Is It Even Pilates? Let’s Talk About It.

By Lindsay Dufresne

If you’ve spent any time in the Pilates corner of the internet lately, you’ve probably run into some version of this argument: classical purists saying the flowy, reformer-based, playlist-driven classes popping up everywhere aren’t “real” Pilates. Contemporary and athletic instructors firing back that Joseph Pilates himself was constantly adapting his own method, so why are we treating it like scripture. Everybody’s a little defensive and convinced they’re the ones actually honoring the work.

I’ve been teaching movement for over 20 years now, spinning; barre, bootcamp, and Pilates since 2019, and I’ll be honest with you: I’ve taught through a lot of fitness trends that came and went, and I’ve never seen a debate as the one happening in Pilates right now.

So let’s talk about it. Not to settle it, I don’t think it gets settled, but because I think the conversation itself is useful, and because our studio is a pretty good example of why “different” doesn’t have to mean “less legitimate.”

What the argument is actually about

Strip away the internet noise and the debate usually comes down to three camps:

Classical Pilates sticks close to Joseph Pilates’ original sequencing and apparatus work. The order matters, the exercises are specific, and there’s a reverence for doing it “the way it was designed.”

Contemporary Pilates keeps the core repertoire but adapts it, pulling in modern anatomy and rehab knowledge, adjusting for different bodies and goals, sometimes borrowing props or ideas that didn’t exist in the 1920s.

Athletic or flow-based reformer classes, which is where a lot of my own teaching lives, take Pilates principles and get creative with how they’re sequenced, weaving movements together in ways that feel inventive and expressive while still building real strength.

The purists worry that the last category, in particular, is diluting something. That if you strip out the precision and the slow, deliberate quality of classical work, you’re left with something that just uses Pilates equipment, not something that’s actually Pilates.

I get where that concern comes from. I also don’t fully agree with it.

Why I land where I land

My background isn’t classical dance or physical therapy. It’s group fitness, and honestly, it started out of necessity. I was 21, in love with the boutique fitness studios in Miami, and nowhere close to being able to afford a membership, so I found my way into teaching instead. Total “fake it till you make it energy,” but it worked. It was the only way I could be in the room. Spinning taught me how to build energy once I got there. Barre taught me obsessive attention to small ranges of motion. Bootcamp taught me how to program a class that actually challenges people. When I found Pilates, I didn’t set those instincts aside. I brought them with me. My classes are built with more creativity and variety than classes built strictly on classical sequencing. That’s not an accident, and it’s not me watering anything down. It’s twenty years of movement background showing up in how I teach.

But here’s the thing I keep coming back to: I’m not throwing out the six principles. I’m just applying them with a different creative sensibility. And I’m not throwing out the repertoire either. Walk into my class on any given day and you’re still going to see footwork, the hundred, leg circles, long stretch series, the list goes on. The classical vocabulary is still there. It’s just sequenced and styled in a way that keeps things inventive.

  • Centering: everything still initiates from the powerhouse, whether we’re moving slow or moving fast.
  • Concentration: if anything, a more inventive sequence demands more of it, because you can’t run it on autopilot.
  • Control: creativity without control is just flailing. My classes aren’t that. Every rep is still owned.
  • Breath: we’re working hard, but we’re still breathing with intention, not against it.
  • Flow: this one’s almost built into the name of what I teach. Movement connects to movement.
  • Precision: this is the one people assume gets sacrificed when a class feels more dynamic. It doesn’t. It just gets harder to maintain, which is exactly the point.

Those principles are the DNA. The sequencing, the creativity, even the music playing in the background, that’s styling. Yes, you’ll hear music in my room, but it’s there to set a mood, not to dictate the movement. We’re still moving off the same principles that have always driven this method, and I’d argue styling has always been part of how it survives and stays relevant.

Why our studio works because of this, not despite it

What I actually love about our studio is that you don’t have to pick a side. Our teachers are genuinely different from one another, and we’re encouraged to teach to our strengths. Some lean classical, some lean rehab-focused and contemporary, some of us lean into a more creative, athletic style like I do. Nobody’s doing a watered-down version of somebody else’s class. Everybody’s strong at what they do, and everybody’s building from the same six principles even though the room looks completely different depending on whose class you walk into.

And here’s something worth knowing, no matter which of us you end up training with: every instructor at Iron Butterfly was certified through a nationally recognized Pilates organization. That’s not a weekend certificate. That’s months, sometimes years, of coursework, hands-on training, and testing before any of us were allowed to teach. And don’t get us started on continuing education. We’ll look for any and every excuse to learn something new and spend time together doing it.

So whether your class leans classical or into a more athletic, creative flow, you’re being taught by someone who put in the real time to understand the method, not someone who picked it up in a single workshop.

When you leave my class, I don’t want you thinking about how many calories you burned. I want you to feel strong, happy, and accomplished, without losing a single one of the principles the method was built on.

If you’ve only ever tried one style, I’d genuinely encourage you to try another. Not because yours is wrong, but because seeing the same principles show up in a totally different style or format is one of the more interesting ways to understand what Pilates actually is underneath all the noise.

The debate online isn’t going away anytime soon. But I don’t think the answer is picking a winner. I think it’s understanding what actually has to be true for something to count as Pilates. And from where I stand, after 20-plus years of teaching movement in a lot of different forms, those six principles are still the thing doing the work, no matter which room you walk into or which of us is teaching the class.

-Lindsay