The Program and Our Requirements

Our program trains instructors in Beginning, Intermediate, and Advanced Pilates Systems or Stages. It includes a Seminar for each Stage and a comprehensive Apprenticeship Program. Each Seminar is three to five days in length and instruction is by Teacher Trainers or Romana’s Pilates Level 1 or Level 2 Instructors, as appropriate.

Seminars must be taken in consecutive order and full attendance at each seminar is required. We offer two programs per year with an average of five students per class, so that at most ten students would be participating in the interactive lectures and seminars. Our teacher ratio is one teacher to three students.

PSI Apprenticeship takes the students through the three Stages for a minimum of 700 hours. Practical training includes:

• Actively observing certified teachers and instructors and assisting the teachers with clients when requested.
• Practice teaching other apprentices and supervised teaching of student clients.
• Weekly classes augment seminar information with discussion, direct feedback, client case studies and review.
• Recommended average of 15 to 25 hours per week.

Exams

Practical exams involve taking a client at each Stage through a 50-55 minute session while being observed and graded. The clients are carefully selected and screened from our large pool of Studio clients. Exams are graded using standardized test forms and generally take one to one and one-half hours.

Written exams are case studies at the beginning, intermediate or advanced level: the student will need to describe a workout for a specific individual, addressing his/her individual limitations and goals. Each exam generally requires six to eight hours of writing and is graded on a Pass/Fail basis.

Personal Workouts

As part of the training, apprentices are required to complete one private session plus one semi-private session per week with one of our certified instructors until they have successfully passed their final exams. This allows the student to continue their personal kinesthetic growth as well as expose them to a variety of teaching techniques.

Program Admissions Requirements

At the time of your application you need to demonstrate:

• Competence with Pilates mat and reformer at an advanced intermediate level
• Familiarity with other apparatus: barrels, chairs, cadillac, pedi-pole, etc.
• Knowledge of your own Pilates program and why you do each exercise
• A strong powerhouse

Before the first day of your first seminar, you will need to complete a minimum of 80 hours Romana’s Pilates personal exercise sessions…

• Of which at least 60 must be private sessions
• To be taken at a Pilates studio approved by the Directors of this studio (call for a list of locations and names)
• To be documented on a Summary of Pre-Seminar Workouts Form, available from the PSI front desk.

Evaluation

Your Assessment will include an interview and a practical Pilates assessment. The Evaluation will be conducted by a Director or an Instructor Trainer, during which you will perform your personal 55-minute workout.

The instructors will be looking for:

• Competence and knowledge of the apparatus
• Smooth transitions between exercises
• Proper rhythm and dynamics
• Mindful Understanding (mentally and physically) of the Principles of Pilates: control, centering, concentration, breath, precision, flow and rhythm and how they apply to the exercises. (You will need to practice saying the name and purpose of each exercise, if asked, while moving.)

Interview

The Interview will be approximately 30 minutes, in our school, with the Director and/or other Instructor Trainers.

The Director will be looking for:

• Enthusiasm and knowledge
• Potential as a teacher
• Ability to communicate
• Likelihood that the applicant will succeed in our physically and mentally rigorous program

Assessment Fee