Issue #466
Wednesday, August 20, 2025
Teasers for Tatas 2025
by Melissa Miles
October– Breast Cancer Awareness Month– is just around the corner. Our all-volunteer team at Teasers for Tatas (TFT) has been working for months to help the Pilates industry support the breast cancer community in our tenth year. TFT is a 501c3 whose mission is to provide community and support for breast cancer Patients, Previvors, Thrivers and Survivors. We fundraise through Pilates for wellness services that support patients throughout their treatment.
This October hits differently for me. I founded Teasers for Tatas– an alliterative and slightly risqué name that speaks to both Pilates and breast health– in 2016, after surviving breast cancer. In the last decade I’ve given up my own Tatas twice (first my real ones, and more recently my prostheses, which were negatively impacting my health). In their place I have the incredible and growing Teasers For Tatas community. Teasers instead of Tatas, if you will. I hope others impacted by breast cancer will take this message-in-a-name to heart: whether you are with or without Tatas, the Pilates Community is here for You. Teasers For Tatas.
TFT’s Story
The TFT community has grown beyond what I could have imagined at our initial event. In 2016, we hosted a series of circuit classes in a small Manhattan Pilates studio and donated all proceeds to Mount Sinai’s Dubin Breast Center, where I was treated. We raised a modest amount of money and an enormous amount of goodwill and excitement around supporting those impacted by breast cancer. Inspired by the momentum, we kept going. More studios. More events. More beneficiaries
TFT has built a coalition of both classical and contemporary Pilates instructors, studios, leaders and educators nationwide. It includes sponsors such as Gratz, Pilatesology, Shashi Socks and organizations like Pilates Friends United. By TFT’s third year (2018), we had acquired an Official Sponsor in Alycea Ungaro’s Real Pilates and soon grew our event to include several Partner Studios. Our list of Beneficiaries also grew to include national organizations like The Breasties and African American Breast Cancer Alliance, as well as local and regional hospitals and organizations suggested by our Partner Studios.
Having acquired our 501c3 status in 2023, we now have a dedicated Board of Directors of Pilates professionals and enthusiasts who have a personal interest in supporting the breast cancer community. Our list of Beneficiaries continues to grow. We all join together in October in pursuit of a common goal: to help support our clients, colleagues and community members who have been impacted by breast cancer.
How to Participate
In 2025, TFT’s goal is to have at least one Partner Studio in each of the 50 states. Partner Studios design their own fundraisers to fit their client communities: hosting a donation class, partnering with local businesses, or hosting one-off or month-long events. We’re actively turning our map pink and would love to include your studio with our national and international (hello, Canada and Belgium!) partners.
TFT Board of Directors: Melissa, Aimee Gordon and Jennifer DePaolo
The Flagship Event
TFT’s flagship event on Sunday, October 26 is an entire day of live and virtual donation-based Pilates classes. Each session is taught by a team of 3-4 instructor volunteers that includes at least one Survivor-Instructor. Our live circuit sessions, held at Real Pilates in Manhattan’s Upper East Side, allow clients to experience a variety of apparatus in their workout.. TFT’s virtual Mat classes are open to all, and feature Beginner/Intermediate and Advanced level classes. I personally love how the virtual classes bring our global Pilates community together on one screen.
This year, our flagship event will begin on TFT-Eve, Saturday, October 25, with a session (live and virtual) exclusively for those impacted by breast cancer—Survivors, Thrivers, Previvors and Caregivers—taught by Survivor-Instructors. In my work to the breast cancer community over the past decade—both at hospital breast centers and with national organizations—I’ve come to understand that we as an industry can improve our outreach and better share the benefits of our work. TFT’s Survivor Session is one effort towards doing just that.
What’s Next for Teasers for Tatas?
Beyond October, TFT’s goals are education and outreach.
Education Initiatives. Clinical teams often recommend Pilates to their patients, so we are building educational resources for instructors based on the considerations involved in teaching patients, survivors, thrivers and previvors. In the breast cancer community, we acknowledge that there are as many kinds of breast cancer as there are breast cancer patients. Every client who walks into a Pilates studio has a unique combination of challenges—sometimes structural, sometimes systemic, often both. Our educational offerings will address the different kinds of reconstruction, as well as common side effects of medical interventions. TFT is committed to making every Pilates studio a safe and welcoming place for patients at every stage in treatment and beyond.
Outreach Initiatives. TFT Leadership is actively involved in reaching out to the breast cancer community at hospitals and national organizations. We are developing toolkits for our Partner Studios who wish to offer classes to their local hospitals and organizations, both to share the benefit of Pilates to patients, but also to their clinical care teams who recommend movement modalities to their patients.
One of the most powerful experiences I had this year was teaching a Beginner Mat class at Camp Breastie, a summit for the breast cancer community. These Patients, Survivors, Previvors and Thrivers were mostly new to Pilates, and in my intro I shared the story of Eve Gentry’s recovery under the instruction of Joseph Pilates. After class, one attendee said, “This was the first time since my diagnosis that I was able to move without being afraid of my body.” That is the reason I founded TFT—to share and celebrate how Pilates reconnects us to our bodies.
Breast Cancer Awareness Month can bring up challenging emotions. For me, it inspires me to act to improve the lives of those navigating treatment, survivorship and previvorship. I am grateful to the Pilates community for helping Teasers For Tatas to do just that, and I hope you’ll consider joining us this year in the capacity that speaks to you.
Melissa Miles has taught Classical Pilates since 2009 when she had the privilege of training under Bob Liekens. She is currently a Lead Trainer at Real Pilates in NYC. Melissa is endlessly amazed at the ability of Pilates to transform all bodies, from elite athletes to those recovering from debilitating illness and injury, and everyone in between.