Heart of Motion
The Heart of Motion Podcast is an exploration of the heart, soul and science of movement - and what it means in our lives.
Movement connects us more deeply to ourselves, to our bodies and to the things and people that are most important to us. Beyond a fitness routine, why do you move? And what moves you? When we can look past the hamster wheel of ''fitness" - we start to realize that when we really live the lives of our bodies - life can be a whole lot more fulfilling, and a whole lot more fun!
Host Susannah Steers is your guide on a quest to understand how we can move better, feel better in our bodies and connect more deeply to our people and the world around us. Join her for some conversation, interviews with experts, and conversations with everyday people about what movement means to them. You might just find movement feels a little different on the other side...
Heart of Motion
Finding Freedom Through Movement with Allison Birt
Discover the transformative power of mindful movement with movement educator Allison Birt as she shares her journey from ballet to Pilates teacher and Franklin Method practitioner.
What happens when we shift our focus from punishing workouts to pleasurable movement? Allison reveals how our relationship with our bodies can fundamentally change when we approach movement with curiosity rather than judgment. "Movement is supposed to feel good. That is our birthright," she reminds us, challenging fitness industry norms that glorify exhaustion and pain.
The conversation explores the rich lineage of Pilates, tracing its evolution through first-generation teachers who brought their unique perspectives to Joseph Pilates' original work. Allison's training with Ron Fletcher (who infused Martha Graham dance techniques) and Kathy Grant (who emphasized creativity and improvisation) illustrates how these influences shape modern practice.
Allison shares an example of the Franklin Method's dynamic neurocognitive imagery. Through a simple shoulder exercise, listeners experience firsthand how changing the words we use – from "stiff, tense shoulders" to "slidey, glidey, smooth shoulders" – can instantly transform physical sensation. This powerful technique shows how we can literally "change our bodies by changing our minds," offering a pathway to greater agency and embodiment.
Ready to experience the difference mindful movement can make? Join Allison and Susannah for their upcoming workshops and discover how turning toward your body with kindness might be the most powerful practice of all.
About Allison Birt:
After a series of injuries prompted her to re-consider a career in dance, Allison transformed her passion for movement as art into a passion for movement as medicine. In 2001 she began learning to teach Pilates from Dianne Miller, honing her skills at the Vancouver Pilates Centre until 2016. She now enjoys teaching at Moving Spirit, a North Vancouver Pilates studio, with owner Susannah Steers.
A perennial student, Allison has been fortunate to learn from and study the repertoire of multiple first-generation Pilates teachers including Ron Fletcher, Kathleen Stanford Grant, and Mary Bowen, who each imparted their own unique perspective on the Pilates method.
In 2011 Allison became a Franklin Method Educator, which transformed her approach to movement education. Now one of a handful of Level 4Franklin Method educators worldwide, Allison is adept at combining mental imagery techniques with embodied anatomy to create lasting positive change in the mind and body.
Heart of Motion Podcast host Susannah Steers is a Pilates & Integrated Movement Specialist and owner of Moving Spirit Pilates in North Vancouver, BC. She is passionate about movement, about connections and about life.
Through movement teaching, speaking, and facilitating workshops, she supports people in creating movement practices that promote fitness from the inside out. She loves building community, and participating in multi-disciplinary collaborations.
Along with her friend and colleague Gillian McCormick, Susannah also co-hosts The Small Conversations for a Better World podcast – an interview based podcast dedicated to promoting the kind of conversations about health that can spark positive change in individuals, families, communities and across the globe.
Social Media Links:
Moving Spirit Pilates Instagram
Moving Spirit Pilates Facebook
Susannah Steers Instagram
Welcome to the Heart of Motion podcast. I'm Susanna Steers and I'll be your host as we explore the heart, soul and science of movement as a pathway to more active, vibrant and connected living. Nothing happens until something moves, so let's get started.
Susannah Steers:If you've listened to an episode or two of this podcast, you'll know that movement is my passion, my first language and the filter through which I process pretty much everything. It's always a treat when I find people around me who share this obsession in one way or another, and it's an extra special treat when I can connect to people with whom I feel like I share similar core values. Today, I am delighted to introduce you to one of my favorite people, my friend, my colleague and my right hand at Moving Spirit Pilates, Allison Birt.
