Control Studios X Real Pilates Teacher Training

Are you ready for a career that changes lives and goes wherever life takes you?

We are the proud Houston Host Studio for Alycea Ungaro’s, international Real Pilates Teacher Training Program the only Second Generation Comprehensive Classical Pilates Training Program in Houston. Not only did Alycea learn from one of Joseph Pilates’ Original Apprentices, Romana Kryzannowska, she is also a certified Physical Therapist, and published author. Upon registration, you’ll gain access to her expert anatomy and Pilates History material via her exclusive virtual “rolling course”.

You will kick-off your 30 week program in our sun-drenched studio with the first of 4 Seminar Weekends, led by one of the Real Pilates Lead Instructors. By Sunday of your first Seminar Weekend you will be teaching real clients in full hour long Pilates Sessions. During your 30 week program you will practice, observe and apprentice under Senior Instructors who have all gone through the exact same program you will be working through. The built-in mentorship is what sets this program apart. You will observe and learn from different instructors who all have different backgrounds and history with different injuries and different backgrounds, leaving you the most well-rounded teacher you can be. Upon graduation you will be Comprehensively Certified 3rd Generation Classical Pilates Teacher in the lineage of Romana Kryzanowska, and part of an International network of teachers to support you in your career and continuing education. 

Our Program has two key features that lead to the most competitive graduates: 

Seminars & Study

There are four mandatory in-studio 18 hour Seminar Weekends: 

Beginner Seminar - Everything You Need to Know About Teaching Beginner Clients

Intermediate I Seminar - Teaching Intermediate Material to Clients

Intermediate II Seminar - Advancing the Intermediate Client

Advanced Seminar - The Advanced Material

Your first Seminar weekend kicks off 30 weeks of in-studio and online study. You will receive weekly instruction, assignments, physical practice assignments, interactive discussion prompts, research prompts surrounding all aspects of teaching including anatomy, hands on cuing, Pilates History, Precautions and Contraindications including Prenatal Specific cueing, and how to program for clients with back injuries. $5,630

Practice & Mentorship

This is your Apprenticeship & Mentorship with the Senior Teaching Staff here at Control. Pilates in Practice. Throughout your 30 weeks of study, you will take a total of 20 privates, one-on-one training sessions tailored to your body and your needs using the material covered in your Seminars, as well as 40 semi-private training sessions (think spicy little group classes with your fellow apprentices), all with a Real Pilates certified instructor. You will be regularly observed in your Practice Teaching and given real-time and written Mentorship on your verbal cuing, hands-on assists, and alignment spotting. You will also have regular access to our Senior Teaching Staff to ask all the questions that come up throughout your program. If you’ve ever seen Master Pilates Instructors offering Mentorships, that’s what this is, built directly into your training. Our goal is for you to leave this training knowing exactly how to teach every Classical Pilates exercise, where to stand, what to say, how to assist and challenge with hands on techniques and problem solving skills so that you can teach any client, anywhere from day 1.

$4,200

The Kathy Grant Pilates Teacher Training Scholarship

In 2020 we created our Kathy Grant Scholarship in response to the enormous social and cultural upheaval we all bore witness to. In reflecting on our part in this Houston Texas corner of society and the myriad of racial inequalities that persist to this day, we came to the conclusion that one way we can combat the generational wealth discrepancies and the way that has impacted the Pilates field specifically is to provide scholarships to Black Individuals that want to attend our teacher training. As shown above, it is no small financial commitment that you have to make to undergo Comprehensive Pilates Teacher Training, so we decided to use our resources and leverage our studio’s platform to award one accepted candidate per cycle a partial scholarship towards tuition for The Real Pilates Classical Teacher Training & Apprenticeship at Control Studios for a member of the Black Pilates Community here in Houston.

The scholarship is named in honor of Kathy Grant. She was a pioneer for Black women in dance and business. Kathy Grant grew up in the 1920's in Boston in a racially segregated country dreaming of becoming a Classical Dancer. She was the first black student enrolled in the Boston College Dance program.

She dreamt of becoming the first Black Classical Ballerina in the NYC Ballet and moved there only to find that it was far out of reach. Nevertheless, she made history dancing in the first racially integrated show on Broadway.

After sustaining a knee injury, a friend in the industry told her to go to a man named Joseph who would help her dance again. In 1953 she began working with Joseph Pilates and he did get her dancing again by training her in the art of "Body Contrology." In 1956 she took a position assisting Carola Trier in her Pilates Studio, and in 1964 she becomes one of the first students to be “Certified” by Joseph himself to teach Pilates’ work to the Public.

In 1967 she became the director for the Clark Center for Performing Arts in NYC. She pioneered access to the arts for minorities and created the first Classical Ballet company in NYC for Black dancers.

In the late 1980s she moved from Bendels to the Tish School of Arts, where she taught Pilates for the next 30 years dedicating her expertise and wisdom to the dancers and the injured with grace and strength. Her's was a tough love we are told by those who worked with her.

Kathy died in 2010 at the age of 88 with the wisdom of how to hold ourselves in this world. Her story is powerful and should be spread. We want to help share her story and honor her trailblazing in this industry, by lifting up POC passionate about fitness and caring for the body, so they too can lead in this industry that needs much more diversity. If you are passionate about movement education, fitness and caring for the body, we strongly urge you to drop in for a class or two, on us, see if our style of Pilates resonates with you and apply for the scholarship.

Donate

Every donation, big or small, matters. Please join our Studio’s mission of cultivating and educating Black representation and leadership in the field of Pilates. Click the button below to donate any amount to our Kathy Grant Scholarship!