After shutting up shop for our in-person classes due to Covid in March of 2020, we pivoted - as many did - to offering online classes to try and offer some consistency to our clients during a turbulent time. As the pandemic dragged on our online numbers dwindled but for the hardcore group of Pilates students who stuck with Patty throughout (you know who you are you amazing people!).
In June of 2021 we launched our Summer Series of classes in Blythe Hill Park and it felt so good to be seeing people move in-person again. To chat after class. To grab coffee from the Marchetti coffee van and sit in the sun. To watch the spectacular sunsets over the London skyline was magic and just what the doctor ordered. We even ran an outdoor workshop in the middle of the park with our Physio Sarah Parker where we all talked loudly about the pelvic floor and passed around a life-sized model of the clitoris (we’re running an indoor version this April - check it out here) But the British weather being what it is… we saw our numbers - understandably - dwindle again as it got colder and wetter, and as the sunsets crept earlier and earlier some of our classes moved back online, and others were stopped.
September 2021 marked our 6th Birthday, and as a trial we offered a schedule of free in-person classes in our studio for the day to see what the uptake was like. With reduced class numbers from our already previously “boutique” sizes we wondered whether people would be up for it. It turns out the answer was a resounding yes with all of our feedback forms mentioning how great it was to be back in the studio.
And so we faced a bit of a dilemma. Reduced class sizes means reduced income for the teachers and our small business respectively. Since we first started sharing Yoga and Pilates in our space in 2015 the local landscape has completely shifted with many new studios popping up around us offering a multitude of different class styles, so we decided to reframe what we offered as we tentatively started looking to bring people indoors in January of this year - a full 22 months since we last ran a full class schedule in our studio.
As many of you know; we aren’t just a studio but a multi-disciplinary wellness centre so we made the decision to lean into this aspect and offer practices that work alongside and compliment our other services to directly impact your wellbeing journey. And so our 6 week courses were born.
Far beyond just being able to offer a consistent income to our self-employed teaching team, this format enables us to contribute to the re-forming of community that is so desperately lacking after the last few years of distancing and isolation. There’s never been a more important time to help people struggling with their mental and physical wellbeing.
Being part of an engaged community gives us a sense of belonging. It enables us to share personal relatedness and support each other. An ability to make new connections over a shared interest is what builds valuable relationships and gives us a deeper sense of reciprocity and belonging. It helps us to reach our goals, and brings a sense of security to our over-worked nervous systems.
This simply isn’t able to happen in the drop-in format that we used to offer, nor in the online world that so many of us have gotten used to.
As we move towards the third cohorts of our in-person courses we are pleased to say our studio is becoming a place where people come together with intention, to continue and progress their wellbeing journey together and to achieve better mental, physical and emotional wellbeing in this forever changing fast-paced world.
If you’d like to know more, click the button below to see what we’re offering