Transcription
Hi, I'm Katie Kempner and welcome to Perspectives, which is a series of inspiring conversations with remarkable working women. And today I am absolutely thrilled to be speaking with my friend and Pilates instructor at times because I'm really just beginning to be in advanced, Renee Rica, the founder of Renee Rica Pilates. Renee, welcome. Thank you very much for having me on your show. Thank you. Thank you so much for joining us. For those of you who don't know, Rene Riga is renowned in the field of Pilates, and you're going to learn why. But before we get there, Rene, can you just give us a summary of your career journey to where you are today? So I'm originally from South Africa. I was born in Johannesburg. And I have to thank my mother, who was a beautiful woman, and my dad, who was actually very handsome. They both loved the theater. They both loved to dance. They both loved sports. My mother played the piano. And her mother never taught her to dance. So I think part of it was for me to go. She took me to a dance ballet class. at four years old, and I was very shy. From what I remember, when I was six years old, I was in a show, and then I fell in love with ballet, which is I am a dancer, and my life continued there as a ballerina. I started competing at the age of eight and I am very humbled, but I do hold the title of South African ballet champion for like five years in a row. And then I won many, many scholarships as Americans say, but in South Africa, we say bursaries. I won a bursary to the Royal Ballet in London, England. So my very first bursary I won was, I was 11. And it just so happened my teacher, who became like my second mom, actually, her husband was from London. And when I won this scholarship, she came over with me. And I met a woman who was a disciple of Nijinsky. She was Russian. Her name was Molly Lake. And we went into a cold water studio at 11 with my pointe shoes, freezing in winter. And coming from South Africa, that wasn't pleasant. And she said, do you want to dance? And I just, I never spoke, by the way. I never spoke to anyone. I was yes or no. I nodded my head. And literally that woman and Sheila, my teacher was sitting, who was a very big character, was sitting with her arms folded in a chair in the corner. And she just looked at me and I knew I just nodded. And she taught me to spin. And she had me literally standing in front of a mirror, learning how to spot. I was there for four weeks. And then she said, I'm going to take you to the corner and we're going to do grand jetes across the room. And she lifted up and she said, you don't dance small, you dance big. And she literally lifted me up in the air and I flipped my legs and landed. And I literally could jump in the air. And that was the beginning of my journey of coming into the theater. And then I landed up there later at 16 years old. Amazing. At the Royal Ballet. So that is so amazing. Can we fast forward to when you were a Broadway dancer and when you worked with Hal Prince? What was that like? Well, you have to understand, not being American, when I arrived in America, it was 1969. I was a very young girl. And I couldn't cross the streets because I thought that I would never make it over to the other side. And... My first Broadway audition was for Cabaret. And Hal Prince was there, but then also Ron Field, who was an amazing choreographer. The music people, the women and men behind the scenes or the producers were there. And I got into the audition. And then at that time, I got in as a swing dancer, which means I wasn't performing, but I would understudy every dancer that I had to understudy in case they got sick. I said, I can do this. I came all the way from South Africa. I'm not standing in the back row. I'm going to stand with the hundred others right in the front row. Sheila taught me that, my teacher. Never stand in the back, love. Always stand in the front. And if you goof it off, you know, just make something up. So that was my training. So it was exciting. It was, I didn't feel different. I felt that I belonged. And then you went on to dance many times on Broadway, right? Yes. And then you ended up coming to South Florida, right? Yes. And then years later, I landed up in South Florida, much to my amazement. My son was ill and having good Florida sunshine was the answer to everything for us. Yes. So how long ago did you open your studio? I'm very proud to say this is my 25 and a half years with my studio, the Renee Rica Pilates Center. Yes. Renee, why don't you tell us, what is Pilates? Pilates is a mind-body connection, proprioception, sweat, strength, stamina, focus, lengthening, Core power. So who was Joseph Pilates? He was a boxer. He was a circus performer. He loved anatomy. He took movements from organic animals and he created the most phenomenal workout. of exercises that took decades scientifically to do. Let's talk a little bit about this because your studio, Rene Rica Pilates, is based on the original Pilates methodology. And a lot of people probably don't even know what that means or what that is compared to what they know of Pilates. Can you share a little bit about what true Pilates is? Yes, absolutely. I can't wait for this opportunity. There's only one Pilates method. What has formed around that are hybrids. So professionally speaking, I can only say hybrids. It's gym workouts on a reformer, taking bits and pieces of work and performing it into a workout from the gym with loud music, colored lights, calling them everything, adding on Pilates. You can't bastardize a product. You can't change it to something that you might think is more hip. It is hipper