PILATES ON THE MAT TRAINING 100H
FALL 2025 | STUDIO MILE END
MARWA AL MUBARAK
Movement has always been a part of my life. Like many young girls, I started with Gymnastics and ballet and as I got older these morphed into Yoga & Pilates as well as running, lifting and other physical forms of movement.
I first started teaching after trying my luck out in the corporate world, where I soon realized sitting was not for me! A shoulder impingement (from using the mouse) convinced me to leave it and try teaching movement. I did her first yoga TT in 2015 with All Yoga, an Ashtanga based training. A second in Ibiza in 2016 with an Ayurveda focus. Later that same year I did a comprehensive Pilates TT with Polestar Pilates, that has a more modern and dare I say therapeutic/adapted approach to the practice.
The latter highly influenced my approach to movement by encouraging me to see every body as unique in their response and expression of asanas and exercises.
Finally, during the pandemic, I discovered The Franklin Method, a unique approach to teaching movement which focuses on the use of words, cues, imagery and embodiment.
The combination of all those trainings have had a profound influence on my sequencing and style of teaching. My main goal from any class is to step away from rigidity, from ‘burning calories’ and to just bring pleasure back into movement. I believe movement classes should first and foremost be enjoyable and inspire people to challenge their bodies for the fun of it.
ARIANE PARADIS
When I was 5, my parents enrolled me in gymnastics to help develop my balance; it was the start of a long journey. Passionate about dance (Bac – UQÀM 2008), I had to work hard to understand my body and improve my mobility, flexibility and stability.
When I discovered pilates, I discovered an approach that put into words the subtlety of muscular engagement and alignment in movement. I completed a Mat Pilates training with Ann McMillan in 2009, and have been teaching this practice ever since. Over the past 15 years, my background in yoga (500h // 2014, 100h // 2017 + therapeutic yoga training 300h // 2022), somatic education (DESS 2015) and pilates (continuing education) has enabled me to refine my knowledge and understanding of the body in movement, as well as my reading of the practitioners.
I believe, the practice of pilates is essential to understanding our movement patterns and thus to improving them; to rediscover the engagement of stabilizing muscles to lighten the so-called energy-guzzling muscles, to rediscover optimal alignment to improve the quality of movement.