When Circ Came to Town: A Pilates Journey
As a former professional dancer and singer working in New York City, Carrie Kenneally was living her best life. It was playing out almost like a Broadway musical: Kenneally was running her own business in the heart of NYC and was heavily involved with the performing arts community where she had spent much of her life. It seemed to be everything she could ask for.
But Kenneally’s real life quickly diverged from the Broadway musical version when the coronavirus pandemic struck in 2020. Suddenly, the life Kenneally had planned out needed some dramatic revisions.
That included uprooting herself from New York and starting over again—1,500 miles away in Oklahoma City.
“I think that's going to be exciting,” Kenneally says. “This area is growing … and we've got businesses here that will be [doing] the same thing too. I think I'm going to be a little bit of a pioneer, and I think that sounds fun.”
Kenneally is the owner and operator of Circ Pilates Studio, 1130 N. Harvey Ave. in Oklahoma City’s Midtown District. She has been teaching Romana’s Pilates® for close to two decades, after converting from a career as a singer and dancer. Romana’s Pilates is a specific type of Pilates developed by Romana Kryzanowska, protege of Pilates founders and namesakes Joseph and Clara Pilates.
But the first time Kenneally took a Pilates class, in 1989, she didn’t think too much of it. She was in Chicago and her ballet director informed her that everybody had to take Pilates; it didn’t leave a particular impression on her. A few years later, Kenneally was told once again she needed to start doing Pilates—this time to help rehab a back injury she had sustained.
She looked at it as just physical therapy … until one day she realized it was more than that for her.
Kenneally said the turning point came when she was in class and her back seized up on her. Her first inclination was to head home, because she didn’t know if she would be able to walk if she waited any longer. Kenneally’s teacher stopped her with two simple words: “Trust me.” “I thought, ‘Okay, I've got two choices here.’ I stayed and I finished the lesson and I walked home,” Kenneally says. “That was huge for me. I think it was just that moment that really was the catalyst.”
Kenneally gradually went from seeing herself as mainly a dancer to a Pilates instructor. When it came time to go all in and put her performing career behind her, it wasn’t as hard as it might have seemed.
“I was in my late 30s and I realized, ‘I think I'm good. I want to move into something different,’ and I saw for myself what Pilates could do. And I liked teaching,” Kenneally says. “That's when I made that transition to not perform anymore and just to be a teacher. Most dancers are pulled off the stage because of an age thing or an injury. I think I was able to teach the dancers and not be mad at them, because I actually made that decision.”
Before coming to Oklahoma, Kenneally had owned a Pilates studio on Columbus Square, just north of Times Square, where she had built up a solid clientele and was still heavily involved in the dancing community. From 2009-2015, she also taught Pilates as an adjunct faculty member in the dance department at the Juilliard School.
After the pandemic hit, like many business owners across the country, Kenneally had to make some tough decisions, specifically about her lease, which was scheduled to renew in 2021. Her landlord wanted her to sign a new three- to five-year lease.
“We looked around, it was the same thing everywhere and it just was risky,” she says. “I mean, we managed through the whole shutdown and everything, but there's always that it could change in a moment, another shutdown. And as a business, that's just so risky to be locked into or commit to a three-year lease or a five-year lease. It just seemed too risky to do it again.”
The thought of leaving New York had never entered her mind, but it seemed that she had very few other options. Kenneally started scouring the country looking for the right place to transplant her studio. She was looking for an area that could provide her with a situation like she had in New York. That turned out to be Oklahoma City, which she had heard had a big dance community.
She thought that was intriguing. “And then the more I looked around—even the realtor here was like, ‘This is a growing neighborhood, a growing community here.’ That sounded really appealing. And people are really nice, I mean, when we got off the airplane, I thought, ‘Everyone's so nice here.’”
But most importantly for Kenneally, the thought of bringing something new to the Midtown area excited her. “It's a small business, just me here, and they seem friendly with the small businesses and pretty open-minded to not just cookie-cutter businesses, but people creating their own, whether it's art or craftsmanship,” Kenneally says.
