of America, Australian and British), dance, Yoga, other body awareness techniques, and even science. In some strange twist of fate rebelling against my artistic parents, my early twenties involved becoming a scientist researching kangaroos.
I love moving whether dancing, doing Pilates, cycling, or Yoga etc. Through movement, I find my direction in life and the way to achieve this direction opens up. I like to teach Pilates as a body meditation, which gives to the body and the spirit simultaneously, but need not be too seriously slow, as fun and smiling are allowed.
Robyn Stuart was trained in Pilates in Australia in both traditional and contemporary styles. She has taught both studio work and mat classes since 1994 and co-ran a successful Pilates-based studio in Sydney. She now works in London teaching both mat classes and one to one tuition, as well as continuing a successful dance career.
Amongst the various studios and gyms she has taught at in London, are the best selling author Lesley Ackland’s Body Maintenance studio in the Pineapple, as well as the Urdang Academy for dancers in Covent Garden. Robyn teaches both remedial and advanced Pilates and draws on her extensive training BA(Dance), BSc. (Hons 1st) Ph.D. and body awareness techniques in order to design classes around the individuals’ needs. She has just completed an MA (Collaborative Arts) in dance with her partner Brian Curson at University College Chichester.
She still dances and co-directs a dance company al’Ka-mie Intermedia Theatre (www.alkamie.co.uk for the dance and www.bemore.co.uk for the Pilates).
Finding and developing core strength is one of the most acknowledged of Pilates principles, but for Robyn of all the Pilates’ principles breath for her is the most vital and often least acknowledged in currently taught Pilates.
Eastern exercise forms recognise that the use of breath can rebalance the body by either energising or calming it. Also co-ordinating breath with exercises enhances the core strength of the body and flexibility.
Robyn guides students toward appropriate use of the breath in each exercise and allows each individual to find their own pace at which to execute an exercise. Connecting the mind and body through precise and aware movement is another of Pilates’ well-acknowledged principles, but Pilates also emphasised finding a greater level of co-ordination through challenging patterns of movement.
Robyn encourages her students to develop greater grace and body awareness by giving them increasingly complex patterns of movement as they become more adept.
Robyn works at the Living Elements Clinic on a Tuesday evening. Currently there is a 5.30pm Beginners Class and two Improvers classes at 6.30pm and 7.35pm where more experience and strength is needed.
If you wish to join any of the classes or come for one FREE introductory class call the Clinic NOW to check if there is available space. (01243) 641665
Treatments: Pilates Classes
