Suzette Smith receives Dan's Best of the Best Award for best Pilates Teacher
Suzette Smith, Carla Gargano wins best Masseuse

Suzette Smith: From Hedges to the Heights

Island profiles by Carol Galligan

Keeping the whole body in shape

Suzette Smith, owner and operator of the Pilates Studio opposite Stars in the Heights, was born in Chingola, Zambia (a grandfather was CEO of a mineral company) but grew up in Old Greenwich and Milford, Connecticut. She spent her early years in the world of dance, earning a master's in education from Cambridge College in Boston with a focus on dance. Although she was always deeply involved in the creative aspects of movement, she found herself over time concentrating more on the actual physical aspects and the myriad ways in which the body is impacted. And when finally, she began to study Pilates, she felt she had found her spiritual home.

Joseph Pilates, she recounted, was German, a boxer, who worked with hospitalized patients, inventing exercise machines that could be used from a hospital bed. He came to Manhattan eventually and opened an exercise studio there; dancers, Suzette said, fell in love with the regime because the whole concept is very similar to a ballet class, in that it emphasizes a strong core, long lean muscles and fluid, flexible movement. Models, wanting dancers' physiques, began using the regime as well. And eventually, “Everybody started to become involved and Pilates really entered the mainstream. It grew like wildfire, because it works!”

The system, Suzette said, strengthens the core of the body. Strong abs lead to a strong back, working in a way that keeps muscles long and flexible, providing fluidity. It also works with bone alignment because as one ages, inconsistencies develop, a stronger side or a weaker side. “A lot of problems as we age,” she said, “are compensatory. This hip's been working a little extra because the other one isn't. So it's like tuning up your body like an engine. Once the bones are aligned then the muscles work evenly so you have healthier joints, healthy knees and shoulders. And you feel good.”

Many of her clients are seniors — her oldest is 83. “It's great for older people because there's no impact, you get to lay down on your back and exercise. I mean, how great is that! But it really gets your joints lubricated, it gives you your flexibility back. It helps you to lift your spine. Gravity has forced your spine down, this separates your vertebrae again.”

It leads as well, she thought, to greater body awareness. “I teach how to really be in your body when you exercise the proper way, so that if you do go to a gym you know how to be in your core, how to pick up dumbbells so you're not hurting your neck. There was just an article about sit-ups in the Times, that a lot of people do hurt themselves doing them, but I really like to teach my clients, to educate them so that they understand what they're doing. So whether they're canoeing, riding their bikes, carrying their kids, whatever, they have the proper mechanics, and they're in their core and their body is working for them.” She went on, “I wasn't just taught choreography. I was taught to understand the premise of what every exercise does, so you can mix and match. I can keep making exercises up to fit the individual need. There's no end, really to what you can do, it's wonderful.”

Suzette's enthusiasm is not limited to the Pilates system — she's delighted with Shelter Island and that after many years, she now has a full time, viable concern here. She first came to the Island 20 years ago and worked at the Chequit, living upstairs there one summer. “I fell in love with the dark nights, the quiet, with the butterflies. I felt at home here and I'd traveled a lot, but it was like ‘Wow! I really want to live here.'” And after a number of summers teaching here and there, at the Ross School and in Sag Harbor, she felt ready to try and make the move permanent. She had been pouring energy into work in the city and thought, “If I could just put half of this energy into my own business, it's guaranteed to be successful — so I moved here where I always wanted to be.”

She moved out year round, opening a studio in her home on Hedges Road and “It was great! I had four pieces of equipment and I couldn't believe it. In one week I had like four clients, it was like, ‘wow!' I stayed there for over three years and then this opportunity came in the Heights. I was a little nervous but I thought it was time. I was really busy and I wanted to service more of the weekenders. I knew I had to get my own space.” And so the studio in the Heights, now filled with $25,000 worth of equipment, came into being. She likes the energy there — finding it different from the rest of the Island and believes “the heart of the Island is here.”

She's looking forward to the coming summer, planning some new ideas and an extended schedule. She hopes to add Nia classes, non-impact aerobics (which has evolved into Now I Am, a movement-meditation form of dance) and for moms without sitters, she'll be game for private mat classes in clients' homes. She's delighted that her staff, including instructor Kim Spivack, will be returning. And if her clients manage to absorb even a fraction of her energy, they'll be in great shape!

See the article in The Reporter