Good Neighbor Podcast: Tri-Cities
Bringing together local businesses and neighbor of the Tri-Cities region. Good Neighbor Podcast hosted by Skip Mauney helps residents discover and connect with your local business owners in and around The Tri-Cities.
Is your business serving the residents of Tri-Cities? Then, we need to talk! Visit gnpTri-Cities.com to schedule your free interview.
Good Neighbor Podcast: Tri-Cities
EP# 260: Strength, Healing, and Community: Inside Rose Pilates Studio
What makes Dianne Rose with Rose Pilates a good neighbor?
Discover the transformative world of authentic Pilates with Dianne Rose, owner of Rose Pilates in Asheville, North Carolina. With roots tracing back to her days as a professional dancer in San Francisco, Dianne shares her remarkable journey of learning from one of Joseph Pilates' original students—a rare connection to the discipline's founding principles that infuses her teaching with exceptional depth and authenticity.
The conversation unveils fascinating insights about the evolution of Pilates, distinguishing between classical methods that preserve Joseph's original vision and contemporary approaches that have expanded to embrace therapeutic applications. Dianne's inclusive philosophy shines through as she explains how Rose Pilates welcomes everyone: "any age, any size, any background" with specialized programming that serves both seniors seeking improved mobility and athletes pursuing peak performance. Men, once reluctant to try Pilates, now discover its remarkable benefits for back pain, posture, and overall strength.
Beyond fitness, Dianne reveals how Rose Pilates has become a sanctuary for community healing, especially following the devastating impact of Hurricane Helene. With approximately 60 trees lost on her property alone, Dianne's personal resilience mirrors the studio's commitment to providing stability during challenging times. "We listen to people, we see people, we treat everyone as an individual," she explains, highlighting the studio's core values of communication, acceptance, and genuine connection. Whether you're curious about Pilates or seeking a supportive wellness community, visit rosepilates.com to explore how this inclusive approach might transform your own health journey.
To learn more about Rose Pilates go to:
Rose Pilates
(828) 333-2223
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Skip Monty.
Speaker 2:Well, hello everyone and welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. So today I am very excited to have a very special guest in the studio with us and super excited to learn all about them and their business. And I'm sure you will be too, because today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, Miss Diane Rose, the owner operator of Rose Pilates. Diane, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3:Thank you, glad to be here.
Speaker 2:Well, we're thrilled to have you Like, I said very excited to learn all about we focus on locally owned small businesses in the region and really excited to learn all about what you do. So if you don't mind, why don't you kick us off by telling us about Rose Pilates?
Speaker 3:Oh, my goodness. We are an authentic Pilates studio with five different instructors that come from varied trainings and backgrounds, that offer all kinds of healing and health tips and body fitness tips and wellness information for everybody, any age, any size, any background, to come into our studio and become well and healthy and fit and enjoy all the fun and joy that we have to offer through our studio. We're about fun, we're about community and we're about people being the best they can possibly be.
Speaker 2:So everyone's, welcome.
Speaker 3:Everyone's welcome.
Speaker 2:Awesome, awesome. Well, Diane, how did you get into the Pilates business?
Speaker 3:I started.
Speaker 3:I had an introduction to Pilates when I was probably about 21 years old, when I was living in San years old, when I was living in San Francisco as a dancer a professional dancer and I was introduced to the basic Pilates format mat work before the equipment was even known in this country it was developed by Joseph Pilates, so few knew about it.
Speaker 3:But we had the opportunity to have someone who had some training. One of the original students of Joseph Pilates used to come to our dance studio and teach us the mat exercises and I found that by doing those exercises my body got stronger and stronger and strong enough to continue the rigors of being a dancer. And once I did that, had that experience I said that if I ever had an introduction or an opportunity to train in the Pilates format, I would definitely do that. So there have been many experiences along the way, having the opportunity to work with who we call the elders of Pilates, and the elders were the people that actually trained with Joseph Pilates. So I feel very fortunate to have had that early on experience.
Speaker 2:Wow, I did not know there was a guy named Joseph Pilates. I didn't know. That's where that came from. Very interesting. Well, what are some myths or misconceptions in the Pilates industry?
