GUILDERLAND — Kay Fuller knew as a child that she wanted to be a dance teacher. After 40 years of teaching across the country, she’s now instructing students at the Guilderland Ballet.

But, it’s not ballet she’s teaching. Fuller teaches pilates, an exercise designed to help dancers and gymnasts be more flexible.
"It’s an awareness of your own body," Fuller said of pilates.

As she told The Enterprise about her career this week, she pulled her body into different positions, using equipment in her home studio. The fit woman made it look easy, and a smile never left her face.
With ease, Fuller grabbed the bars of one of her benches, which she called "The Cadillac," and pulled both legs over a lower bar. As she continued speaking about the equipment, she flipped her body in a complete circle. Then, she hung upside-down like a gymnast.

Fuller occasionally glanced at her reflection in a giant mirror that lined one of the walls.
On another piece of equipment, dubbed "The Reformer," Fuller said she could do over 500 different exercises.

Anyone can learn pilates and become more flexible, Fuller said. She described students who took her class to lose weight and were amazed that, after a few weeks, they could bend their bodies easily.
"It develops confidence when you’re able to be stronger," she said.

Born to teach

Fuller grew up in Flint, Mich. When she was 10, she was walking home from school and she saw a girl leaning over her porch. The girl was stretching out her legs and touched her knee with her head, Fuller said.
"I was excited," she said. "I asked her what she was doing and she said, ‘Ballet.’"

Fuller went home and asked her parents if she could take a ballet class. They agreed.
Before taking the class, Fuller said, "I’d find I could put my body in different positions." When she twisted her body, she never knew what it looked like, she said. So, she got her friends to bend in the same positions, she said.

This, Fuller said, was her first attempt at teaching.
"Some people really like performing and some like teaching others. I’m a teacher," she said.

At 14, Fuller was in the dance studio every night. She then began working as a teacher’s apprentice, she said.
"It wasn’t like it was work," she said. "It was something I liked to do."

Fuller then started her first dance studio, in Flint, at the age of 17; she had 108 dancers.
"We performed for quite a few years," Fuller said. "Flint was a very cultural city at that time."

Several years later, Fuller moved to North Carolina, when her husband took a job there.

She began work as a hair stylist, she said, because it seemed easier than starting another dance studio. She enjoyed that work, she said, and did it for 15 years.
"I’d get to meet lots of interesting people and develop my communication skills," Fuller said.

But, Fuller continued to take dance classes and, for flexibility, she did tai chi, a Chinese form of exercise, and yoga, from the Hindu tradition.
"I had problems with my neck and shoulders and I just fell in to teaching pilates," Fuller said.

Actually, she said, she recalls it perfectly.

Fuller was eating lunch with three friends and she told them that she was ready to get back into teaching.
"I always had an excuse before," she said. "But, this time, I said, ‘I don’t care. I’m going to do it.’"

The next morning, she said, her pilates teacher asked her if she wanted to teach a class.
"I thought that was a sign," Fuller said. "So, I did it."

Pilates passion
Teaching pilates, she said, "is a way for me to express movement and help people overcome pain."
"It’s fun," Fuller said. "Any anybody can take the classes."

But, she said, it is especially useful for ballet students.
It strengthens their core muscle groups and hips and leg muscles, she said. "They’d have less injuries if they were stronger in their upper and lower back."

Fuller and her family later moved again, to Kansas City, where her husband attended ministerial school.

Fuller was director of the pilates program at the Kansas City Ballet Company, she said.
"After doing pilates, I looked at dance differently," Fuller said. "When we danced in Flint, we did pilates warm-ups before class, but I didn’t really know it was pilates."
Asked to define pilates, Fuller said, "It’s a series of exercises that help you come back into perfect alignment with your posture and make your body fully functional."

The exercise helps people become more flexible and less prone to muscle injuries, she said.
"It develops an awareness of your personal limitations and makes the body more efficient," Fuller said. "We have a few muscles in the body we overdevelop while the rest hang out and don’t do anything."

Pilates helps people burn calories more efficiently and makes them feel more energetic, she said.

Some pilates is taught with students using just floor mats, Fuller said.
"You learn how to work your own body," she said.

Fuller’s family moved to Delmar two-and-a-half years ago, so her husband could take a job as a minister at Unity Church.
"I had my equipment and, when I first came here, I didn’t know very many people," she said. "But, I didn’t want to lose my skills."

Fuller started out small, teaching both in her home and outside, at local dance studios. She also certifies other people to teach pilates.

More advanced students use equipment in their exercises, she said. Fuller has turned her Delmar basement into a pilates studio. Three large contraptions — which look like benches with ropes, bars, and pulleys — sit in the middle of the room.

For anyone

A person doesn’t have to be flexible to take a pilates class, Fuller said.
"It will make you flexible as you do it," she said.

Her pilates students aren’t all dancers, she said. One woman she teaches has multiple sclerosis and does pilates to increase her mobility, Fuller said.

Others take the class to loose weight, she said.
"People take it that broke their legs, ankles, feet," Fuller said. "It’s a cross between physical therapy and exercise."

Fuller began teaching pilates at the Guilderland Ballet this summer and will continue in the fall. The school is located off of Route 155, near Fountain View, formerly called Mill Hill.
"It’s hard work for the little girls," Fuller said. "They had summer camp and I taught every day for four weeks. I could see a difference in their flexibility by the last class. It was satisfying."
She went on, "I like working with dancers because I know what their issues are. I know how they feel and what can make them better. I can add a few years to their performance lives."

Fuller recommends that parents encourage their children to take ballet or gymnastics. Her son and daughter, who are now grown, took ballet for years, she said, and it helped them physically.
"A lot of people in this area push sports on kids," Fuller said. "Soccer does not help strengthen the spine and alignment.
"I also notice kids are not as flexible as they were 40 years ago," she said. "Maybe that’s because they sit at computers so much. It amazes me when students say they have trouble doing splits."

The most important thing to remember when taking dance or exercise classes, she concluded, is for a person to listen to her body and know her limitations.