Inside the Pilates Studio: Blossom Leilani Crawford

Blossom Leilani Crawford is reputedly an amazing teacher and one that I would very much like to meet.

Years ago I got my first glimpse of Blossom at a Pilates Method Alliance conference. She was assisting her mentor Kathleen Stanford Grant, one of the respected elders and former student of Joe Pilates.

Kathy had Blossom demonstrate some beautiful advanced exercises, most notably the Swan on the Reformer, with a delicious looking nuance that Kathy believed was disappearing from the exercise. What a pair of Powerhouses those two.

From bridgepilates.com

Blossom Leilani Crawford is the owner and director of Bridge Pilates in Brooklyn, New York. She is known for her playful and powerful teaching methods, which she developed during the seventeen years she worked with Pilates Elder Kathleen Stanford Grant. Since then, Blossom has made it her mission to expose each one of her students to the joy and satisfaction that comes from intelligent exercise.

Blossom had the good fortune to be introduced to Pilates by Kathy Grant in 1993, during her first year as a dance student at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. A venerated teacher, Kathy was one of only two people to personally receive her Pilates teaching certification from Joseph Pilates himself. Blossom was impressed by the effect that Kathy’s exacting and intuitive approach to Pilates had on maintaining and healing her body, and continued to study with her throughout her rigorous dance program.

At the end of September, Blossom will be teaching at Pilates on Tour in Chicago. She also teaches small workshops at Bridge Pilates, her studio in Brooklyn, NY. For more information about the workshops sign up to receive her newsletter.

Thank you so much, Blossom for your lovely contribution to Inside the Pilates Studio!

1. What is your favorite Pilates exercise and why?

Blossom Leilani Crawford: Footwork on the Reformer. It is so simple but so complicated at the same time. Every time I think I have a good grasp of footwork, I get a client that destroys all of my theories.

2. What exercise is your least favorite? Pick only one.

BLC: Side lunges on the Wunda chair, especially the way Kathy made me do them. If the alignment wasn’t right I would just be standing there trying to move that pedal.

3. What turns you on creatively, mentally or physically about the Pilates method?

BLC: I love that people’s bodies are generally similar, yet there is an infinite number of quirks and variations. It is fascinating and fun to find the exercises that challenge each individual. So from my perspective, the work is never boring.

4. What is your idea of earthly happiness?

BLC: My healthy family, delicious food, good friends and the ocean, especially all together.

5. What to your mind would be the greatest misfortune?

BLC: Not being able to move or think with freedom.

6. What is your favorite Pilates word?

BLC: Internally.

7. What is your least favorite Pilates word?

BLC: Powerhouse.

8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?

BLC: Travel and food critic or a buyer for a gift shop.

9. If Heaven exists, and by some chance when you arrive at the pearly gates Joseph Pilates is also there, what would you like to hear him say to you?

BLC: Kathy Grant is in the back waiting for you with a spritzer at the buffet.

10. What did you learn today?

BLC: That I don’t really know what my least favorite Pilates exercises are.