Speaker 3:Well, it's kind of split a little bit. Pilates industry. Well, it's kind of split a little bit Since Joseph Pilates is no longer alive. He died in the 60s. He had developed this system of work and he also built the equipment himself. So since he is no longer present to tell us what his work is all about authentically from him, we've kind of relied on the people that trained with him. But there's been a split in the industry where some people call it classical Pilates and some people call it contemporary. I love both. They're both wonderful, they both have their place and it's been a bit of a challenge to create a unification between those two formats of Pilates. And it has gotten a little watered down through the years because there's so many different people out there. Sort of recreating I call it recreating the wheel, so to speak. But Pilates is Pilates, just like fitness is fitness. Pilates is Pilates, just like fitness is fitness. But there's misconceptions around whether this is really Pilates or not.
Speaker 2:Wow so classical and usually contemporary.
Speaker 3:Pilates Contemporary.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, so classical is what Joseph Pilates intended it to be.
Speaker 3:Well, it's what the people of today call it classical. Well, it's what the people of today call it classical, and others contemporary, have their own definition of it because of their training and their background. So it's to me classical and contemporary. There isn't that much of a difference in the authentic use of it than the people that trained when I trained 30 years ago. The authentic use of it and the people that trained when I trained 30 years ago, I think contemporary spun out because a lot of physical therapists got attracted to the work because there's a great rehab component to it. So they have probably expanded on the work a little bit and created more of a therapeutic work basis around it. A lot of PTs are using it in their practices so, and the contemporary or the classical is definitely his format from the books that he wrote and it's wonderful. So both pieces of work have their benefits as long as they're kept within that framework.
Speaker 2:Very good, Very good to know Well as far as your customers, and who are your target customers and how do you attract them.
Speaker 3:Our customers are of every age and every range and we're in Asheville area. So the last I mean. Asheville, has really sort of exploded in the last few years and I have found that it was the city people that really were more attracted to it or had more of the time or the interest in it, and that's kind of where it started, like in New York and Miami and LA, and the bigger cities and a lot of these big city people are moving to these, the smaller, what used to be a really small, lovely town of Asheville. So in the last 10 years we really had that draw of people that had been doing Pilates and we also attract dancers, athletes and people that are trying to or have rehabbed from injuries or have found that this work has been extremely beneficial for them in every possible way. It really is for everybody.
Speaker 3:We do have a considerable amount of people that are 50s and above. It seems to be attracting that population. So we have several classes specifically for an older population, but we also have a younger population too that are more athletic and more fit. So fitness is not just, you know, for one population, it's for everyone. So we attract everybody.
Speaker 3:Everybody, there you go, that's good Men too, by the way. We do have men in the studio. It took them a while. It took them a while to get on board, you know, and a lot of the guys would come in and go. My wife told me I need to be here, and once they get the experience, they find, wow, this has really been great for me and I feel a lot better. I feel stronger, my back doesn't hurt anymore, my posture has increased, so we are attracting more and more men as time goes on.
Speaker 2:Very good.
Speaker 3:Well, outside of work, diane, what do you like to do for fun? Oh my gosh, I have the most incredible garden that you could ever imagine in your life, and I've also been in a massively huge cleanup project around my property lately because I got hit pretty hard by the hurricane, so I've been doing a lot of replanting and you know like all the trees are gone. So that's been primarily my focus right now, which is trying to rehab my home and the property that I live on. I'm very social, so I love to be with my friends outside of work and I love the community of peoples that we have created at the studio. So my passion is really people.
Speaker 2:So, speaking of the hurricane, you know, of course Asheville, western North Carolina, got hammered and East. Tennessee too, actually, but I live on the Nolichucky River and East Tennessee too, actually, but I live on the Nolichucky River and it came up really hot, but hopefully you said you had lots of trees stacked up, so do you live near the river?
Speaker 3:I live in one of the hardest hit areas. As far as trees that came down in the North Asheville Webb Cove area we had, it was enormous and the trees didn't come down one at a time, they came down in masses and then the trees would come down like 20 at a time. It was extraordinary. I've never seen anything like it in my life. I hope I never do again, but they counted approximately 60 trees on my property and they came down in masses, including the tree that hit my home. So I know I feel very fortunate considering that there was so much that happened before we even woke up. But yeah, it was extraordinary. The area has changed dramatically. I don't think we will ever be the same again, so I think that's going to be a huge thing going on here in my neighborhood now too as well. So replanting and regrowth and moving ahead is the one thing that we're really working on right now.