Susannah Steers:After a series of injuries prompted Allison to reconsider a career in dance. She transformed her passion for movement as an art, into passion for movement as medicine, into passion for movement as medicine. She began her teacher training journey with Dianne Miller at the Vancouver Pilates Center in 2001, continuing to hone her skills there until about 2016. She joined me at Moving Spirit in 2018, and I'm happy to say we've been working and collaborating together ever since. A perennial student. Allison has been fortunate to learn from and study the repertoire of multiple first-generation Pilates teachers, including Ron Fletcher, Kathleen Stanford Grant, Mary Bowen, each who imparted their own unique perspective on the Pilates method. In 2011, Allison became a Franklin Method educator, which transformed her approach to movement education. Now one of only a handful of level four Franklin Method educators worldwide, Allison is adept at combining mental imagery techniques with embodied anatomy to create lasting positive change in the mind and body. Welcome to the Heart of Motion podcast, Allison. I hope this doesn't just feel like another day at the office.
Allison Birt:Well, thank you for having me, and you know I love my days at the office, so I wouldn't complain.
Susannah Steers:Well, we have similar aspects. I mean our individual stories kind of sync up in a few different ways. We both have a background in dance you with ballet, me with modern dance. We both had our roots in Pilates with Dianne Miller at the Vancouver Pilates Center, or what I knew as the Dianne Miller Pilates Center, and we've each gone on to study in various different ways with both Pilates elders and others to expand our ideas about movement. I think that a lot of those aspects of our shared history ended up bringing us together, and I'm really glad it did Me too. I'm curious what drew you to Pilates in the first place? Maybe first as a student and then as a teacher?
Allison Birt:I think as a student I was a ballet dancer and I was often having trouble breathing in ballet class and I would sort of start to hyperventilate and almost have sort of panic attack experiences and my teachers were totally flummoxed and my parents didn't know how to help and doctors I went to were not terribly helpful. And so I initially found Pilates as a way to help me learn to breathe, in the hopes that that would help me breathe while I'm moving in a ballet class. And that was pretty effective and I kept going with the Pilates once that issue had sort of been sorted out, just as a way of keeping my body in good condition for the rigors of professional ballet training and so what shifted for you?
Susannah Steers:I mean, you had ballet injuries and other things. What shifted you toward a career in Pilates?
Allison Birt:Well, while I was rehabilitating from dance injuries and car accidents or whiplash injuries and I was taking some time off, dance and Pilates was part of that rehabilitation program and I was in the changing room at Vancouver Pilates Centre and I could overhear through the walls Dianne Miller teaching some of her teacher trainee students and sort of going through some of the theory with them.
Allison Birt:And I think I sat in the change room for like at least a half an hour after I was finished my class just listening in and I was totally captivated. I couldn't believe that people actually knew this stuff about the body. And how come I don't know this stuff? If this is available, how come I don't already know it? And so I kind of knew right then that I wanted to know more, and as soon as I was able I signed up to do the teacher education program with them. As I went through the stages of it I kind of realized this is going to be a much healthier, more job security, more like a better investment in myself, maybe than a career in dance was ever going to be.
Allison Birt:So I really started to shift my focus from dance to Pilates so that I could live in the city I wanted to live in, feel healthier and have a better relationship with my body and still work with bodies in motion and still work with dancers. It was kind of a really easy transition out of dance and into Pilates.
Susannah Steers:I had a similar experience as I shifted out of dance.
Susannah Steers:I was sort of casting about and I was teaching dance still at that point, although I'd stopped performing and my body was hurting all the time. I was doing Pilates with Dianne and it was a similar experience that it was, oh, this feels really good and oh, I don't really see myself. You know, having been so intensely in my body for so long, I don't see myself sitting behind a desk. I don't see myself in that kind of career. This way I get to work with bodies and once I did my certification and started to move with bodies a little more, I realized there was like a new puzzle every day, Every person that I saw. There were basic exercises you could teach them, but how did they come to understand that movement and how could I teach them in a way that it made sense for them? And I think I've heard you say it I don't think either of us does Pilates or teaches Pilates to make people better at Pilates. I think that the whole idea is to help them be a little more at home in their bodies and moving well.
Allison Birt:Yeah, I think so Absolutely. I mean, Pilates is a vehicle for improving your quality of life. There is no purpose to Pilates beyond that being good at doing Pilates is not a useful skill. So I really think that to me, Pilates is, it's a vocabulary we can use to improve our movement skills so that our life improves.
