Spotlight on... Amanda & her new Friday morning "Pilates in English" classes for adult

Welcome to a new series of Spotlight blog articles. This week, the spotlight is on Amanda, who recently joined the KidooLand team and will be running a weekly Pilates class for adults in English, every Friday from 9h15 to 10h15.

Amanda has always been interested in physical fitness and started life out as a professional dancer (fulfilling her childhood dream!) before becoming a dance teacher and fitness instructor. It was only after she became a Mum that Amanda discovered Pilates and she quickly discovered the benefit, with the classes making her stronger and giving her better posture. Amanda has now been a Pilates teacher for just over 2 years after training with Stott Pilates, an internationally accredited school that runs courses in Aix en Provence.

What is Pilates?

Pilates works on strength, flexibility and endurance, with a focus on core stability, including pelvic and shoulder girdle stabilization, neutral alignment and breathing. We work through balanced exercise sequences (with many modifications) to produce well balanced and aligned bodies, that look fit and move with ease.

What is the difference between Pilates and Yoga?

Pilates was specifically developed in the 1920s by Joseph Pilates for physical rehabilitation purposes, i.e. to assist people with physiological medical issues (persistent back pain, shoulder pain, neck pain either as the result of an accident or other more general cause). The aim of Pilates is to improve the core strength of an individual so that their body is correctly aligned and balanced, so that they can therefore move better, the body can support itself better, thereby reducing back pain (etc.).

Yoga on the other hand was developed in India as a means of connecting the individual consciousness to the universal consciousness via repetitive physical exercises and mediation. The aim of Yoga is therefore to improve not just your physical health, but your spiritual and emotional health as well. In fact, many people turn to Yoga primarily as a way to de-stress!

What can people expect from Amanda’s Pilates class?

Amanda loves helping people gain in strength, improve their posture and feel better about themselves. Whilst Amanda loves practising Pilates and obviously demonstrates all the exercises herself during her classes, thereafter Amanda can be found circling the room. Amanda is a very hands on teacher and has a key eye for detail, ensuring that each person completes the exercises correctly and to the best of their ability, so that they can get the most out of each class.

Amanda in a nutshell...

Childhood dream: to be a professional dancer (& Amanda was a professional dancer for 4 years.)

3 word description of yourself: Caring, reliable & energetic.

Hobbies: Walking and Pilates of course!

Pets: 1 very lazy cat called Lucy

Favourite word: Nincompoop (definition: a foolish or stupid person)

Favourite book: Bible

Favourite film: Les Misérables

Favourite season: Spring

Favourite colour: Green

Favourite place to take the children on the Côte d'Azur: Auron is great for skiing with older children.

Amanda's Pilates class on Friday mornings is just one of a range of new activities for adults in KidooLand's 2018-2019 programme. To practise Pilates and improve your English at the same time during one of Amanda's Pilates classes, contact KidooLand on 09 52 26 87 74 or by email: reservation@kidooland.com.

KidooLand's adult activities programme also includes English Conversation classes on Monday lunchtimes and Yoga on Tuesday mornings. KidooLand's popular programme of weekly "English is Fun" classes for children also continues this year on Wednesdays and Saturdays as well as during special school holiday workshops. KidooLand's "English is Fun" classes are a great way for children to learn English; KidooLand uses stories, cookery, role play, montessori style activies, songs, games and many more innovative, creative and fun activities to engage and inspire children so that they are so busy having fun, they don't even notice all the English that they're learning!

For further details about KidooLand's full range of activities for children please visit our website.