Issue #495
Wednesday, November 4, 2026
What’s Your Origin Story?
Transforming Experience into Teaching Superpower
by Kristen Davis
My viral moment didn’t happen like you might imagine. Overnight, a comment on a colleague’s Instagram post garnered more likes than my last 20 posts combined. Unencumbered by the mask of branding or a sense of what kind of content I’m supposed to post, this little comment took on a life of its own:
“Pilates saved me in the saddest time of my life. No matter how bad I felt, I kept showing up for class and ultimately showing up for myself.”
That’s not autobiographical information that comes up in casual conversation with clients or colleagues, but it’s a fact about my Pilates practice and my teaching: twenty years ago I suffered from crippling depression– not sadness or overwhelm, but a months-long hollowness that made simple tasks feel impossible.
While the world went on around me, I struggled to do much of anything that wasn’t my weekly Monday, Wednesday, Saturday mat class routine. During mat class, I felt normal for 10-15 minutes at a time. Maybe, I thought, it could eventually be 30 minutes or even a full class. If I could feel better for an entire class, maybe I could also feel better after class and incrementally recover.
With therapy and medicine and help from a committed mat practice, I did recover. That recovery is part of my professional and personal identity. I think of it as an origin story. Peter Parker gets bitten by an irradiated spider, but the bite is simply the thing that happens to him. Becoming Spider-Man happens later, as he learns to understand his changed abilities. My depressive episode isn’t my superpower, but it’s part of my teaching origin story. What I learned finding my way through it, like how to recognize struggle, what it sometimes takes just to show up, and just how meaningful small increments of feeling better can be, became integral to how I teach.
When I think about the teachers I admire, they stand out in a crowded field not because of what’s happened in their lives, but rather because of how they found their own superpowers. Their resumes may list their accomplishments. Their biographies may read how they found Pilates, how many hours of study they’ve completed and with whom, and what they like to do outside of the studio. Their origin stories make them the instructors they are: not the thing that happened to them, but who they became after it happened.
My business partner, Susan Bange, has always been a meticulous instructor. A few years ago, she began breaking out in inexplicable hives, followed by an inability to eat anything but a limited diet of bland food. After several false starts, she received a diagnosis of Mast Cell Activation Syndrome. As she learned more about her condition and its relationship to her own hypermobility and ADHD, Susan became curious about people who, like her, have bendy bodies and busy brains. She became an expert in hypermobility and connective tissue, bringing new depth to her already precise teaching.
Similarly, my friend and colleague Melissa Miles, a New York-based Pilates instructor, faced breast cancer in 2014. Her Pilates practice, coupled with a supportive Pilates community, has helped her face the physical and emotional impacts of her original treatment and continuing survivorship. This support has helped her focus on her body’s resilience instead of its limitations. Her desire to connect others facing this diagnosis and its aftermath with supportive Pilates communities led her to found Teasers for Tatas, a 501(c)3 that offers free Pilates classes to the breast cancer community and rallies the industry to fundraise for wellness services that support people affected by breast cancer. Melissa’s survivorship is her origin story: her superpower lies in using Pilates to help others better navigate their breast cancer journeys.
An origin story isn’t necessarily the worst or hardest thing that ever happened to you, like an injury or an illness. Nor is it an opportunity to turn trauma into a personal brand. You don’t have to share your origin story with your clients– or with Instagram– for it to shape the teacher you’ve become. Perhaps your spider bite previous training, experience in another career, parenthood, failure, or something utterly mundane. What emerges from an origin story, however, can be an extraordinary gift: making people feel safe with amazing tactile cueing. Giving crystal clear verbal cues. Breaking down complicated ideas into legible soundbytes. Seeing that thing nobody else has noticed. Being the one person who can handle That Client.
What is your teaching superpower, and do you know its origin story? What did it teach you to notice, understand, or do… and how are you using that capacity in your teaching?
Kristen Davis, NPCP is a Pilates educator, teacher educator, studio owner, writer, and nonprofit leader with more than 17 years of excellence in Pilates education.
As Co-Founder of Pilates Lab, she has mentored instructors, developed curriculum, and brought nationally recognized teacher training and continuing education opportunities to the St. Louis Pilates community.
Kristen serves as Vice President of the Board of Teasers for Tatas, a national nonprofit that provides wellness services for individuals affected by breast cancer. She created the Bosom Buddies virtual fundraising series, has helped increase annual fundraising and media initiatives, and expanded its 50-State Studio Initiative.
A published author and frequent workshop presenter in both classical and contemporary Pilates settings, Kristen has studied the lineages of Eve Gentry, Romana Kryzanowska, and Kathy Grant. Recognizing the value in many traditions, she is committed to collaboration across educational pathways.