Susannah Steers:Well, you know, I don't think most people really understand what goes into becoming a Pilates teacher, especially if you're serious about it as a career option and as opposed to teaching a few classes as a hobby. So I'm curious what has your training looked like over the years?
Allison Birt:So my initial training with the Dianne Miller Pilates teacher education program was, I think it took me about two years to go through I mean, I was maybe 19, so I had a lot to learn, just as a human first of all. But it was, I'm going to say, about 150 hours of theory work just in the studio with Diane and sort of the oral tradition of Pilates teacher trainings where you're just madly taking notes while she shares her knowledge and experience and during that time you're intended to work out in the studio at least three times a week. So you're evolving your own practice and I did all the theory modules twice. So if I said it was 150 hours, I did 300.
Susannah Steers:Of course you did.
Allison Birt:And then it was a 500 hour apprenticeship which starts out gently with some observation, where you just get used to looking at bodies in motion and seeing what the same movements look like on different bodies, because it's wildly different depending on their bodies and their movement history.
Allison Birt:Slowly you get invited to help correct the clients.
Allison Birt:The teachers who are already teaching are mentoring you and you're watching what they look for and what they see and the language that they use to help their clients.
Allison Birt:So about a 500 hour apprenticeship, where you're on the floor in the studio, experimenting and learning to teach, and you have to have the work in your own body, and that's what those required three times a week workouts were, but you also have to be good at looking at bodies and seeing what's going on with them and problem solving, like you said. Other skills involved, though, are choosing language really specifically and carefully, and also how to touch people. How to work hands on with people is a really important skill that I think gets overlooked sometimes, so it took me a good two years to sort of put all those skills together as part of my initial training, and then there was an exam process that encompassed a written exam and a practical exam. So they get to see you teach students and make sure you know how to progress exercises, modify exercises and put together a well-rounded program for somebody that meets all their needs.
Susannah Steers:So it's not just about a menu of exercises to pick from, it's really how do you present that to each person for the best benefit? I think that's why, especially as I've evolved and I know we've talked about this too at the studio I less identify as a Pilates teacher and more as a movement educator, a movement specialist. We're working with people on their movement and Pilates happens to be a really great tool to get us there.
Allison Birt:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Susannah Steers:These days, pilates seems to be divided into three main camps there's sort of the classical, there's contemporary and there's clinical. And when I came up, and maybe this is true for you too the conversation was more about what lineage you learned, which lineage you came from from. Can you speak a little bit more about what first generation Pilates teachers are and what a Pilates lineage means? Like why would we care?
Allison Birt:Yeah. So I really view the Pilates industry like a giant family tree, with the sort of progenitors, Joseph Pilates and Clara Pilates, who obviously came up with the work and spread it to their students and then certain of their students carried the work on and, you know, kind of distributed across the United States and taught their own students and brought their own unique spin to the work. And those are considered the first generation teachers, people who worked directly with Joseph and Clara and then went on to teach their version of what they learned. I consider my lineage, starting with Joseph Pilates, my Pilates grandfather is Ron Fletcher, who took the work to California and he was a Martha Graham dancer and an Ice Capades choreographer and he worked with celebrities and he was precise and demanding and exacting and a real sort of dance taskmaster. He taught the work to Dianne Miller, who taught me and you. So I would consider myself a third generation Pilates teacher and that's one of the lineages that I appreciate.
Allison Birt:And then of course, there were many other first generation teachers. The other one that is most significant to me was Kathy Grant, and she also learned the work initially from Joseph and Clara, and she was much more of an improviser and cabaret dancer and she was really feisty and kind of whimsical and so I learned her work. I was lucky enough to work with her in person only once before she passed away, but I learned her work from Cara Reeser, who was a close student of hers, and so my Pilates grandmother is Kathy Grant from her. This one size does not fit all that. You have to look at the body in front of you and make smart choices for them and what's going to really help them. And she really encouraged creativity and sort of ownership over the work. And there are many other lineages but they each sort of bring their own special sauce, their own flavor to Joseph Pilates' original ideas and movements.
Susannah Steers:I love the way you frame it. As grandfathers and grandmothers With Ron Fletcher, I remember taking his classes and feeling so much, especially with the mat work, that I was in a Martha, having spent a lot of time doing Martha Graham's work and seeing where Ron brought all of his Graham work into his Pilates stuff and feeling that in class I felt very much like I was doing a Graham class while I was also doing Pilates.
