TLDR--I have taken great classes and am sure this is a great spot for some people, but I would not recommend it to my poc friends.
I relocated here from another city, where I took lessons in classic pilates, and was originally suspicious of the painfully curated Instagram aesthetic of this place that makes it feel more like late capitalism hot girl scam than actual serious pilates (which would more successfully turn you into the scam lol), but had a really wonderful time in a series of group classes this past summer with an instructor whom I believe only works there over the summer.
With that being said, after a while of life just being busy / getting in the way, I wanted to restart with classes here. . .and oh boy was that a learning experience.
This studio offers 0 flexibility and grace for life stuff that happens --such as missing a class (which happened once, that I just sucked up) or arriving more than 5 minutes late ( I was 10-15 min late), which happened today and I am like :o wtf at.
The front desk was polite and apologetic--I understand they just have to follow the rules. The studio's overall mode of reasoning and their delivery is-white woman. If you are a poc you understand exactly what I'm talking about. First off, this space is is incredibly white--I've never felt fully comfortable here but there's limited options around here and I'm just trying to exercise rather than feel fully safe in a place (a fantasy!). I said it was feeling racist and she said she can't help the way she looks (which is true) but girlllllll I also can't help the way I look--and I would totally choose to look more like her if it meant I'd potentially get offered to take the other class that was starting at the time I arrived [broken heart emoji]
Anyway, she kept iterating that this was policy that they had to follow (lmao the policy you have in minuscule fine print somewhere pages in? Put it in font 20 on your website front page and I won't say a word).
The other reason she gave is that it's for your own safety, that if you come after stretching it's dangerous if you go straight into exercise (which means if you exercise and hurt yourself we don't want liability). This was infuriating because 1) the instructors (other than the one I had this summer) do not actually correct alignment / posture and just go through the motions of the movements while looking aesthetic in a matching exercise outfit, so I'm not sure if there is any actual safety to begin with and 2) Would they have been more accommodating if I looked more like them and / or the Daughters of the Confederacy? Very uncertain!
This person I was speaking to was definitely uncomfortable / not sure how to deal with me, but then, while she was gone, I talked to the second front desk who had been staring at the convo the whole time and this is where it gets more fun. I asked if the person who owns the space is around and she said no (btw, am I becoming a speak to your manager kind of person? oh boy!)
This person is like fully glaring at me, and I asked if she had context on my convo, and at first she goes I didn't hear it, but then when I explained the convo she said that the first person did nothing wrong and was very nice and mannered while talking to me (which she absolutely was) and that this was policy. I explained that just because tone and manner is nice doesn't mean that the actual intent / words are kind, and said that based on this racist vibe I'm getting, I feel like I probably shouldn't come back here, and then she goes: "Good!" LOOOOOL.
Ok. Good!
I was definitely angry about my experience this morning but am in the process of letting it go as paying a price for a lesson learned. read more
