Welcome to Pembrokeshire Pilates

Rebecca's passion for exercise and it's disipline started from the tender age of 4. A few years later, she had to decide between gymnastics or ballet as the two disciplines conflicted. She chose ballet and started Ballet and Jazz training at The Little Academy of Dance, Newport Gwent, under the instruction of Margareta Spicer.

After completing all of the Grade exams with Honours and performing amatuer shows every year, she decided to make dancing her career, and at the age of 17 advanced by taking various scholarships and investigating ballet schools to further her experience.

Unfortunately her dream came to an abrupt halt when she developed a hereditory disease called Otosclerosis. At first it caused slight deafness and very bad tinitus in one ear, which was inconvenient but manageable. When the disease progressed, so did the deafness, still in one ear and an operation was performed to try and correct the problem, sadly the operation was a failure, leaving her with more deafness than before and now terrible problems with her balance, which meant turns and pirouettes were all out of the question.

A career in dancing was now not an option and Rebecca had to decide what to do next, not really prepared for choosing a different career path as dancing was all she ever wanted to do, but her other passion was Art and Dressmaking and went to college to study A level Art and City and Guilds Fashion and Design.

After completing the studies her Art teacher persuaded her to open her own Pottery as she had a talent for "throwing pots", but the long lonely hours locked in her little pottery studio late in to the night did not agree with her as she needed to be surrounded with people and after one year decided enough was enough and went back to college to train in tailoring and pattern cutting.

It was around this time that Rebecca married her fiance of 4 years, Tim.

Shortly after they re-located to Pembroke because of Tim's new job position, Rebecca found a job very quickly making high street fashion clothes for a local company. They both decided Pembrokeshire was an ideal place to settle and have a family, but Rebecca was told that her Otosclerosis would increase and effect the hearing in her other ear if she was to have children. With the support of local G.P's and friends and family they decided to go ahead anyway and although her hearing deteriorated she was blessed with a healthy boy and girl.

Rebecca now wears a tiny concealed digital hearing aid which means that now it is rare that her hearing loss is an inconvenience to her or people around her.

When her youngest child was 2 years old Rebecca worked for a tailoring company selling made to measure suits, which involved going to businesses and private homes all over Pembrokeshire. Rebecca decided that her skills would be put to better use by starting her own business making made to measure clothes and offering a clothing alterations service- "Aunty Beck's". This business went from strength to strength and was a big success for 7 years, but Rebecca could not ignore the yearning to return to a form of a disciplined exercise regime. She had been going regularly to as many exercise classes as she could around the county as soon as she moved to Pembroke, but was at this stage suffering from a severe bad back which was excacerbated by a small car accident, so bad that after an MRI scan the consultant told her to "give up all this exercise nonsence, and at her age (35) she should take up something more suitable, like knitting!"

This did not sit well with Rebecca at all and made her even more determined to find a cure to her sometimes debilitating back problem. In her search for the ultimate exercise to fill the gap that Ballet had filled she had come across Pilates at a workshop for instructors in Cardiff, although it wasn't the full works she could see the sense behind the idea of strengthening the core to support the spine and found that when practised regularly she enjoyed temporary relief from years of back pain.

After a couple of years researching Pilates and finding that this was the form of exercise that brought her "back to life" she decided to train properly in the " Pilates Method of Physical and Mental Conditioning"

To qualify as a full pilates instructor, the training is very long and intense. Rebecca trained at the world famous Pilates International Studio in London under Heather and Martin Sampson.

She is qualified to teach traditional mat work, small equipment (Balls, Bands, Magic Ring) classes, pilates equipment (Reformer, Cadillac, Wundachair etc.) and extensive rehabilitaion treatments such as sciatica, Sacro-illiac, knee problems and post natal recovery.

Rebecca's back problem is now kept at bay by regularly performing "The Method". She successfully treats and re-habilitates clients who have the same problem that she was suffering with, and who were also given the same bleak prognosis.

As well as teaching various courses in Pembrokeshire, Rebecca has a Pilates Studio in which one to one, or up to three persons can be taught in private sessions. These classes are tailored to suit the individual requirements of the clients.

Her husband, Tim plays a huge part in the successful running of Pembrokeshire Pilates, regularly updating the web site, building equipment and so much more, he even goes to as many of the classes as his time table will allow, which has had a huge improvement in his posture and flexibility.