In September of 2006, Jennifer Daly brought Gyrotonic to Manhattan’s Madison Square Park neighborhood when she opened her studio, Kinespirit. Not long after, she invited her friend and former colleague Chantal Deeble, a master Gyrotonic trainer and Pilates instructor, to bring Pilates to the business. The relationship has developed into such a strong partnership that Deeble became co-owner of the studio in September of this year.

The key to combining Pilates and Gyrotonic in one space, according to Deeble, is to keep both practices distinct. “I love when a client comes in and doesn’t know much about either practice,” Deeble says. “I give them as unbiased a synopsis as I can of the two and let the client, from an intuitive level, decide what they’d prefer to start with.” Once the client has a solid foundation in one practice, Deeble will introduce him to the other if he expresses an interest, but she never combines the two. “They experience them as two completely unique and separate modalities that complement each other and their lifestyles,” she says.

With clients who already know either Gyrotonic or Pilates, Deeble’s dual-knowledge is an asset. “I know their language, and that’s a great big benefit right there,” she notes. “I know the things that they’re going to think—it’s human nature when you’re learning something new to reference what you already know. I know what they’re going to say inside their body, even if they’re not saying it out loud. And although there are definite similarities, there are also differences.” Because Deeble is intimately familiar with both practices, she can guide the client properly so he learns the movements within a new frame of reference.

Knowing both modalities can be a challenge, too, because many instructors are tempted to fuse the two. Deeble insists that this does a disservice to both practices. “The reason is they’re both so fulfilled, and within every session, each modality has a specific arc, a journey that happens within that hour, and they don’t quite come together,” she explains. “The arc gets diluted. But separately they’re fantastic.”

For Pilates teachers considering becoming certified in Gyrotonic, Deeble has this advice: “Remember back to when you were learning to teach Pilates. The thing that gives you the most information as a teacher is practicing yourself. Get yourself into a session, start doing it, and if you like it, do it for a while and let it resonate in your body first, then dive headfirst into the process with a real curiosity and be open to becoming a student again.”

Starting a Gyrotonic business can be easier for an already-established Pilates instructor than for a newbie, Deeble points out. “If you’re fulfilled in it, your students know it. You have a built-in client base, and now you have a whole other process that you can do with them that’s fulfilling to both of you.”

Don’t think your clients will feel they need to choose one over the other, either. “I have one client who does one Gyrotonic and one Pilates session a week,” Deeble says. She described it with this dance metaphor: ‘Pilates is the barre, Gyrotonic is the center.” She’d never consider having to choose between the two.”

Back to the Kinespirit in The News Page