TCU Dance Students Turn Pilates Training into Professional Practice
For TCU School for Classical & Contemporary Dance (SCCD) students, Pilates can be more than a complement to their training. It can become a professional skill they carry well beyond the studio.
Through the Pilates Teacher Training Program, BFA Dance students complete extensive coursework and practical training that prepares them to teach Pilates professionally. This semester, senior teacher trainees are putting those skills into practice by leading a six-week Pilates series for students, faculty and staff through TCU Extended Education.
The open-level mat and equipment classes give the community access to Pilates while giving student instructors experience teaching practitioners with a wide range of movement backgrounds.
“Opening classes taught by the senior Pilates teacher trainees to the greater TCU community supports our students by letting them build their skills by teaching a wider range of practitioners,” said Laura Strawser, adjunct faculty member in SCCD. “The more teaching you do, with feedback from a trusted mentor and thoughtful self-reflection, the better your skills get.”
From Dancer to Instructor
The teacher training program builds on skills already central to a SCCD education.
BFA Dance students complete three to four semesters of Pilates along with functional
anatomy and teaching methods, learning to analyze alignment, movement patterns and
the structure of the human body.
Students interested in becoming instructors can apply to the program during their second year. Those selected complete four additional semesters of practicum coursework and 160 hours of workshop training during summer and winter intensives.
Before teaching participants from across campus, trainees gain experience assisting faculty in Pilates courses and leading peer practice sessions with fellow dancers.
“When teaching their peers from the BFA dance tracks, they are teaching a population that has a similar background in movement,” Strawser said. “Campus teaching allows teacher trainees to work with practitioners with a wider array of movement experience.”
Senior Reice Tibiletti has found that teaching non-dancers has challenged her to communicate Pilates in ways that connect movement to everyday life.
“I enjoy teaching non-dancers Pilates because it gives me the opportunity to really help the practitioner understand their body more and how certain exercises can benefit them in their daily lives,” Tibiletti said.
Senior Kinsey Ganson, Pilates teacher trainee, has found that working with the broader TCU community has also challenged her to communicate movement in new ways.
“Teaching TCU students, faculty and staff has been a great challenge because they do not have the same movement vocabulary that I have as a dancer,” Ganson said. “It has taught me how to express myself articulately in words and has led me to find new ways to break down and explain an exercise.”
Preparing for Professional Practice
For dancers, Pilates training can provide a professional skill that complements the
often-unpredictable nature of a performance career.
“Pilates is an adaptable profession in high demand that can be a stable pillar in my career when my artistic pursuits might be in flux,” Ganson said.
Tibiletti hopes eventually to take that training a step further by opening a dance and Pilates studio of her own.
“Working at a Pilates studio after college will keep me learning more about Pilates and growing my practice so I can give my future clients a better Pilates experience,” she said.
For Strawser, the campus series brings both sides of the program together: preparing students to become confident instructors while sharing the benefits of Pilates with the broader TCU community.
“We would love for everyone to gain confidence,” Strawser said. “For our student instructors, confidence in the Pilates work and confidence in their teaching. For our participants, we want to share our joy in the work.”
TCU students, faculty and staff can participate in open-level mat and equipment Pilates series taught by SCCD senior teacher trainees through TCU Extended Education.