Allison Birt:Yes, and for those of us with a dance background, you feel very at home in that.
Susannah Steers:Yeah, as both a movement educator and a Pilates teacher. What your view is the difference between training movement versus training fitness or physical activity?
Allison Birt:So, as Pilates teachers, we are part of the fitness industry, but there can be so much more depth available than just learning how to do the choreography of the Pilates exercises or whatever exercise you're doing in the gym. I've noticed that a lot of people think that if you do a certain exercise and a certain number of reps, you will get a certain result, and my experience has been that that isn't really true, that how you do the movement and your intention behind it, and the thoughts that are in your head while you're doing it and the breath that you're using while you do it have a very significant impact on the outcome of that movement Right, so you can actually train a certain type of movement in multiple different ways. You can approach it from different angles to achieve a different goal. I really am much more interested in how people are moving than what movements they're doing
Susannah Steers:Right. How you move matters!
Allison Birt:Yeah, how you move matters Exactly, and what you practice. You get better at whatever it is you practice. And if you were practicing a functional movement pattern, you get better at that. But if you're practicing a non-functional movement pattern, you get better at that. But if you're practicing a non-functional movement pattern, you get better at that. So practice makes permanent, not practice makes perfect. You get better at whatever it is you're doing, whether it's good for you or not.
Susannah Steers:Well, and a lot of the time exercise is viewed as punishment or sort of in a punishing way, we go out and we've got to go as hard as we possibly can and if you're not drenched in sweat and absolutely exhausted and probably sore the next day, you're not doing it well enough. But movement is supposed to feel good.
Allison Birt:Yeah, I think so. I mean, I think that that is our birthright is to be able to take pleasure in moving our bodies. And I think about the language that's so often associated with the fitness industry these days, of you want your body to be cut or shredded or like even sculpted. I've had people say, like, when we get into the Pilates studio, can you like, can you beat me up? Or really like, kick my butt? And I'm no, I don't want to do that and I don't want anyone to do that to me.
Allison Birt:When I have a movement experience, I want to leave it feeling relaxed and invigorated. At the same time, I want to have discovered something new. I want to have my curiosity piqued about something like, oh, I didn't know I could do that. To have my curiosity piqued about something like, oh, I didn't know I could do that, or that was a fun skill that I'm not quite capable of yet, like, how do I get there? And I want to leave feeling like I want to do it again. Right, if I can't walk the next day, I don't really want to do that again. I want to feel like I want more of that. So that is always my favorite type of movement experience. It's not punishing. It's thrilling and exciting and also makes me feel more at home in my own body.
Susannah Steers:Mm-hmm, even if you are pursuing a big goal physically, even if you are I mean, pilates always made me a better dancer you know I could show up to class and be ready. If I'd done my Pilates ahead of time, and I find that that's a piece that's important too. So it's not an either or situation. You can go hard, you can work your butt off, you can go for big goals which are going to make you tired and sore and all of the things. If that's what floats your boat and what I love about Pilates is it makes you better able to do those things so you survive the stuff that you're doing so hard
Allison Birt:Totally.
Susannah Steers:One of your many layers of expertise includes the Franklin Method. So I'd like to talk a little bit about imagery and embodiment, because you don't always think of those initially when you think about movement training or fitness. My first introduction to imagery specifically for movement, beyond the kind of stuff I would learn from teachers in a dance class, was through Irene Dowd, who was a choreographer and a movement educator herself, and I worked a little bit with her and my mind was blown and happened to work with a bunch of people at the time who were also kind of in that vein of thinking, and then I devoured the work of people like Mabel Todd and Lulu Swigard and eventually found Eric Franklin's work. Although I never studied with him directly, I have learned so much more about it through you and the work that you do with our people and I'm so grateful for it. For those who might be hearing about it for the first time, can you describe what the Franklin Method is all about and how it differs from other movement practices?
Allison Birt:Sure, yeah, the Franklin Method is founded by Eric Franklin and sort of built on the work of all those people that you just listed, and it is, in my experience, an experiential approach to the body that uses a mental imagery technique called dynamic neurocognitive imagery to improve your function and your experience in your body, and it's sort of a multifaceted approach. It improves your proprioception, which is basically your body's internal sense of position and movement, and it improves your body schema, which is like your mental representation of your body in your brain, and it uses very specific, targeted mental imagery to change the way your body moves and the way you experience movement, so that you can enjoy the experience in your body more and move better long term.