In September 2021, Kenneally moved lock, stock and barrel from the Big Apple to the Big Friendly. It took a little longer for her equipment to arrive, which she assembled herself, and Circ Pilates Studio was born.
Kenneally knows most people have heard of Pilates, but may not know exactly what it is or how it can benefit them. One of her main tasks has been getting the word out. “I think five years from now, I'd like to see it be pretty vibrant, with a lot of people knowing more about what it is and enjoying it, coming in or doing their exercises at home and coming in and doing their workouts here,” she says. “Eventually, I could have a training program here. That would be down the line. And I think I need to let people know what it is first, before jumping ahead of myself. I don't plan on retiring anytime soon. That's for sure. I would just like to see it blossom.”
Pilates in the First Person
After the past two years of battling COVID (three times) and social isolation (at times), I was ready to make 2022 the year of stepping outside my comfort zone. With parts of the world still under lockdown, there is a limit to what I can do; no last-minute flights to Australia or Morocco.
When I was presented with the task of attending my first-ever Pilates class, I figured it was as good a start as any. I first found myself on the doorstep of Circ Pilates Studio in early January, and I really had no idea what to expect from studio owner Carrie Kenneally.
Wearing gray sweatpants and a navy long-sleeved shirt, I thought I might be underdressed. In my mind, I envisioned people who take Pilates wearing colorful spandex and fur wristbands. As someone who grew up playing and competing in sports such as football and wrestling, I also thought I had a pretty good grasp of what my body could or could not do.
For those who don’t know, Pilates is a system of exercises using special apparatus, designed to improve physical strength, flexibility and posture, and enhance mental awareness. Because Kenneally was trained and taught under Romana Kryzanowska, who was a protégé of Joseph Pilates himself, going through her sessions has an uniquely authentic feel.
“In the words of my mentor, Romana Kryzanowska, she always described it as being ‘stretch and strength,’ but there's also some control,” Kenneally said as she described Pilates to me. “And if somebody needed more strength, you would give them more strength in the exercises and some stretching. And then if they needed more stretching and less strength, you would do that. There's also a rehabilitative aspect to it.”
Kenneally’s Midtown studio, at first glance, appeared underwhelming when compared to the big gyms that populate cities. But as you listen to Kenneally talk more about what Joseph Pilates wanted to accomplish when he created his exercises, it’s easy to understand why: Everything in her studio has a purpose. Nothing was there that couldn’t be used in some way.
That includes each of the exercise apparatus, which were spread around the room. Some look like normal exercise or training machines, while others would look at home in a suburban household. They include the Reformers, Wunda Chairs, Half Barrels, Full Barrels, Ladder Barrels, the Cadillac, Highback Chair and Pedi-Poles. Kenneally had mercy and didn’t have me test everything out, but we did focus on a variety of different exercises that I had never done before.
Kenneally prefers the intimacy of the solo sessions. That can make things difficult for people like me, since I often try to hide in the back—out of the gaze of teachers, coaches and editors. (Life hack.) During our session, each time I started a new exercise on a new machine, Kenneally made sure every movement was correct. While I kept hoping she would give up and move on, we went over each move until I got it right. That is something that can’t be accomplished in a large class setting.
“[Joseph Pilates] really meant the work to be one-on-one, and I do offer duets,” Kenneally says. “People will do group classes, but it's really intended for one-on-one, and that's why I put it on hold for a bit. But if I'm doing a class, I've always kept it down, just a handful of people.”
Kenneally told me a few times, in a surprised-sounding tone, that I was extremely flexible. Therefore, what I heard was, “Michael, you should have been a professional dancer on Broadway or the NYC Ballet.” She didn't say those words, but that is what I heard.
Pilates can be beneficial for young athletes up to mature men and women who just want to be able to pick up their grandchildren. “In the case of the people who I work with, some are in their 90s. Others are maintaining their body in something like a soccer or football player,” Kenneally says. “Others are coming back from an injury.’’
When I finished my session, I was pleasantly surprised by how tired I was and that I could feel my muscles and joints talking to me. I was not expecting that at all. The trip to Circ Pilates turned out to be a great start to what I hope is an amazing year of living on the other side of my comfort zone.