What's it look like?

2008-06-25T16:18:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of the studio. I thought it might be nice for you to see what the place looks like.

Most of the time, when I displace from my usual environs to have an intense experience of some sort in someone else's world, the way the place looks to me upon arrival compared with how it looks to me upon departure are vastly different.

I wonder if that happens for everyone? I'll be sure to find out.

This is a chair I bought for $11 out of a barn in Central Oregon. It had horse hair stuffing! I have a tendency to paint dots on almost everything and I pretty much covered this chair in dots and wending tendrils. It's a special chair for a whole bunch of reasons, but especially because when you sit in it, you feel royal, special, a little brighter, more dotty. Try it! You'll see what I mean. And, that's a 7-11 smock hanging nearby. Whenever Heidi and I get bored, we put it on and greet our clients with "do you want nachos or a 64 ounce coke with that?"

We have a couple of nuns in the studio (after all, I am the Pilates Nun! PilatesNun.com) and this boxing nun has been known to make appearances in mat class, punching her hollow gloves into non-scooped bellies. The Frank Sinatra doll came to us sans pants, he's wearing some Ken pants, which, now that I think of it, would insense Frank. The coolest thing about Frank is, well, there are two really cool things about Frank. First, he's loving wearing that hat! Who knew? And secondly, he's wearing a mafiosi pinkie ring. You can't see it in this picture, but sure enough, it's there. THAT'S detail! Way to go, Mattel!

This is the technology hub of my studio, this is where Open Studio Week teachers can get online, handle their business and post to this blog.

Okay, who remembers these? We affectionately call this the "pleasure beater" and, in spite of causing a brown out in Tacoma when we flip the switch to "on," this sucker will beat out your ITs, your deep six rotators and any other pocket of stress you happen to be harboring. A true piece of vintage fitness equipment, this is from the 1950s when exercise equipment had to conform to one important ideal: women needed to be able to smoke and drink while using it. All true for the PB, all true.

Wundas x 3.

Dots. Everywhere dots.

My decorating style has been described as Wild West Bordello with an accent of Whore House Red. Oh well, Martha's safe for now. When it comes to such things, I have no style and hardly any taste.

Reformer Row.

Caddies.

The whole world spins right outside our windows. That's the iconic topper on the building that houses the Seattle Post Intelligencer, one of Seattle's two daily newspapers. My idea for starting http://www.worldwidepilatesmat.com/ came late one night as I was wondering how I could better serve Joe's mission and share his work, all the while staring at the PI's spinning globe.

Saturday morning mat.

Always on. I love Joe.

Open Studio Week Approaches!

2008-06-17T08:57:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe it's only 6 weeks away (July 28 - August 2) and I know the time will fly between now and then but I'm so excited about hosting a training in my own studio that I wish it were all starting tomorrow - it can't happen soon enough, as far as I'm concerned!

And what a great group we're assembling; in response to my first email blast announcing it, we've got teachers coming from England, Italy, Switzerland and, of course, from the US. Another round of emails will go out this week and now that we're within that magic 6 week timeframe when most folks get serious about deciding whether or not to make it happen, I know even more will come, especially with US airfares so low.

During the training, attendees will have access to post on this blog so you can visit, read all about it, see the pictures we'll post and we'll do our best to give you a true and full feeling of what we're all experiencing.

If you're thinking of coming and need free housing, please get on it because that's the thing I think we're going to run out of first. I'm trying to convince my landlord that having a bunch of Pilates teachers camped out overnight on the big tumbling mats we have in our mat area is a perfectly reasonable violation of my lease. If I'm successful - and I think I will be - we'll have oodles of room to offer the more adventurous, outdoorsy, love-to-camp type.

The studio proper is spacious and we have lots of equipment so I'm not worried we'll sell out the training; if you're not in need of a place to stay you can always decide to come at the last minute and we'll most assuredly have room for you.

So, thanks for stopping by, I hope you'll visit again, and should this prove an interesting way of sharing experiences, I'll continue it through the various other workshops I teach.

And as always, I ask that you please guide me so that I can work to meet your needs . . . without you there is no me!

Rebecca Leone

What's it look like?

Open Studio Week Approaches!