Get to know your studio teachers - James Jackson
Get to know your teachers at Victoria Rose Pilates Studio…
James Jackson, a marvellous teacher qualified in Matwork, Studio apparatus and the Feldenkrais Method, sat down with me to chat all things Pilates and more, have a read to get to know him better!
Welcome James! So tell me about your Pilates journey
I first started doing Pilates when I was in dance training. Back in 2003 I went to the Northern School of Contemporary Dance, we had to do Pilates in the first year as part of the course. I really enjoyed it at the time but started doing it much more when I was working as a dancer in 2008 and I thought ‘oh I could probably make some cash on the side by teaching Pilates’!
So I was living in Ireland at the time and my first training was with the Michael King Institute (MK Pilates) and it was a simple matwork course which I did over the course of 3 months.
I then started teaching in Leeds and began working with a woman called Claire Sparrow. She gave me matwork classes, the kind in school halls or church halls in the evenings. I used to pitch up with all my mats and balls on my back as I didn’t drive at the time!
This then grew and I continued to work with Claire and we went into studio work later on.
I did additional training with STOTT pilates doing more matwork training with them, and then did my bulk of training on all the studio apparatus with Polestar Pilates which has its roots in physiotherapy and Feldenkrais.
Once I had qualified from Polestar I then ran a small studio alongside Claire in Leeds for about 5/6 years. We taught group Reformer and 1:1s which was great fun!
When I finished with the studio I went travelling to Thailand and I met a woman who was a Polestar teacher and also a Feldenkrais practitioner. At the time I had torn my meniscus in my knee and she offered me to watch some of her Feldenkrais sessions, I was receiving some treatment from her too and was so inspired by her and this method that I then went on to do my Feldenkrais training.
Which sat well because the Polestar training that I had done has the lineage of Feldenkrais. Polestar was founded by Brent Anderson and Elizabeth Larkam; Elizabeth was a Feldenkrais practitioner so there were roots of this in my Polestar training.
Amazing, that sounds like an incredible journey. You mentioned Feldenkrais can you Tell me a little more about what this is?
In Feldenkrais we work with movements of the body like it is a movement puzzle. For instance we have parts of our body, like say your right hand, that you know well and have good awareness of. You could probably be quite dextrous with that hand, quite articulate, but perhaps areas like the bit below your neck or the space between your shoulders you probably don’t know it so well.
We kind of have these movement puzzles that are designed to find out more about those parts of yourself that you don’t know as well.
We almost fill in the blanks between the spaces we do know and don’t know so well. So then you know how for instance your hand relates to another part of yourself and how these parts join up, at the end of the lesson you feel more connected. You have a sense of knowing where you are in space and you know yourself a bit better.
It works really well with people who have lost limbs, suffered some sort of stroke or some sort of neurological damage it can be really powerful to regain function of parts of their body.
So when you are in the studio you will be teaching both Matwork, Reformer and private tuition. Can you tell me what clients can expect from your classes?
My approach is very somatic, bringing in ideas around neuroplasticity with my knowledge of Feldenkrais. We work with connections of your body from the inside, more sensation and feeling focused. Listening into how parts are connected rather than the outward ‘what it looks like’ element.
It doesn’t have to look pretty, it’s really about the sensations and feeling those connections. I think that when we can feel those connections well, it often looks good. You know, good movement looks good!
Often my classes are very mindful, perhaps a little slower to start but we do still get a little spicy! Once we know what we are doing we can have fun with things.
I like to keep it quite fun, I do think we learn better when we are having fun.
ok so we now know about you as a teacher but we want to find out more about James the person too!
so what do you do when you are not doing pilates and/or feldenkrais and/or movement?!
So I would say movement! I’m such a nerd, I’m sure yours would read the same, I love Pilates, Yoga Weight training, walking and being outdoors! Anything movement related are my hobbies.
I also attend Quaker meetings on Sundays. Which is a silent spiritual practice. We have meeting for worship, which is a silent form of worship. It is very much a practice of ‘listening and waiting’.
I have such a ‘go-go’ nature, it helps to slow me down. My nickname as a kid was actually Go-Go! I have a twin brother who was called So-So. Where I was high energy he was much more mellow!
I also try to meditate every day to help slow me down.
Oh and eating Sunday roasts, even in summer! I’m such a foodie.
I work hall the year in Thailand and love the food there too.
Tell me more about thailand?
I work for a beautiful hotel company, who I have worked with for about 10 years now. I run the Pilates studio there, teaching Pilates and Feldenkrais to the clients of the hotel.
It’s hard work but so nice to be in the sunshine, especially in the winter months.
Thank you James for taking the time to sit with me and chat all things Pilates.
You can take James’ classes right now. He will be teaching his incredible Somatic Matwork and Group Reformer on Thursday evenings, along with some private tuition too.
Grab a spot with him now by clicking here.
“the pilates method teaches you to be in control of your body and not at it’s mercy”