THE CALMA STORY

Tropical Background

Before moving to France and creating CALMA Studio, I studied and taught Pilates classes in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for over a decade to men and women, without thinking much about the concepts. My work was a fusion of Pilates exercises and therapeutic body awareness with a touch of dance expression. It was also marked by a good dose of joy and pleasure, so inherent to Brazilian culture.

Womanhood Calling

Still in Rio, I became a doula and expanded my professional career by creating classes for pregnant women. When I became a mother, I developed unique birth preparation and postpartum classes. Faced with my new roles and responsibilities, I became very interested and involved in the complexity of women's nature. I felt the desire to support myself and other women. That’s why I started organizing women’s circles.

The Cyclic Nature

A woman's life is marked by the presence or absence of menstruation which marks feminine passages and specific phases of life. As I got to know my students and myself intimately, I became more aware of our cyclical patterns. I noticed that my classes were different depending on my own cycle and energy level. Working with the same women over many years, I was also able to notice the changes in their mood and energy. Some always missed a class during their period. Others disappeared even before, faced with a lack of energy and overall tension, then reappeared to start again.

Putting The Puzzles Together

After moving to France and becoming a mother for the second time, I took advantage of the opportunity and time to redefine my work. I found myself looking for a different approach, woman-centered, and one that would support women in every phase of their lives.

CALMA Concept Creation

In my busy, multi-role life, I found myself saying calma almost every other word, for myself, my children and my partner. Like a mantra, it was an unconscious call for pause, relief and silence.

In Portuguese calma is synonymous with calm, tranquility and serenity. I realized that this word embodies my search – an antidotum to the pressures of the modern lifestyle. We need calma to give a break from our stressful and busy lives. We also need calma to approach our training while respecting our cyclical nature and preserving our femininity.

CALMA Philosophy

Within the letters of CALMA, I found words that had always been important in my classes. On the level of mind it is composed of Connection, Acceptance, Love, Mindfulness and Awareness. On the level of body it contains Core, Alignement, Laughter, Movement and Agility.

CALMA invites women to abandon automatic repetition and masculine models of competition with ourselves and others. It emphasizes self-love and self-acceptance to cope with the pressures of society. It invites awareness, joy, pleasure and laughter.