We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Nathalie Gonthier a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Nathalie, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

I’d want to say that living life is a contant mesuring of risks, affecting our daily desicions, for the short or the long term. Life is a risk. Moving to another country with no plan. Having a child. Changing career. Risk is an engine, a motivation, a way to mesure every day’s life moment, encounter, decision, etc. Risk is good, risk is scary. Talking to people is a risk, a risk to please them or offend them, a risk to make a friend or an enemy or fall in love.
There is no change by staying where it’s comfortable. Progress happens through taking risks to jump into the unknown. The risky part of that is not the Jump, but the landing. How well or not we are negotiating the outcome of taking a risk is what will make it worth it.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a Pilates Instructor & Westwood Pilates-Mar Vista studio manager

I am a certified instructor through Jill Cassady’s Pilates Technique, Inc. I continued my Classical Pilates discovery and education through seminars and workshops with Vintage Pilates under the guidance of Sandy Shimoda and Jay Grimes. I first discovered the benefits of Classical Pilates after my pregnancy. From my first private session, I was amazed at how quickly Pilates helped me recover physically and how good it made me feel, mentally and emotionally.

As I was exploring new careers after years of sitting in front of a computer, I started to see a possibility for change in becoming a Certified Pilates Instructor. During my Certification training process I discovered a passion for teaching. With my body changing as I age, I am constantly learning and growing in the practice of Classical Pilates. Feeling ever stronger, fitter and pain free is what I wish to share with my clients while staying true to Joseph Pilates’s method.

After teaching Pilates as an independent instructor, at a few different studios, I met Daniela Escobar, owner of Westwood Pilates Studio in 2019. Daniela’s studio is a Classical Pilates studio fully equipped with classical apparatus founded in 2013. Since then the studio has grown, survived the Covid19 pandemic, and in 2022 expanded in the opening of a second smaller studio in Mar Vista, which I now manage. We just celebrated the One Year anniversary of this private studio in Mar Vista, and soon we will be celebrating the 10 years anniversary of the Westwood one. Over the years, Westwood Pilates created a community of Pilates enthusiasts and a home away from home from beginners to seasoned teachers. We aim to provide a space where people feel comfortable and welcome, no matter what your age, ethnicity, gender, fitness level, or movement background.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

There is sometimes a believe that you need to have a strong drive, a specific goal, an entrepreneurial mindset to succeed in building an independent lifestyle that you thrive in. Looking back at my journey I am often surprised to realize that I have been able to make a living doing what I love, through changes, hard work sometimes, passions, but not with a set, clear goal.
I was born in France, studied Fine Arts and Digital Visual Arts. I started working in Paris as a grip and coordinator on sets for commercials. I moved to Los Angeles without a clear idea of what I will be doing or for how long I will be staying (it’s now been 27 years). Through encounters and opportunities I started a carrier in Digital Effects for motion pictures. I learned and worked as a Digital artist for over 20 years. I enjoyed the creation of images and working with teams of talented artists, helping create the most stunning Visual Effects to see on the big screen. When I turned to Pilates, I was already thinking about a career change, but I had never planned in becoming a Pilates teacher. As my interest for this method of exercising grew and I learned the history of Joseph pilates, I transitioned from one field to another that is now a passion. This passion lead me to manage a classical Pilates studio, working with a community of people that I love learning from. I don’t know what my next journey will be, but I am keeping an open mind for anything that can come my way. I do like changes. The same way I like Pilates because it involves physical movement, I like the way life moves me in different directions over time. Stagnation is scaring me, monotony, stillness. Through movement and changes I constantly learn, progress, build resilience, knowledge and experience. Movement is constructive in every way. To go with the flow, or to follow the courant has been working for me so far. We must take the risk to set something in motion in order to see change, no matter what it is we have in mind, or happening in our life. Taking a risk isn’t always about doing something bold and unexpected, it can be about letting go of a certainty.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

That is an interesting question. What did I have to unlearn in order to move forward? The answer is probably: everything.
When I started Art School, on the first drawing class, our graphic arts teacher started by telling the students that we had to unlearn everything we thought we knew about the action of drawing. Not only on how to draw, but how to look. Basically he told us we didn’t know how to draw even though we had all been accepted based on a drawing portfolio. So, for the first few months, we learned to draw without looking at our hand and paper, just the subject in front of us. This exercise forces the brain, and the coordination to the hand, to process the action of drawing in a different way than when we draw from memory (what we think a subject is supposed to look like). We had to unlearn how we look at the world in front of us.
When I moved from France to the United State I had to unlearn and adapt to different social codes, language, dynamics between people.
When it came to Pilates I had to unlearn what I thought I knew about the body, and relearn about the mechanic of the body so I could adapt my teaching to each client’s need and specificity.
You can’t be set in certainty, or stuck in one way, to build and progress. Being creative is constantly looking at things in a new, different way.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://westwoodpilates.com/home
• Instagram: @nathaliespilates
• Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/nathalie-gonthier-77b6603

Image Credits
Image credit for black and white photo banners in some images of the inside of the Pilates studio: Chuck Rapoport icrapoport.com inta: @ic_rapoport.photo