Macau showgirl turned Pilates instructor on how the exercises can change your life, and her tips for staying fit and mobile
- After seven years as a Macau showgirl, Corinne Clifford became a Pilates instructor to keep fit and teach others how to increase muscle strength and flexibility
- She thinks more men should do Pilates, especially if they play sports, and says those who take it up need to make it part of their everyday life
Pilates instructor Corinne Clifford moves around the room assisting students in a private class. With one she corrects inward-turning toes, the other she tells to slow down the movement. She places her hand under my spine – too much space, she says, I need to use my abdominal muscles to push my body flat on to the mat.
With BASI (Body Arts Science International) Pilates, Clifford is continuing an exercise format created by a German boxer and circus performer, who was placed in an internment camp in England at the outset of the first world war.
To stay fit he devised a set of exercises for himself and fellow detainees, with breathing techniques and an emphasis on the conditioning and muscle strength of the whole body. He would later go to New York, where he opened a studio and continued to study anatomy and fitness, and shared his knowledge and passion for a fitness programme that is going strong a century later.
This morning, I give a silent salute to Joseph Pilates as, with arms outstretched behind me I roll my body up to a sitting position, the aptly named Roll-Up.
From Essex in southeast England, Clifford is a former ballet dancer and ex-Macau showgirl, who performed for seven years until 2008 at the Hotel Lisboa in The Crazy Paris Show, which still runs today and is based on the legendary cabaret Crazy Horse Paris. Photographs show Clifford in glittering headgear, feather boas and French-style Can Can outfits.
