Michael and Ton on Romana

I first learned about Romana, um, in the early eighties, I was a dancer performer. Um, and I'd broken my ankle and a physical therapist had said, okay, to Rehab, you should do either Zina, Rometty floor bar or you know, do duplo with Romana. And I think he tossed out another name. I don't even remember the name, but I remember Romana his name. But at the time, um, you know, dances don't make that much money. So there was Dina Rometty flower buyer where you could buy a class card and get a whole bunch of classes or you could do a plotty session, which was private at that time. And so of course I went with the [inaudible] floor bars, so missed opportunity for Romana, but being a performer in New York is, was always there. There was always some performer in a show sitting there in the corner doing the hundred.

So you were aware of it existing and people saying how good it was for the body. Um, but it never really, I just thought, and I thought, well, that's interesting, but you know, like I said, it just wasn't for me at that time. And so this went on for a decade, even over in Europe, um, in the late eighties, early nineties, doing cats over in Europe, um, performers from London, which would have been that pineapple studio, I think is where they were doing plots and people from New York, because there was a, at that time in Europe, there was a lot of performers that the Europeans, cause they didn't really have a strong core of dancers, singers over there. So we went over for cats and so there would be dances doing it. And then finally in the early nineties, there was a performer and had since become dance captain for cats. And there was a performer, Sarah Smolan, who is highly ever injured, um, who had started the certification program with Romana, um, in the early nineties, but then stopped to go do cats, but she was never injured.

Her car was incredibly strong and she did this most, you know, the whole mat. And so that's when she taught, um, both Tony and I, the mat and tell us about, you know, this crazy lady in New York, that top plot is, and there was a couple of other crazy ladies too, but you know, Corolla didn't really teach too much at the time and there was Cathy grant, but unless you want to go back to college, which neither one of us wanted to do, um, it wasn't a choice for us. So we kept that sort of in the back of our mind. And fast forward a few years later, um, we quit Katz and went to New York to study with Romana my first year, the should of Romano that she was extremely energetic and very, um, commanding in a way because the first time we went in to Dragos and the layout was that you could not really see the [inaudible] equipment right when you walk in. So you walk in and it was a little couch and you walk to the side, to the reception desk. And then there was this space that opened up. You and the reformers were all on the back wall and in front of you was in front of the, the reformers were the parallel bars from the gymnastics that they were still doing there, the big Mat, the rings.

And I remember going in and Romana being in one of the back reformers and there was just this presence in this room and it was like, it was obvious that she was in charge of the realm. It was like, even though she was not in charge of like in a screaming kind of way, but there was this, she's here kind of thing. Um, so that was my first impression and then we just walk. We just looked around and go like, we sure are, we're in the right place because we had heard of like, you know, you have to be with Romana and this thing. So you, we expect that a very sleek kind of studio when it was anything but kind of thing. So it was very, uh, people were ring swinging on the rings and people who are like doing somersaults on the big mat because it was not individual. Matt was just one big huge map and people were using the equipment swinging everywhere and we'd go like, this is really cool, but this is kinda crazy. So, so that was sort of like my first real impression of her. And then, um, she just noticed us and she says, you walked over and basically said like something to the extent of like, how can I help you gentlemen kind of Nielsen Mary?

Or we were like, well, we're here for Romana, we want to be teachers. So she was like, Whoa, I'm Romana and Dah, Dah, Dah, Dah, and show you. So we talked a little bit and it was very relaxed of like where you're from, who did you study with, that kind of stuff. And um, right away love the fact that that I was Dutch or still am Dutch. Um, but that we had lived in Europe and came from Europe and you know, that we had just been, we just quit our performing career and that kind of stuff. And so I think that was, that was I think an instant bond, our first connection right away. And then, so she talked and we talked and she was like, well that's fine, I'll work with you and we'll organize this session and be here tomorrow at seven. And we just laughed. They were like, we don't do seven, you know, after being in theater and having late nights and I, our natural rhythm was just like not getting up that early and she crossed her arms and looked us up and down. It's like, fine, be here whenever and we stop and you know, we were like, okay, we'll be here whenever I guess. So we went to the front desk and made an appointment and I believe it was like nine, eight or nine. It wasn't seven, it wasn't seven.

