Simone Hörster

I was first introduced to the Pilates method in 1998, during my professional training in dance and movement education. I did not yet understand the work deeply or practice it consistently, but something about it stayed with me and continued to work in me. I began teaching Pilates in 2002 and educating teachers in 2004. In 2008, I founded Core Pilates in Berlin-Kreuzberg. The birth of my first child opened another important path of learning for me. I am a mother of three, and being their mother is one of the things I most deeply love being. Watching my children develop from birth awakened my interest in self-directed learning and led me to the work of Emmi Pikler and Elfriede Hengstenberg, as well as to other approaches to education that respect the individuality of the learner. Through my children, I could observe how movement develops through intuition, curiosity, confidence, relationships, and the freedom to explore. I began to understand that learning does not always have to be directed or imposed from the outside. Motherhood did not diminish my own independence; it deepened my understanding of what it means for every human being to develop in a self-determined way. This gradually changed not only how I thought about education, but also how I understood movement teaching. During these years, I encountered Jay Grimes in workshops in England and Italy. These were brief encounters, but his teaching stayed with me. Later, I had the opportunity to study with him more extensively through the Weekend Series with Jay, regular workouts, and THE METHOD at Vintage Pilates. What I recognized in Jay’s teaching was something I had already begun to understand through my children and my own life: movement can also be learned through independence, trust, experience, and relationship. A human being does not need to be shaped into someone. They already are. Our role as teachers is to offer the work and accompany each human as they discover what the method can teach them. This is why the open-studio tradition felt immediately natural to me. It is more than a way of organizing a Pilates session. It allows humans to take responsibility for their own practice, develop trust in their perception, and become increasingly independent within the work. Today, I teach athletes and Pilates professionals in my Berlin studio and live online. I am also the founder and lead educator of the Teacher of the Contrology Method program. For me, Contrology reaches far beyond learning a repertoire of exercises. Through regular practice, it can become part of how we live: how we pay attention, enter into relationships, take responsibility, and discover our own capacity. This is what the method has given me, and what I want to share with others. My teaching is rooted in the complete method, the connections within the work, and the patience and persistence to keep returning to it. As Sandy Shimoda teaches, we do not change the work; we allow the work to change us.