Susannah Steers:Is it like a deep awareness?
Allison Birt:Yeah, I mean. Part of it is an awareness skill that you're building. So every Franklin Method experience begins with a bit of a check-in, so that you set a baseline for how your body feels on a given day, whether it's just overall or a particular movement or body part. And the better you get at sensing your body, the better you'll be able to tell whether an imagery or a movement intervention has had an impact and was it the impact that you wanted. So having a really finely tuned sense of your sensation in your body, your body awareness, helps you to know whether what you're doing is actually effective.
Susannah Steers:We can talk about it all we want, but the experience is really where the magic happens. So I'd love to play with something that maybe our listeners can explore on their own right now. I'd love to play with something that maybe our listeners can explore on their own right now. Can you share an example of how?
Allison Birt:you might use the Franklin Method or dynamic neurocognitive imagery now, yeah. So first let's do that little check-in. So my little Franklin Method tidbit here is going to be to do with your shoulders, so we'll keep it nice and simple. Just to set a baseline for how your shoulders are feeling today, do a little few shoulder shrugs, just bring your shoulders up towards your ears and then let them fall back down again. And we'll do that several times and as we do it, can you rate the movement from one to 10? So one being negative, 10 being positive? How does this movement feel in your body right now? Okay, so if you've got a number, hold that in your mind, remember what that felt like. That's your baseline that we're going to use to compare this little imagery play.
Allison Birt:So my favorite, very most simple type of dynamic neurocognitive imagery is kinesthetic self-talk, which is basically just using descriptive words to narrate your physical experience. So we'll do some more shoulder shrugs, the exact same movement, and I'm going to give some descriptive words to accompany the movement. So we'll shrug the shoulders up and down again and you can think relaxed shoulders. And you can think relaxed shoulders, strong, capable shoulders. This movement is easy, great, okay. So now we compare. How does that feel?
Allison Birt:Did your number go up at all while you did the movement with those descriptors? Definitely, yeah, mine did. So it's really simple. To just use the words that describe the way you want your body to feel while you're doing the movement can shift that number up a little bit. Now, oftentimes I'll do this with someone for the first time and they're kind of like I don't know. You just said some words while I did the movement. I don't, I don't know maybe. So let's try it again if you don't mind, and I'll use some different words. So shrug the shoulders up and down. My shoulders are so tired. They're stiff and tense and stressed. My shoulders feel like concrete or sandpaper. What's happening to the number now?
Susannah Steers:it's going down.
Allison Birt:I'm thinking to myself stop, stop, I don't want to feel that so far down and I mean most of us are really well practiced at the negative self-talk. It's what most of us do most of the time is painful sensations are the ones that get our most. They're sticky, they get our attention and we tend to start telling ourselves the story of how that feels and narrating this negative experience in our head. And so when I use those negative words, our bodies oh, I know what that feels like. Like we can go right there, um, and so what we want to do is get more practiced at using the positive self-talk, because the more practiced you are at it, the more you'll start to look for it and feel a bigger impact more quickly.
Allison Birt:Um, and you know, you might not go from like a one to a ten, but you might not go from a one to a 10, but you might go from a five to a seven, and that's pretty significant. That would make a big difference to my life if I was walking around with my shoulders at a seven instead of a five. So I don't wanna leave everybody with the sandpaper shoulders. Let's do one more and see if we can feel that positive impact of just that simple self-talk. So shrug your shoulders up. You want slidey, glidey, smooth shoulders, lubricated, supple shoulders, capable, strong, relaxed shoulders and rest yeah.
Allison Birt:How did that feel? Was that
Susannah Steers:yeah, I even breathe better. Like it all works better.
Allison Birt:Absolutely, and what I love about that like there's a lot more to it if you're actually doing a Franklin Method experience. But that's a really lovely little snapshot of it and it takes 10 seconds and it's completely free. You can do it anywhere you want and you have the power to choose what those words are. So if you want your experience in your body to continue down that negative path, that is a choice you can make. But if you want to choose a more pleasurable experience in your body, you also have that power. And I'm a language nerd. I'm like let's get out the thesaurus and look up all the good words that I could be experiencing right now.
Susannah Steers:You have a lot of good words. You have a lot of good words.
