PILATES WITH RIKA
ABOUT RIKA
Rika Brixie qualified as a Pilates instructor through Pilates Therapy and BASI Pilates CTTC. She is proud to be BASI Pilates Faculty, teaching the BASI Pilates Global Comprehensive Program, and her own BASI workshop ‘Pilates for Scoliosis’.
Rika’s first and enduring passion in life is movement. Rika discovered Pilates as a young dancer in the UK, following diagnosis with scoliosis. She later moved to New York City to study classical ballet, where she began to implement regular Pilates classes into her training, recognising it’s potential for injury prevention and body conditioning. Rika danced professionally over the following years with Atlanta Ballet and Oklahoma City Ballet.
Upon retirement from her ballet career in 2015, Rika returned to the UK and began her first certification as a Pilates Instructor. She has since completed additional training in Pilates for Athletes, Injuries and Pathologies,
Pregnancy, Hypermobility, Osteoporosis, The Foot, Dance Conditioning with Pilates and Pilates for Kids.
The experience of living with scoliosis has given Rika a unique insight into the deep workings of the body and movement. Pilates has been a tool of empowerment for Rika, enabling her to gain control of her condition and improve symmetrical balance around a spine that is inherently asymmetrical. Rika found true inspiration when she began teaching others with scoliosis. She was further able to observe the immense value of Pilates and the potentially transformative effects that it can hold for those with scoliosis.
PRACTICE & EDUCATION
PILATES
Pilates is a movement practice that emphasises muscular control, strengthening and toning the whole body through specific, precise sequences of exercises. Understanding of movement is deepened and habitual patterns improved upon by developing good communication between mind and body.
Pilates can be tailored to fit the needs of any individual, whether training as an elite dancer or athlete, as rehabilitation for an injury, or just as part of a healthy, active lifestyle.
Rika provides Pilates tuition both privately and in group settings.
SCOLIOSIS SPECIALISATION
Informed by her experiences, both as a person with scoliosis (three-dimensional twist of spine) and working with clients with scoliosis, Rika created her own method of Pilates for Scoliosis, affectionately named Curvy Spine Magic™.
Rika's method utilises a range of Pilates exercises, specifically designed to suit each individual curve. When practiced consistently, Pilates for Scoliosis helps to retrain the deep muscles of the trunk, addressing imbalances and promoting improved alignment during exercise and everyday life. In turn, this reduces the aesthetic, psychological and physical affects of a scoliosis.
Rika developed the BASI Pilates Advanced Education workshop 'Pilates for Scoliosis', which she has the great pleasure of teaching internationally. This workshop enables her to share her method with the broader Pilates community, in order to help other instructors to work with clients with scoliosis.
