How teaching Pilates helps a former Macau showgirl stay in shape
Pilates instructor Corinne Clifford moves around the room assisting students in a private class. With one she corrects inward-turning toes, the other she tells to slow down the movement. She places her hand under my spine – too much space, she says, I need to use my abdominal muscles to push my body flat onto the mat.
With BASI (Body Arts Science International) Pilates, Clifford is continuing an exercise format created by a German boxer and circus performer who was placed in an internment camp in England during the first world war.
To stay fit he devised a set of exercises for himself and fellow detainees, with breathing techniques and an emphasis on the conditioning and muscle strength of the whole body. He would later go to New York, where he opened a studio and continued to study anatomy and fitness, and shared his knowledge and passion for a fitness programme that is going strong a century later.
This morning, I give a silent salute to Joseph Pilates as, with arms outstretched behind me I roll my body up to a sitting position, the aptly named Roll-Up.
From Essex in southeast England, Clifford is a former ballet dancer and ex-Macau showgirl, who performed for seven years until 2008 at the Hotel Lisboa in The Crazy Paris Show, which still runs today and is based on the legendary cabaret Crazy Horse Paris. Photographs show Clifford in glittering headgear, feather boas and French-style Can Can outfits.
“You’d have a nine-month contract, seven days a week, performing every night, with a matinee in the afternoon,” she says.
Great entertainment, but it put considerable pressure on the spine and joints. “I loved it but retired at the age of 32,” says Clifford, whose dancing took her on contracts around the world. She had been a ballet dancer since the age of seven, she was sports captain at school, loved the gym, and when not at school would be riding her BMX bike. Sport and dance had been integral parts of her life and, in 2008, aged 32, she found herself at a crossroads.
“I wanted to keep my body condition, I wanted to keep fit,” she says. “That’s why I became an instructor because then I could use all my knowledge from being a dancer and put it into instructing my Pilates classes, because classical ballet and Pilates are both very technical.”
Clifford first started doing Pilates at the age of 16 alongside her ballet at the then South East Theatre School in Hadleigh in Essex. In 2008, she qualified as an instructor, with an additional qualification for prenatal classes.
“Prenatal Pilates is mainly safety as any class is, but obviously with a pregnant woman you want them to be safe,” she says.
Clifford, who recently set up her own business, Tohi Pilates, for group and private classes, enjoys helping people overcome injuries and would like to work more with athletes.
“Many fitness athletes, golfers, football and basketball players do Pilates because it’s conditioning for the entire body. It strengthens muscles and increases your flexibility and mobility. It’s keeping the maintenance of your body at any age, whether you are a teenager or 70 years old. My oldest client is a 72-year-old man.”
Clifford makes a golfing swing motion. “If you’re a golfer, you’re doing this movement all the time – so if you have tight muscles in their back, it could be a problem. Athletes such as cricketers or tennis players are using their bodies in a constant movement, so they’ve got to move it the other way to avoid injuries.”
She is also keen for more men to do Pilates, which she says is commonly perceived as a women’s exercise, despite being set up by a man.
“I would enjoy doing an allmale class, it would be a new challenge for me,” she says.
For those setting out, Clifford would suggest eight to 10 beginner classes with the recommendation of seeking medical advice for any pre-existing injuries. Then, she says, build to at least two classes per week to see the improvements start to happen.
She says a simple 10 minutes in the morning can prevent some common injuries.
“It’s important that Pilates does not just become about that weekly class, but about your everyday life,” she says.
I would enjoy doing an all-male class, it would be a new challenge for me
CORINNE CLIFFORD, PILATES INSTRUCTOR