I first discovered Pilates while I was dancing with The Toronto Dance Theatre.

I had many aches and pains, most of all, sciatica. I understood movement in the form of proper placement, but not in the form of proper placement using the correct muscles. As a result, I was in and out of the chiropractor's office on a daily basis. I often asked my chiropractor, “What can I do to help my body so that I can avoid coming to you as often as I do?”  (which was just about every morning) His answer was, "You're already doing it." I was not very happy with his response since it didn’t answer why I was always in need of treatment. What I needed to understand was which muscles I was using to flex, extend and rotate my body and their functions. When somebody introduced me to my first Pilates session, I was hooked.

For the first time, everything made sense and, with daily practice, my body began to respond. What I thought were simple exercises, turned out to be extremely challenging. I started to feel my body lengthen and strengthen. I noticed a tone and elongation that I never had before. I became even more mindful of the way I used my body. I also noticed that my posture was much improved — if you can believe a dancer could improve her posture, it happened! My sciatica was a hundred times better and I no longer needed to see the chiropractor.

I was happier than I had been in a long time. I was elated and felt like my new-found information through Pilates, had given me 10 more years to continue my dream as a professional dancer. Pilates gave me more than my life back, it allowed me to move with ease and control. I learned how to anatomically control my flexibility, and my concerns about injuries became a thing of the past. There was less stress and strain on my body as I learned how to apply this new knowledge as a dancer, all without adding any muscle bulk.

I soon immersed myself in the Pilates Method, and became a fully certified Instructor Trainer and then Instructor Teacher Trainer.

While still during my career as a dancer, I suffered a very serious back injury. During one of the rehearsals, while coming down from a lift, I slipped out of my partners hands and landed on a straight leg. Because my knee did not bend to absorb the shock, the full impact went into my spine and ruptured one disc and herniated another. I was devastated. My life as a dancer was over.

After a year of rehabilitation and very little recovery, I became despondent. I was told by my surgeon at the time, that there was nothing they could do to repair the damage.  So I took matters into my own hands and studied back injuries. I wanted to understand our bodies’ ability to heal itself and how, after a broken foot or strained muscle, we find our way back to “normal”. I was determined to find something that made sense to me. I spoke to other professional dancers who had suffered back injuries, especially fused disc injuries. After much research and many workshops later, I began to understand how the body moves, how to use the proper muscles and what happens when you don’t, especially while recovering from an injury. Because of the pain, I was walking crooked and my gait was off. I relearned how to recruit the correct muscles for proper posture and placement. I began working with a very good friend Frank Bach, who taught me to understand the magic of Pilates. With his guidance, I found myself back on track and finally understanding how Pilates helps to heal from the inside out.

Pilates changed my life. Within 6 months of working with the micro-macro movement of the Pilates exercises, I was actually back on stage, running and jumping and stronger than ever. I knew then that I had found my calling, it was teaching others the magic of Pilates.

Pilates is a pure miracle. “The very best kept secret”. Knowing that I make a difference into many lives, is the best gift I have been given. I love sharing the infinite benefits of Pilates — among them, being the power and flow, the precision and control that allows for an organic change within the human body, and to witness this is forever humbling.

At present my world has opened up even more with the revolutionary hybrid of Pilates called Garuda. “Where Pilates ends, Garuda Begins”. James D’Silva