Speaker 2:Very good, very good. Well, as are a lot of people in the Asheville Western North Carolina region. So this you may have already answered this question I was going to ask can you describe a hardship or a life challenge that you've overcome, either professionally or personally? And it sounds like you know Helene was a big part of that, but you may have something else in mind.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Helene, definitely you know it knocked our socks off. But as far as the business, I just I'm so grateful that people came back because we provide a place of refuge, we provide a place of community and a place of health. So even during COVID and now, Helene, I have you know I always feared oh my gosh, this is it, I'm going to have to close, I'm not going to make it. But people want to come back, they want to be in that environment and people make friends there and people are accountable for showing up. So I think my work has pulled me through my hardships. So I think my work has pulled me through my hardships and I'm really grateful for that and for the community that we've created around us in Asheville. Somehow we've created a mainstay for people to come back to, no matter what we go through. Thank you.
Speaker 2:Diane, if you could think of one thing that you would like our listeners to remember about Rose Pilates, what would that be?
Speaker 3:I would like people to know that we are all inclusive, that we listen to people, we see people, we treat everyone as an individual. We're open to ideas, we're big on communication ideas, we're big on communication. We are not just a business that's like a for-profit business. We really care about the people that come. We want to pay attention to their needs and we just want everyone to know that we hear you and that we see you and we don't judge you. We are just an all-inclusive and we want to share our knowledge and our information with you and that we want everyone to feel welcome at our studio.
Speaker 2:Awesome, very good thing to remember. Problem piriformis or like I do, or other issues, and they're perhaps their wives are trying to get them, or the wives themselves are interested in getting involved in Pilates. How can we learn more?
Speaker 3:Would you like to learn more about your piriformis?
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 3:You know, piriformis syndrome is what I've heard. I think a lot of it has to do with the structural integrity around that piriformis tendon that can get tight A lot of times. It can get tight from underactive, being underactive or from maybe doing too much of one type of thing, and if we could get you on the reformer and start working your body, you may find that those things, those little aches and pains, may just start to go away. Of course, there's no guarantee, but what I see with the work that I've been doing this for 30 years is I do see a lot of positive changes in people, including people that have piriformis syndrome, as opposed to just doing a stretch that gives you relief for 30 seconds and then it comes back again, which is probably what's going. Maybe what's going on is that you would have to look at the whole integrity of the body and create some type of format of exercises that would stabilize that part of your body so that you wouldn't just be straining your piriformis.
Speaker 2:That sounds wonderful to me because it can be painful and it actually radiates pain down through your leg.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's not good, that's not good. Yeah, I hate hearing that, but you know that's the sciatic nerve that could be irritated too if that pain is referring down your leg. So, yeah, there are things you can do about it, though, and we work with a great physical therapist in our studio as well. So if there are things that are out of our scope of practice, we refer people to some. Really, wonderful people that we work with in the community as well Awesome.
Speaker 2:Awesome. Well, how can we learn more? Where can we go get more information?
Speaker 3:Well, the website rosepilatescom has all our information on there. If you have any questions, there's a phone number or an email address that you can contact us through the website. Our schedule of classes is on there as well. We also do private sessions and group sessions and math classes, so everything is available to the community through our website.
Speaker 2:Awesome, so you can book online.
Speaker 3:Yes, you can.
Speaker 2:Awesome, good to know. All right. Well, diana, I can't tell you how much I've enjoyed chatting with you and you taking time out of your busy schedule to share with me and with our listeners, and wishing you and your family and Rose Pilates all the best moving forward.
Speaker 3:Thanks so much. This has been a lot of fun. I really enjoyed it.
Speaker 2:Well, again, we appreciate you being here. Maybe we can have you back sometime in the future.
Speaker 3:Okay, thank you Skip.
Speaker 2:All right, thanks so much.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnptry-citiescom. That's gnptry-citiescom, or call 423-719-5873. ¶¶.