If you’ve taken a Pilates mat class, you’ve probably met the Magic Circle. Depending on your instructor, this challenging prop can be a gift or a torture device! Its rubbery roundness pushing back against your shaking muscles. However, another magic circle happens in a Pilates class – and it only produces positive vibes. Sharing breath, movement, and the pain of a difficult ab series forms a unique bond rarely found outside of a studio class. Strangers slowly become friends united by the struggle of a challenging reformer class or the success of achieving a new movement.
This circle becomes even tighter in a teacher training class. Something happens when you are standing in the middle of a circle of women who are analyzing your “ natural misalignments.” One by one each teacher candidate lets you know about the high hip you didn’t know you had, the shoulder that won’t stay retracted, and the ribs that don’t seem to want to flex. I’m my own worst critic, so I’ve always struggled to receive critique from others. Being one of the oldest students, I initially felt another layer spreading around me to protect me from my imperfections.
Yet slowly, as the hours of training flew by, I realized that we were all in the same space – as if united by our flaws. I began to peel away the outer protective layers I’d spent years building. One by one, as the layers shed, they were replaced by an interlaced web of strength, support, and friendship. We laugh through our mishaps, cheer for each other’s successes, and lift each other literally and metaphorically. Wolfing down lunch to find time to study for our tests, our nervous laughter becomes joyful music that comforts us. Over time, this group of women I’d only just met become a sisterhood.
It’s a circle of magic I never want to leave.