From ballerina to Pilates instructor

Ever youthful Elizabeth Hutchison is switching from ballet to Pilates. Find out why.

“I plan to be moving my body until the day I die. After all if you don’t keep your body moving, you end up in a wheelchair.”

Most of Elizabeth Hutchison’s interests tend towards physical mobility, running the gamut from serious skiing in the big mountains in Utah and teaching ballet. All this from a petite and charming third-ager who is still as lithe as a cat and sings like an angel.

She has had an interesting life, combining her love of dance and singing with a career in computer sales with IBM. Although she dabbled in ballet as a young girl, she didn’t at first take it seriously, probably because she was living in different countries as an ‘army brat’: her father was a military man.

After settling in Toronto, she went to the Toronto Royal Academy of Dance where she passed all three major exams up to advanced level. She longed to be a professional ballerina but her full-time job with IBM conflicted with that desire. She satisfied her love for performance by dancing with a few smaller independent ballet companies for many years, and as a naturally gifted soprano she performed with the Canadian Opera Company for over 20 years.

“Dance is freedom and self-expression, and anything to do with theatre is the performer sharing his or her view with the audience”, explained Elizabeth. “It is a form of giving, which I adore because the more you give, the more you get back. It’s all from the heart.”

Today, in her ‘third-age’, she still dances regularly when she is teaching ballet. Her dedication to movement, strength and flexibility means she can still get her head down to her knees and do the splits.

A natural migration for Elizabeth is to find more ways to give back. She has spent much of her time in 2009 learning to be a Body Control Pilates instructor because she wants to help people to remain healthy and mobile during their latter years. “Pilates is more gentle than leaping around teaching ballet,” said Elizabeth. “For me it’s a natural migration – I’m still doing something beautiful and productive, and it’s economically viable – a way to make a living at the same time as helping other people, especially older folks who often think they are going to break if they bend. Pilates is for everyone, and I want to specialize in teaching older people because I think they will relate to me better.”

The appeal for Body Control Pilates (BCP) (it’s out of the UK, and is recognized by the British Medical Association) for Elizabeth is that instructors may only teach small groups, a maximum of 12 per class. She believes, as does the BCP organization, that excellence in instruction, and therefore optimum health benefits, is only possible in small groups.

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