The next day we came back about probably, I want to say probably a half hour before our session, 15 minutes before, um, got changed and she was ready for us and she put her on the reformer and kill us. She was like, you know, she was going to make your point. And she did make her point. So, and I think part of it, like talking about it, that she knew, she knew where we came, where we were coming from. She knew our background of our talk. And I also think that she knew that once I get you on the reformer, once they get you interested, I'll be able to manipulate you to come whenever I, I want you to come. I mean, Romana was a very good manipulator in that way to get you to do what she wanted to do, thinking it was your idea, you know what I mean? So, so we started off at eight and, uh, we did our session and at the end of the session she said like, fine, I'll work with you and you can become teachers, but you do it my way. And that meant like, she's like something to the effect of like, you do it the way I was taught by Joe. And that was then considered, I think officially it was the, in a being independent, uh, independent study, independent study that was, that was the quote. Um, which meant she took us under her wing.

We only studied with her. We were not allowed to study with anybody else. Um, we paid her directly. We had sessions at least three times a week, sometimes more. Um, and she basically told us of like, um, I don't want you not going to get any manuals. You're not going to get any workshops, no seminars. You're not, uh, logging in any hours. You're with me only with me.

You do what I tell you to do and I'll tell you when you're ready. And we had saved money while we're in, in, um, in musical theater in Europe and we basically had already sort of like, um, decided we'll take a year off and we just going to take this year and totally focus on this thing called plotters and becoming teachers. You should add to it too of that Romana asking them to start to do it without books and without manuals meant nothing to us. Um, we didn't know there was a book we didn't know there was a manual. So for us it was like, fine, you deal with a book. I mean, that's how we sort of assumed you learned anyways, how we learned shows. Um, so the only thing we had was this little blue card, not very big. Um, it had the whole mat in one order. It even says control logy. Um, and on the back it has a mat exercises.

So this was our manual along with Romana had lots of pictures of Joe on the, well not a lot, but pictures of Joe with the chart of the exercise is going through the orders so you could check as we were learning to make sure you sort of saw the order. Um, and that was it. And she encouraged us. We took tons of notes, we have tons of notebooks. She thought the way you learn the, the whole method was to experience through watching through doing it. The way she learned from Uncle Joe as she put it and Romana for Romana, um, plot is, was also family. Um, I think that word Uncle Joe was quite popular with dancers, like in the 30s and forties. Balanchine, there's all those stories out there of like would send the dancers over and go, you know, go over to uncle Joe, he'll fix you and get you back on stage. But Romana with Joe when she talked about Joe, you got the impression that there really was a closeness, a family connection. There was a protection. It really was like Uncle Joe. Um, so with that in mind, she was very protective of the method and really wanted to teach it and pass it down. And for her, the method wasn't ever about the exercises.

And I think a lot of people think the traditional plot is, is all about the execution of the exercises are as we like to refer to it, the performance artist for plots. Um, but it really wasn't about that. Romana was about the essence of what the method did for you. It helps you walk better. It helps you be a better human. It helps you breathe better, it helped everything you do. And she used to always say, plot is, is about what the, it's not about the exercises, it's about what the exercises do for your body when you're not exercising.

So with that in mind, what was really cool at the time, even though we didn't know it was really cool, we just thought it was normal. Um, Romana taught normal clients by the time we quit when we were teacher trainers, there was 30 or 40 people crammed in that studio and she was only teaching apprentices. But at this time, um, there was just a handful of clients. There was, um, normal people there and we nicknamed them. Um, there was miss underpants. Um, this woman who would wear this French cut leotard and her white bloomers would show through there was little tiny Sylvie, Sylvia, um, who is this frail little old woman. And to give you the broad spectrum of what plot is meant to Romana is poor little Sylvia would come in and she was just this frail thing. Romana would set her on the Cadillac and she would do what Ramana called the t v exercises, you know, just barely lifting her leg and then, you know, maybe doing that a little side band. And after 15 minutes, you know, Sylvia was huffing and puffing and Romana would got, I think you've had it. I'm looking sufficiency dialing.

And that was one of her favorite things and she would send her on her way and tried to for the hours, smart woman. Um, but that's what to plot is to Romano. What that meant to her was you did 100% whether you were a little tiny Sylvie because then the next hour she might've had a Martha Graham Dancer, a principal dancer in there who was sweating after two minutes and do it every advanced headstand backbend you could think of and walk off that. And you know, on the Cadillac, um, it was crazy by both were 100% and that's PyLadies that goes from the very simple pre plot, these exercises, if that's what you want to call it, all the way to the super advanced. There was that wide spectrum and we got to experience that with her because she taught normal clients. And at the time we were apprentices. It was a very small group of people. Um, like I said, some days it was only Tony and I in the studio.