Allison Birt:Well, I just find it to be so empowering that I don't have to look outside myself, I don't have to wait for that appointment with my massage therapist, I don't have to spend a bunch of money or take drugs like you know, painkillers or whatever in order to feel good instantly. I can just change the way I'm thinking about my body.
Allison Birt:Change my body by changing my mind and have an instant upgrade, no matter what I'm doing what I'm doing
Susannah Steers:So, we're talking about it in the context of movement here, but I can see how this would have ramifications in your entire life. What has learning and working with the Franklin Method meant for you personally and also for your work?
Allison Birt:It has really transformed. It's changed my life. I would say it's transformed the way I talk to myself and my clients, as a sort of recovering perfectionist.
Allison Birt:I have a really loud and strong say hello to her and welcome her to the party and then just turn down the volume on that a little bit and be a lot more kinder with the way that I speak to myself and with the language that I choose to use with my clients. It has made everything sort of. It brings color and life to the world. Like I look around myself and I see the way the water flows in the stream and the way the trees move in the forest and I'm instantly oh, that water flowing is just like you know, when it's strong it's like arterial blood flow and when it's a little smoother it's more like the venous blood flow. Like I start to see our inner lives all around me in the environment.
Allison Birt:And so I appreciate, though I look around myself and I'm always getting inspiration for movement that that are imagery that I'm using in movement classes in the natural world, and so it's fun to have that creative element that's just sort of infusing your whole life.
Allison Birt:And, yeah, I really feel like it empowers me to have agency over my own experience and my perspective on life and on movement and on teaching, and then, especially with teaching, I really appreciate passing that on to my students that they are the expert on their body.
Allison Birt:I am here to facilitate the experience and share my expertise and give sort of a framework and a container for them to make their own discoveries so that they really own their movement and they own their capabilities. And I'm yeah, I'm like a host for them to have their own experience, so that when they leave the class they have a whole new experience that they take away with them into their life. And I think that's sort of the magic, that's the special sauce, that's the magic that makes it interesting and that's, I think, the only reason that I've been doing this for almost 25 years. If it were just Pilates exercises, I would have been bored a long time ago. But because every session is new and exciting and creative and it improves people's quality of life and improves their experience, I'm excited and delighted to come into the studio every day.
Susannah Steers:I think that's one of the most exciting things for me about teaching Pilates for all of these years and it has been watching people come into the studio over a period of months or years and seeing the good days and the bad days and the good times and the bad times and all the things that they navigate in their lives and seeing as they start to get some of that agency where they're taking some of the things that they learn in the studio and see the different ways that they can apply it in their lives. And sometimes it's about learning how to work a muscle or push a thing or pull a thing or stand up straight, whatever, but other times it's about how all those pieces fit together and how they talk to themselves and how they navigate the world. And looking at and seeing that over time is really so exciting and so gratifying when you see people thriving in a way that maybe they didn't before or they just have skills that they can use in a new way.
Allison Birt:Yeah, it's so thrilling.
Susannah Steers:What does moving well mean to you in your life, in your work, in your own body? I mean, I have my ideas for me. Everybody has a different thing for them. What does it look like for you?
Allison Birt:That's such a good question and I think it changes daily. Well, maybe not daily, but it is always a moving target. I think moving well to me is freedom. Freedom to do the physical activities that you want Ideally. Freedom from pain, if possible, not always in a human body, but to the best of our abilities. It's independence being able to lift that heavy thing, move your furniture, reach the thing on the high shelf. And it's pleasure being at home in your body and having a. I mean, it's not always comfortable and pleasurable to be at home in a human body, but to be able to ride the waves of the pleasure and the pain and the whole experience with some equanimity and some humor and some skills, some capabilities. So yeah, freedom and pleasure and independence, I think, are the things that really are resonating with me right now as my movement practice evolves.
Susannah Steers:It's a constant exploration, though, isn't it? Yeah, you know, when I think about the journey in my life over the years and how my movement practice has supported me, guided me, challenged me, all the things from early days when I was dancing, through pregnancy, childbirth, postpartum, menopause, injuries, even the times when everything you're feeling top of the world, there is a home to some degree, and it isn't always comfortable, but there's just something really special about it and it's always changing.