than it's ever been since 1800s. It works. Those exercises you could take home with you and do it at home. Joe was all about the mind, the body. I'm gonna give you a story about Joe because it's all about Joe. It's in 1961, he said, The course of my life was determined as a child and the years have been happy since I've had more to give than to get. 1961. Six years before he died. He changed people's lives for the better being happy because he had more to give than to receive. There is a brilliant book on Joe that took 10 years in the making. And it's really, get to know Joe Pilates by Kathy Strack, who I happen to have gone to the opening to. Being a business owner, I never thought I would be a business owner. I always thought I would, my forte is being entertaining on the stage. It's easy for me because I've been given a gift and I have the passion and have the love. And then when I was in New York, we were all sent by the corporation, which of course, you know, the productions and people were, you got to go and do Pilates, you know? And we were like, in 1970, nobody knew about Pilates. There was all the first generation teachers. There was Romana. There was Kathy Grant. There was Ron Fletcher. There was Carola who trained me. And Pilates wasn't what it was. It's a different Pilates today. It's been watered down. So people don't know the difference. But in those times, we went there for Pilates. And I must say, the first time I saw all those apparatuses, we were all standing there. There were like six of us looking at these apparatuses and looking at each other and saying, how on earth, what are we doing here? You know, and then Of course, we learned the benefits of how brilliant this is. But then getting back to being a dancer and a performer and an artist in everything. I mean, I have so many things, modalities I've done. I'm South African flamenco champion. I've done Greek dancing, mime. I'm a graduate of RADA from London, so elocution, Macbeth, how to speak correctly. I didn't go to business school, so I didn't even know that. I never thought about the money. I always thought about the gifts of the audience as the bonus. I want to talk about Pilates, but just to kind of go ahead, since this is what you're saying, you never thought about being a business owner. How did you become a business owner? Circumstance. Circumstance. Yes. Sometimes the best way. And so, you know, you never know where life is going to take you. Right. That's correct. Circumstance. So many people, when they're talking about brands and growing your personal brand, which is something that is very important in a lot of different businesses, are always talking about brands. What you can do on social media, you know, that's the way because social media is amazing because it reaches so many people if done right. And that's how you have to grow your brand. You've grown your brand by really and by word of mouth, by excellence. Can you speak to that a little bit, that there are other ways to grow your brand that don't include, not saying that your studio isn't on social media, but there are other ways to grow your brand that isn't specific to social media, but is much more about living in real life. So my brand, it's very interesting when in the last 10 years, I've reached out to the millennials and They are the ones that love to run to all these hybrids. However, when they come in here, the brand, they love the methodology that I sliver through into the work. Like I'll suddenly say, do you know where the springs come from? And they look at me and they'll go, no. So I educate them and they're excited about it. There are a lot of people that would love to take their passion, the way you feel about Pilates, and make it into a business. But as we both know, as business owners, having your own business is hard. It's challenging. It's tricky at times. Do you have any advice for someone who wants to make their passion into a business? I believe that whatever you study in life, you've got to really know your product. You've got to really know what that is. So if you fall in love with Pilates and you want to open up a studio, I would say learn from the best person you can, get to know the work, understand the work. And then I really believe that every Pilates owner who has no business experience should learn and go to the basics of running a business. How do I do payroll? What is the best location? How do I start? Do I buy 10 machines? Do I buy five machines? Most important is to understand the business side of the business as well. Be passionate about that and learn that. Learn that because not everybody goes to business school and most Pilates teachers, like most dancers, are not good at business. You really have to learn basic business common sense, good accountant, understand why you charging, numbers. It's all about the numbers. Renee, I want to just ask you, why is it especially important for women to have a strong core? Well, women have to give birth. A strong core gives a strong spine. incontinence it's everything to keep the structure of the body healthy because every movement you make whether your arms your legs comes from the pelvic floor the pelvic floor is the most important part of our bodies besides our feet one final question is there one piece of advice that has really helped you through your life in your career that you could please share with us? Yes. I say that very quickly. Humbleness, integrity, a passion to give to others, and always respect the art of what you're doing. Well, it has really worked for you. Thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you. And thank you for listening.