BEWARE!
In over 20 years of doing Pilates I have NEVER encountered as bad a class or teacher as I did yesterday at this studio! Maybe if you are the kind of person who loves a scowling drill Sergent and the kind of aerobic class that is designed to hurt your body instead of work it properly, this one is for you.
I went to the noon class, arrived 10 minutes early and no one was there. The place was locked up and dark. I started to worry that something was amiss at about 5 minutes til when still no one was there. then two people arrived at about 3 minutes before noon...a few more people, all of us waiting outside the door, and at 1 minute til noon the teacher finally arrived. There was a mad scramble in, no acknowledgment of anyone new to the class, people thew off their shoes and scrambled to the machines. Suddenly blaring music was on (okay, not classical pilates, I get it - aerobic pilates)...and the instructor in her headset, not very Pilates either) starts calling out "Three yellow springs, legs through straps, roll-up crunches..." YIKES! First off no warm up and everyone's diving in trying to scramble to get springs on and figure out what we're supposed to do. No a single word from the instructor "Anyone new here?" or "Anyone have injuries I should know about?" Nada. She just went through the motions of being there as if she was bored to death and didn't care. A couple of us mentioned we were new to the studio, but she didn't seem to even bother, she just said, watch the person next to you. OKAY, so I now know I am just a dollar sign and not a human you need to worry about, huh?
Next up...I called her over to mention I was new and also that I was recovering from a broken toe. She looks at my feet, goes over to the desk, grabs a pair of toe socks in a package and hands them to me. "You need to put these on". Um...well no way with my right foot, two toes taped together, was I going to manage that foot. I was beginning to wonder if she'd actually taken any real Pilates training. Joseph Pilates invented Pilates Method to heal bodies from injuries and to get dancers and sports people back from both injuries and Polio back in the 50's. I've been doing it since I was a dancer, injured, through sports medicine programs long before it became the hot exercise trend...I KNOW Pilates, it's evolution and have taken classes at some of the best studios in NY, San Francisco and here in LA. THIS was an atrocity!!
The very next exercise dove straight into a standing twisted side crunch...STILL, NO WARM UP of the body. This is a routine made to injure bodies in the worst way and after a few minutes of this I mentioned to the teacher that this was obviously not Classical Pilates and I wasn't sure how much I;d be able to do with my broken toes. Her answer...not anything about modifying my stance or working WITH my body, but, "OH, are you one of those Bloomspot people? Well, there was a description on that deal, you should have read it." This said in the most unfriendly curt way...after one more exercise, I looked at her and said I thought it better if I leave. She just said, "Fine"...WOW...I left feeling like I'd just had the worst experience EVER in my life, was really disturbed, bugged I;d thrown good money away and been treated like I was a piece of meat who was just there to line their pockets with cash.
TOTAL opposite from BodyWellness and Whole Body Pilates, both of which are GREAT! I can only speak at the moment from the perspective of this Venice location and this one teacher: I think her name was Jennifer Yates, but since she never said anything at the beginning and just looked annoyed the whole time, I really can't tell if she was the person listed on the schedule or not.
Also, the machines there...basically are crap. I've done Pilates on just about every machine out there, and these were the worst.
In short...Forget the Bloomspot deal, this place is NO DEAL! read more