And I think you can see by some of the pictures we brought for you, it's not crowded. And later on it became, um, oh, 30, 40 people crammed in the room. I mean it was just crazy, but at the time we were there as apprentices. Um, there was only that, it was normal clients like by the end, um, when we quit with Romana, she was only teaching apprentices and teaching the super advanced. So people didn't really get the essence of the whole method in the sense of really being able to watch her. Um, there was doctors coming in, um, at even at that time that had great interest in the whole plot. He's method, um, and there is news interviews. So it was starting just to build and plot. He's wasn't really a household name yet.

It was just something that was sort of fun, you know, and the clients were great. There was clients that worked with Joe and Clara and, um, we got to work with a lot of those clients. And after a while Romana would, um, entrust you with her clients and she would sort of supervise, keep an eye on you. And then that way she could do one client and have another one booked. Meanwhile, we didn't get paid, but she got double the money for the fact that we were teaching for her. So, um, for free, which was fine cause it was great experience. I think Romana was right. Um, the way she taught us a true apprenticeship was the way really to learn this method. And I still really think it is the best way, but nobody can afford to take a year off.

Nobody has the luxury of being a small group of two or three with this incredible master teacher. So you can't learn that way. Um, and but thank God we learn that way. But I think it really shows you the group of apprentices that came out at the time that we were all there. Um, it's Brock Siler, you leash on Gara Amegio. Um, they all were apprentices at the same time. And I think that group, you can see the strong understanding that we all got from that kind of training tense and tense training and with normal clients. Because by the end, like I mentioned earlier, Romano and Shari were both only teaching the apprentices. People didn't get to see the little Sylvie's very often because she handed those down to the apprentices, you know, and the other people at the studio. And she also required you to know it from a to z. You know what I mean?

It was not enough to know the order or to know this and she, you needed to be able to, to deal with all the different issues, all the different personalities and, and that was a part of like what she saw set as like a part of being able to run your business is to be able to deal with difficult clients. And there were some difficult clients there that had strong personalities and some of them did not want to be taught by an apprentice. They wanted Romana, they had paid for a Mana. That's what I wanted. And then you're standing there and on like, yeah, sorry you got me now. You know, and they were not happy. And and part of her training program was how do you deal with that as an instructor, how do you get your client to do what you want them to do?

How do you are able to convince them that you are the best for them right now? So I think she was a lot, I love the times people say like, you know, she just did things and I think she was a lot more calculated and much smarter than just that. She never puts you in a situation with any kind of client or um, issue that she did not know you could handle and that it would be safe and, but it might be a situation that you as an instructor of apprentice were uncomfortable in because you didn't want to deal with it and she forced you to, to deal with that then making you a better instructor in the meantime. And I think part of it also was, it was not about, like Michael said about the exercises, but in a way it was also not only about politeness, politeness was a part of your, your day. And when that was over then it was over. You know what I mean? It was like, if was more like, like what Joe States of like it pull is supposed to be done.

So what you want to do, you can do without an a without injuries or with more energy or whatever. It was not this, this holistic kind of thing. In that way. It was more like you do pull out these as hard as you can, as good as you can. Like Michael said, if you're 100% and Romana used to say like you get out of it what you put into it, you know, if you don't put it in, nothing will come out. And but then when it was over then it was over and then you were supposed to, she would kick you out of the studio of like, you know, or go to the park, go and see your show, do something fun, you know, don't, don't go home and go only over your notes and go over every client again and try to analyze everything you did.

It was like enjoy life as much as you enjoy Paul Audis. And that was very important for her. I think as you, she enjoyed family, friends and everything like that, and it was, it needs to be equal for her play time, work time, family time. You need to make time for each one of them and each one of them you need to do 100%. So when you do pull Audis, that's what you do and pull out these is over and you go with your family, then it's family. It's nothing to do with Paul, it's family. She really taught you life in a way through plots, if that makes sense. But she was also an incredible motivator on, Oh God, she could teach anybody. And she had this ability to make you, how would you say, um, think you could do anything? Um, with very few words. She always believed, just don't over-correct. Um, just one correction is all you should ever give.

