Charnise Lewis has always found a way to move her body. Whether it was hiking until beads of sweat dripped from her head onto her shoe or taking long summer walks on the Ohio and Erie Canal Towpath Trail with the sun beaming on her skin — she was exercising.
When she discovered Pilates, she was captivated not only by the flow of the mind and body exercise but by the release she felt after each session.
There was just one issue. As a woman of color, she rarely took classes with Pilates instructors and classmates who looked like her.
So she did something about it. The Akron native is now a certified Mat 1 Pilates instructor and aims to reach and serve what she considers an untapped audience as the owner of Jewell Method Pilates. For $10, participants can drop by 2056 Romig Road (in Akron’s Kenmore neighborhood) with their mat on most Saturday mornings. There are also free classes at House Three Thirty on select days.
“I’m a plus-size instructor — I’m Black,” said Lewis, 34, who started teaching pilates this year. “You don’t see that.”
“So, this is for everybody.”
Lewis’ experience echoes across the nation. While more than 12 million Americans participated in Pilates in the last three years, only 7% were Black, making it a health and fitness space that can appear less inviting for some.
Lewis isn’t the only Pilates instructor to address the lack of melanin in classes. From Akron to Chicago to Cleveland and online, Pilates is being reintroduced to people of color and reinvented by the same community.
At its core, the late Kathleen Stanford Grant was one of the first Black women to teach Pilates, popularizing the mind-body exercise in the mid-1960s alongside its creator, Joseph Pilates.
Generations later, Black-owned studios are popping up, and more Black women are becoming instructors, from Train Pretty with Chas, who offers classes in Cleveland, to Cammy Nicole Stevens, a Chicago-based instructor at Rogers Park Moves.
“We definitely try to have a sliding scale or tiered pricing for all across the board,” Stevens said. “I think that it’s a way where it’s like everyone wants it to be as accessible as possible as well as my online classes.”
Black women at the center of Pilates
In Akron, Nicole Benson tried out Pilates because she wanted to stay consistent with her fitness journey through less intense workouts.
After a couple years of attending classes in private studios, studios with reformers and community-led classes taught by Lewis, Benson prefers to surround herself with convenience and diversity, from equipment to the people on mats rolled out next to her.
“It was so welcoming,” Benson, 33, said. “How we had the brunch, how we had somebody praying for us, reading scripture. It was more so of a family dynamic and a oneness.
“It’s something that you would want to motivate you to come back, a sisterhood, almost.”
In Chicago, Stevens noticed more women of color attending her beginner-friendly classes two years ago at Rogers Park Moves.
“I think that collective intention definitely carries,” said Stevens, who became an instructor through Black Girl Pilates. “And we just want to make sure that everyone knows that everybody can do it [Pilates].
“It also has expanded, for me, beyond race to include different ways that people can access, so that people can move their bodies and disabilities as well.”
Sonja Herbert, the founder of Black Girl Pilates, said she discovered the exercise through an increase in founding Black women instructors such as Sarita Allen and Cynthia Shipley. Herbert wanted to create a space for Pilates instructors of color to discuss inequities they experience.
Herbert has since continued to invite groups of instructors to her studio in Atlanta, opening the floor for an annual conversation.
“I spent probably the beginning of that [my career] doing a lot of fighting,” Herbert said. “So to speak, or pushing back against white colleagues.
“So, it’s been quite a journey.”
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What is Pilates?
Pilates, originally called Contrology, is a low-impact exercise that was developed on centering, concentration, control, precision, breath and flow.
For those who have never taken a Pilates class, the word that frequently bounces around the room is “core.” Instructors push for students to engage it — muscles in the abdomen, back and pelvis — in each exercise, along with a focus on breath control.
Joseph Pilates’ goal was for the exercise to be cost effective, accessible and a form of recovery for injured patients. Pilates created what many call an “apparatus” by attaching springs to a hospital bed. Other apparatus include reformer, tower, Pilates chair, ladder and arc barrel and cadillac (trapeze table). The reformer is an equipment option with a bed-like frame, sliding carriage, adjustable springs, a foot bar and resistance straps.
Stanford Grant, a dancer herself, shared Pilates with classical ballet and jazz dancers in New York, and the exercise continued to spread.
Finding diversity in her classes, creating her own
Rhythm & Release, a free mat Pilates and yoga class hosted by Lewis and yoga instructor Jamila Bowens, was a collaborative class that launched one of Lewis’ Pilates series held in March at House Three Thirty. Before this event was dreamed up, Lewis slowly inserted herself into the world of Pilates with at-home mat workouts on YouTube. She then enrolled at Club Pilates, a reformer-based Pilates franchise.
It wasn’t inviting.
“Nobody’s talking to me, but everybody’s talking to each other around,” she remembered. “I know I’m only here to work out and not make friends, but still.”
Last year, Lewis started taking classes at PeaceCore Studios, a longtime studio in the Akron area also offering barre, restorative yoga, yoga and sound bath.
“They’re very warm and welcoming, but you still want your people,” Lewis said. “I needed to share this experience with us. I need to become that person.”
The inviting feel is evident at Jewell Method Pilates, but with emphasis on body types. Her motto is for every BODY, which leans into Pilates for all, no matter their sizes — curvy, thin or in between.
“I am helping people see what’s inside of them that’s already there,” Lewis said.
Pilates in Akron and surrounding areas
Lewis is looking forward to growing Jewell Method Pilates. One of the first steps is renting a studio. In March, she started offering recurring mat Pilates classes for $10 and will continue to host event series like Certified Lover Girl Pilates with Bowens.
“I see it being huge, and I’m kind of scared about it,” Lewis said.
“Nothing is impossible, it’s just hard.”
Jewell Method Pilates is one of several accessible, inexpensive and low-impact fitness opportunities in the Akron area.
- Balch Street Fitness Center in West Hill has Pilates classes for Fitness Class Pass holders.
- The Royal Vault in Wallhaven hosts themed Pilates events focusing on nutrition.
- Yoga by Mi at 2056 Romig Road hosts 9 a.m. yoga classes.
