Most of us spend a lot of time in our own little corner of the Pilates world.
We teach in the same studios. Work alongside the same instructors. Learn within the traditions and training programs that shaped us. We find the cues that work, build class plans our clients respond to, and settle into our own rhythm as teachers.
And that’s not a bad thing. Finding your voice as an instructor is part of becoming a good one.
But every once in a while, I think it’s important to get out of your own Pilates bubble.
That’s one of the reasons I’m excited for the Pilates Method Alliance’s 25th Anniversary Summit this October. And, full disclosure, I say that as both a Pilates instructor and studio owner and a member of the PMA Board of Directors.
Get Outside Your Pilates Bubble
Pilates is simultaneously a very connected and very fragmented profession.
We share a method and a history, but we come to it through different schools, lineages, certifications, countries, disciplines and philosophies. Even two instructors teaching the same exercise can approach it with completely different language, intentions and ideas about what matters most.
That’s one of my favorite things about this work.
It’s also why learning only from people who teach like we do can eventually become limiting.
A conference creates an opportunity to intentionally expose yourself to different perspectives. Maybe you hear a cue that completely changes how you understand an exercise you’ve taught hundreds of times. Maybe someone challenges an assumption you’ve carried since teacher training. Maybe you discover research that makes you rethink how you approach a particular client.
You don’t have to agree with every idea you encounter.
In fact, I don’t think you should.
Part of becoming a more thoughtful teacher is learning to listen, ask better questions, evaluate new information and decide what belongs in your own practice.
Teaching movement all day can do something funny to our own relationship with movement.
Be the Student Again
We’re watching bodies. Cueing bodies. Programming sessions. Adjusting springs. Remembering injuries. Managing the room. Thinking three exercises ahead.
Even when we’re moving, we’re often still thinking like the teacher.
There is something incredibly valuable about occasionally getting to be the student again.
Professional education gives us permission to become curious without needing to have the answer. To experience movement instead of immediately figuring out how we’re going to teach it. To ask questions. To try something unfamiliar. To remember what it feels like to learn.
And that curiosity matters.
Pilates has a rich history worth understanding and preserving, but it is also practiced in a world where our understanding of movement, neuroscience, biomechanics, rehabilitation and human behavior continues to develop.
Being a good teacher doesn’t mean abandoning what you know every time a new idea appears.
It means staying curious enough to keep learning.
Bring Something Home That Changes Monday
Of course, professional development should eventually make its way back to the people we teach.
As a studio owner and instructor, this is one of the ways I evaluate education: What am I going to do differently because I learned this?
Sometimes the answer is big.
Usually, it’s surprisingly small.
A new way to explain something to a client who hasn’t been connecting with my usual cue. A modification I hadn’t considered. A better understanding of why someone might be struggling with a movement. A sequencing idea. A question I realize I should be asking.
Those small changes accumulate.
And sometimes the most valuable takeaway from a conference isn’t even something that happened during a session. It’s the conversation afterward with another instructor who says, “I have a client like that too. Here’s what I’ve tried.”
Which brings me to what I think may be the biggest reason to attend.
Meet the People Who Understand This Work
“Networking” can sound painfully transactional and corporate.
I prefer to think about it as finding your people.
The people who understand what it’s like when your entire class cancels at the last minute. The studio owner who has already wrestled with the business problem keeping you awake at night. The instructor who is experimenting with the same programming idea you are. The educator whose work you’ve followed online but have never had the opportunity to speak with.
Some of the most useful professional conversations happen between sessions, over coffee, at an evening event, while looking at equipment, or sitting next to someone you didn’t know that morning.
Sponsors and industry partners are part of that ecosystem too. Companies like Balanced Body don’t exist separately from the Pilates community – they develop equipment, education and resources in conversation with the professionals actually using them.
Having those educators, instructors, studio owners and industry partners together in one place creates opportunities for conversations that simply don’t happen the same way through a screen.
You may leave with a new mentor, collaborator, educator, friend – or just the reassuring realization that other Pilates professionals are figuring some of this out as they go, too.
Participate in the Profession, Not Just Your Studio
This year also feels particularly meaningful because the Pilates Method Alliance is celebrating its 25th anniversary.
Twenty-five years gives us an opportunity to look backward, certainly. But I’m also excited to see what we can look forward to growing together in the next twenty-five.
Pilates has grown enormously.
More people know the word “Pilates.” More studios are opening. More instructors are entering the profession. New equipment, research, education models and ways of teaching continue to emerge.
Growth brings opportunity, but it also brings questions.
What does excellent Pilates education look like?
How do we support teachers throughout their careers?
How do we make this work accessible while maintaining meaningful professional standards?
How do we respect the history of the method while allowing thoughtful evolution?
What kind of profession do we want Pilates to be?
Those questions shouldn’t belong only to certifying organizations, large companies, educators or boards.
They belong to all of us.
And that’s ultimately why I think gathering matters.
Come Be Part of the Conversation
You can learn a tremendous amount online. I do.
But there is something different about being in the room.
About moving next to someone whose training looks completely different from yours. Asking an educator a question in real time. Meeting the person behind the Instagram account you’ve followed for years. Talking shop with another studio owner. Seeing a piece of equipment in person. Sitting down over coffee and discovering that someone halfway across the country – or halfway across the world – is thinking about the exact same question you are.
Those moments make our individual Pilates worlds a little bigger.
The PMA 25th Anniversary Summit takes place October 17–18, 2026, at Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Balanced Body is helping support this year’s gathering as a sponsor, and I’m grateful to see organizations across our profession invest in creating spaces where Pilates professionals can learn from – and, just as importantly, learn with – one another.
I’ll be there wearing several hats: instructor, studio owner, PMA board member, perpetual student, and probably the person asking someone what they meant by a cue I overheard fifteen minutes earlier.
If you’re there too, come find me.
I’d love to learn something from you too!
All ideas and assertions expressed in The CORE are those of the individual contributors, offered to spark conversation, enrich understanding/inspire growth and share diverse perspectives within our community. They may not necessarily reflect the views of Balanced Body®.
Alicia Border
With an extensive background in dance, Alicia rediscovered her love for movement through Pilates while searching for an exercise routine that offered a bit more than yoga, but less than hard-core strength training. After just one class, she was captivated by Pilates and knew it was the path forward.
What she loves most about Pilates is its accessibility to all bodies. Having started her own journey in a larger body, she knows firsthand how Pilates can provide an inclusive and adaptable approach to exercise. Pilates meets people where they are, offering modifications that make movement possible regardless of fitness level. Her mission is to help others discover that same love for movement—grounding into their bodies and embracing the transformative power of Pilates.
