Pilates Heritage Congress 2022 (English version)
In normal times, the Pilates Heritage Congress takes place every two years in May. Unfortunately due to Corona the 2021 Congress needed to be cancelled and we made do with a small virtual event at Joseph Pilates' birthplace. At the beginning of the year, the Corona situation was still unpredictable and so the Congress was moved to September. Until a few weeks before the congress, it was unsure whether the current rules would allow an event of this size and travel from many countries.
But we were very lucky and so the Pilates world met from September 2 to 4, 2022 at Haus Erholung in Mönchengladbach.
Participants from 36 Countries
Due to Corona the number of participants had to be halved in order not to take any risks. Despite the lower number of participants, the congress was again incredibly international, with Pilates enthusiasts from 36 countries.
Group picture of all attendees of the Pilates Heritage Congress 2022
Also present this year the congress founder and a student of Carola Trier and Joseph Pilates, 88-year-old Lolita San Miguel.
Lolita San Miguel in front of the Joseph Pilates plaque at his birhthouse Waldhausener Str. 20, Moenchengladbach
Top organized thanks to Kathy Corey
For several years now, the organization of the congress has been in the hands of Kathy Corey. Even already 75 years old, she is an unbelievable bundle of energy and has again planned the congress down to the last detail and ensured that it runs smoothly.
When Kathy Corey was not organizing she also taught on all three days. Simply unbelievable!
Lolita San Miguel in the center and Jean-Claude Nelson on the left and Brett Howard on the right.
This time, in addition to Lolita San Miguel and Kathy Corey, Jean-Claude Nelson from bluebird Pilates in Munich and Brett Howard from New York taught.
Bon Pilates again the Equipment Sponsor
Having enough large Pilates equipment available at a convention is no easy task, nor is it inexpensive. Anyone who has ever tried to get several reformers for a workshop knows that the prices called for rental and transportation make one pale. We are therefore all the more grateful that Bon Pilates has been equipping the conference for many years.
On site in Mönchengladbach and always on duty, David Botella the CEO of Bon Pilates and Laura Niguez, responsible for sales and marketing.
Big surprise at the beginning
With all the good preparation there is always something that goes wrong and this time it was a misunderstanding with our congress sponsor, Bon Pilates. He had left his set-up team at home in Spain, assuming that the venue staff would do the unpacking and set-up. In the end, it was a small group that managed it together. It's great to see the strength of Pilates women and men. And yes, in the one picture I disappear into the box.
Bon Pilates equipment is definitely well thought out and sets up very quickly.
Also a big thank you to the staff of the Haus Erholung venue who have done a super job not only at this moment.
Insight into the many workshops at the Pilates Heritage Congress
To get a feeling of the many, many workshops, here are some impressions of the workshops.you can see the atmosphere was just great.
The pilates-powers trainer team was also present
The pilates-powers team with Ralf Bornat, Petra Krauß, Tina Brunke, Reiner Grootenhuis, Gianfranco Brogna, Gudrun Hornig-Hermann and Kathy Corey and Lolita San Miguel in the front.
Also pilates-powers was again strongly represented. (We'll just add Tina to the list, even though she has her own studio in Essen. But first of all she does the equipment training with us and on our video platform we also have many great videos with her).
In any case, our team was super active, whether as participants or also behind and in front of the scenes in various roles.
Gianfranco Brogna showing most of the houses the Pilates family lived in.
For example, Gianfranco - as a resident of Mönchengladbach - briefly guided all interested participants of the congress to many houses where Joseph Pilates had lived.
While some of them were helping to keep the congress going, Tina and Ralf were busy training, for example under the watchful eye of Brett Howard. He did not find much to criticize. Which is just great and shows how trained the two are.
The Pilates V-bed to try out
I have already written about the V-bed here. Link
At the Pilates Heritage Congress I also had it with me. Many thanks to Nagi Takahashi and Murielle Pickard-Dellis, who both stayed at the pilates-powers studio during the conference, and who helped me to transport the bed to Mönchengladbach.
There Gianfranco and I took turns presenting it during the lunch break. It quickly became a popular meeting place and Pilates greats like Kathy Corey, Lolita San Miguel, Brett Howard, Ken Endelman (the founder of Balanced Body), Nagi Takahashi, Katya Smirnova and many others tried it out. Many of them were skeptical at the beginning and then completely enthusiastic afterwards. Lolita in particular had tried a further development of the V-bed, the Bednasium, with Joseph Pilates, but had no good memories of it. However, she was thrilled with the V-bed we brought along and immediately took a little nap in it.
Pilates ceremony at Pilates birthplace
No Pilates Heritage Congress without a meeting at Joseph Pilates birthplace. This year again accompanied by the mayor of Mönchengladbach.
And of course there were again opening and closing ceremonies, Wine & Cheese Reception, Gala Dinner, a party and an early birthday celebration and, and ...
Thanks to the work of the World Pilates Confederation, lead by Kathy Corey and her Vice-President Iman Mottaghian Nejad, Pilates was recognized as a popular sport by Tafisa. And so, for the first time, the world's largest popular sport organization Tafisa also reported on the congress: http://tafisa.org/news/PilatesHeritageCongress2022
From right to left: Brett Howard, Kathy Corey, Suus Wilms-Janssen, Nagi Takahashi, Claudia Linden, Murielle Pickard-Dellis, Reiner Grootenhuis and Fabrice Lamego.
Also present were my wonderful colleagues from the mentor group: Suus Wilms-Janssen, Nagi Takahashi, Claudia Linden,Murielle Pickard-Dellis and Fabrice Lamego. By the way, since this congress also freshly appointed members of the Board of the Heritage Congress. And Claudia Linden, founder of the Congress with Lolita San Miguel, was appointed Vice President by Kathy Corey. Congratulations to all of them.
Videos with all classes available online
For the first time this year, the Pilates Heritage Congress was also live streamed. The great advantage is that you can watch the 25 workshops, typically 2 to 3 hours long per workshop, after paying a fee. Thanks to great cameramen of the company Filmwiesel everything in professional quality and with super sound.
It was another great congress and I am already very much looking forward to the next one in May 2024.