Allison Birt:Yeah, it is. It's always changing. Sometimes I think, oh, my purpose in life. I was put on this earth to learn how to be comfortable in this form, in this human body, and that really has been the motivation of all my education, of all my movement, exploration. It's just searching for that. How do I live in this vehicle that I have for that? How do I live in this vehicle that I have? And then it lights me up so much when I discover something about that and I just can't wait to share it with people. And so if all of my exploration can benefit my students, then we both win. It's just, you know, everybody benefits.
Susannah Steers:It's a win-win situation. Yeah, I love it. You've presented also work at universities and for teacher training programs and all kinds of things, and I don't know that everybody that you work with knows that, so I just want to put it out there. What do you enjoy about that kind of work?
Allison Birt:Well, I taught at SFU for a few semesters.
Allison Birt:I taught the dance and theater students a movement fundamentals course that was based on the Franklin method and with a Pilates practice, and it was really fun to teach students who were there in our, in our artistic capacity to how to use their bodies, both for the longevity of their career so it's always a demanding career.
Allison Birt:Both for the longevity of their career so it's a always a demanding career, both for acting and dancing, so to have strength so that they're able to do eight shows a week and do all the things they need to do, but also to watch them use those skills to develop a character or to work on a particular mood, like what would that feel like in their bodies, and so that was a really fulfilling thing to work with young people and young artists and help them discover how their bodies can be used as a tool or an instrument in their art.
Allison Birt:And it's also really great to teach other movement teachers to help them discover what I have been discovering about the efficacy of the Franklin Method and how it can give your students more agency and ownership in their bodies, and how much there is to learn. I'm just such an education junkie that I love to both be on the teaching side and the learning side and I always learn so much from students, so the questions that other Pilates teachers ask and the curiosities that they have are always so exciting to me. When I'm presenting to a bunch of movement professionals, it always challenges me to discover more think through a different avenue.
Susannah Steers:Sets off a whole new avenue of research, doesn't it? Yeah, well, I think that's one of the things I love about working with you is that there's this constant play and constant learning, and it brings me joy all the time Me too. I don't think I can let you go without announcing that we have a couple of exciting collaborative projects coming up at Moving Spirit.
Susannah Steers:The first one is the Cœur de Vie wellness retreat on May 11th, and you and I and our colleagues Sarah Moore and special guest Siobhan O'Connell, will be getting together to present an afternoon at Nectar Yoga Retreat. It's a half-day retreat. It's an afternoon to rediscover home in your own body and tap into the wellspring of vitality that already exists inside of you, and I'm sure that from listening today, you get a sense of some of the things that we can contribute to that conversation. I'm really looking forward to that. and
Susannah Steers:And we will also be doing Alison and I are doing the reprise of our Ins"Ins and Outs of balance workshop coming up on June 21st, which is it is a reprise of a workshop we did earlier in the year, and we had so many requests to do it again that we went ahead and decided to do it.
Susannah Steers:So I'm looking forward to both of those. You can find all the information about those events at www. movingspirit. ca. - just navigate over to the MAT series and events page and you can see all that. Perhaps, Allison, to close out our conversation today, what message or advice would you like to leave with our listeners regarding the power of movement and embodiment in their lives?
Allison Birt:Oh, that's a great question. I think the message or the advice that I am trying to live by myself at the moment is maybe the thing that I'd like to share that regardless of what's going on in your life, that regardless of what's going on in your life, turning towards your body will always be a good idea. It's so tempting to look outwards and escape or numb or any of the things that we often use as coping strategies to deal with the many things that are going on in the world and in our lives, but the more you're able to turn towards your body and treat it with kindness and listen to what it's asking for, to whatever degree you're capable of that in a particular moment, I think you will never regret and so that is my constant practice at the moment is the turning towards my body in movement, in stillness, in rest, in care. That is, I think, probably my life's work.
Allison Birt:So I'd like to invite other people to join me in that.
Susannah Steers:Finding that inner wisdom, that inner care, looking within instead of always looking without. Thank you so much for that message. Thank you for spending some time with me today. It's always so much fun to hang out with you. It's always a pleasure. All right, have a wonderful afternoon and I'll see you in the studio.
Allison Birt:Thanks, Sue.
Susannah Steers:Bye-bye, see you soon.
Susannah Steers:I hope you enjoyed today's episode. Subscribe and, if you love what you heard, leave a five-star review and tell people what you enjoyed most. Join me here again in a couple of weeks. For now let's get moving.
