the Tamara Di Tella Experience

This entire entry is dedicated to our new friend, Tamara Di Tella, Latin America´s undisputed Queen of Pilates. When Paul showed up at one of her studios with a resume last week, neither of us could have possibly imagined just how quickly things would progress... That very evening, Tamara herself called Paul at our flat, speaking perfect English and rambling on about how glad she is that we have decided to come to Argentina and how much she is looking forward to collaborating with us on some kind of project while we are here... As it turns out, she studied at both Oxford and Stanford Universities, and when she started her first studio just 6 years ago, she owned just one Reformer and a tiny space in Recoleta... Today, Tamara owns over 50 studios spread across Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Columbia, Guatamala, Peru, Chile, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Paraguay, and Mexico, absolutely cornering the market for Pilates in South and Central America... this is the largest chain of Pilates studios in the world! (for much, much more about Tamara, see www.tamaraditella.com) Her latest concept is something called Tangolates, (check out www.tangolates.com)
which combines the principles of Pilates with classical Tango, set to music... Two days later, we find ourselves invited to her home in the posh neighborhood of Palermo, a palacial flat decorated with silk rugs, huge oil paintings, and endless shelves of books stretching to ceiling... The elevator from the marble lobby opens directly on to her living room, where we were greeted by the butler (yes, the butler) who led to a sitting room... Tamara appeared with no makeup, dressed in sweatpants, carrying a big plate of empanadas and a bottle of red wine... We stayed until well after midnight, swapping our life stories, having a sit down dinner with her son and husband (who we later found out is the Minister of Culture of Argentina), and later watching clips from her numerous promotional videos. As it turns out, Tamara wanted us to present a short demonstration for her entire teaching staff of some classical Pilates exercises for the trapeze table, and to also choreograph a short dance piece in the style of Tangolates. We were happy to oblige! The presentation was last night (Saturday), and was attended by about 30 Pilates teachers, some of her staff coming from as far as San Salvador to attend! Tamara brought her videographer to record the entire event, and has promised to present us with an edited DVD, complete with titles and music, next week. The event was, in all seriousness, a huge success! We absolutely WOWED them with some difficult, complex sequences on the trap table, followed by a funny, fast-paced Tangolates routine... Paul's amazing abilities with choreography pulled it all together... Afterwards, Tamara asked us to come back and present AGAIN in December (on Saturday the 9th to be exact), this time doing choreographed sequences for the Reformer... It has been a crazy, exciting week working towards last night's performance, and I'm still shocked that I actually danced in front of a crowd! I feel like we have suddenly developed a very solid working relationship with one of the world's biggest names in Pilates, and also made a fabulous new friend! I have the feeling that we'll be working together again in the future; Tamara is talking about doing a TOUR of all her studios in Latin America??? Of course, nothing can happen until we've finished our trip in 2007, but having goals for the future hasn't seemed to hurt us yet! More soon, xxx Jason