And what she would do is she would just make you think, how would you say that you could do anything? You would be totally doing somersaults. I mean, I had came to Romana, um, I guess I have to backtrack a bit. Um, a lot of the sessions we had were duets and I had come with a back injury. I had herniated disc and had been paralyzed from that knee down, um, like a couple years earlier. And tone was totally healthier and Romana would do duets with us and have us both working at 100% during the same exercise, but modified or variation for me because of the issues that I had. Um, their first session with Romana to go back to that intuitive part, I told her about my back, cause that was a new injury.

I laid down on the reformer and she was like, what's wrong with your ankle? And I was like, nothing's wrong with my ankle. She says like, he did something with your ankle, this misalignment. And I was like, wow. And I said, well, like, you know, 20 years ago I did break my ankle and it was screwed back together. And she goes, well, I can see it. And that was it. And the session went on and it was the same with you. She had to saw your calf? Yeah, tore my calf. Um, and, and she picked up on it and, but it was also one of the things that she always said, like she said, like the client will always lie but the body never lies. Right. And she said like, you know, you have to fill out the sheet or you have to talk to them and listen to what they say. But she said like, don't trust them because the, they lie down, uh, like either on the reform or wherever you start, she said like, that's the body that's in front of you and that's what you're going to have to work with and you're going to have to observe them because they will never tell you all the stuff that's going on. And part of it is like with my goal is like, you forget, you know, as 20 years after an injury and you're, you think you're in balance, you think it's still leaving, you are jumping and dancing and it didn't bother you, but still it showed up.

And that's part of the magic of, of the, of the method in a way. And a part of her of like being able to see that and catch that she was unlike anybody else. I mean she just could motivate you to do anything and get you to believe in yourself that you could do anything. Um, that's how she handled every session. That's how she handled people just in general in life. And I think that's why, um, we're just one pair of guys and a whole succession of all these people that have such a close relationship with her because she had close relationships with hundreds of people in now. She made everybody feel special so everybody felt like they were the chosen one.

They were special and yes, you were all special. Um, but she made everybody feel that way. That was her gift as a team. One of her gifts as a teacher. Also the fact that she didn't really, she believed what she said. She didn't overcorrect she would just say, you know, drop your shoulder, you know, lower your hip. She would give you just enough in the correction to get you to find the right muscles in your own body without talking about muscles to do. The exercise or move you to the next level. And I guess what we learned from her too is that you need to, she would create a safe atmosphere, but she made you feel it's okay to fail but fail safely. I think it's like, um, we always looked at it like, it's like a little child when a child is learning to walk you safe proof the house and then you let the kid fall. Um, also with us, um, we laughed. I've never, I mean it was just fun and she used to say, you know, if you're not having fun, why are you going to do it?

Why are they gonna pay you? You want them to pay you, so make it fun. You want them to come back, you want them to come back, you know, that's your profession. Um, I also think she liked us from the standpoint of we had professional theater careers and we made a conscious choice to quit that, to give it up and you know, do plots for a year. Um, we didn't have any desire to go back or to theater at that point. We thought about it, but we didn't know. But I think she respected that. We totally put our life on hold for a year. We stopped. Um, we didn't work. We were fortunate, like tone said to have the money to take a year off, rented an apartment in New York and do only plays, which I think most people don't have. But that's what we did in the summer. Romana usually took vacations. So this would've been the summer of 96. Um, so she took her usual June vacation, um, and then she would let the apprentices take over her clients and why she was gone. And Shari, I think was also gone at the same time.

And she came back from vacation, sort of, I guess checked us out. We didn't know about asking her clients how we did. And she came to us and approached us like, I think you're ready. I think you're ready to teach. And we were like, well, I don't think I'm ready to teach. I really don't know anything. Um, is, was the answer. We both him, she was like, no, no, you're ready. But, and this is where we became familiar with Shawn. Um, she said you've been on independent study but Sean's not too pleased, you know, um, because first of all, I think she didn't really say but because we paid her the money. So she said, Sean wants you to take one of these seminars. And we were like, we didn't really know the seminars existed. And we were like, we sort of did by this time by Brooke and other people. But um, she said, so you'd have to come take the seminar. And we were like, fine, we'll take a seminar. And then she said, and you asked to do this written test and we were like, fine, um, and you have to pay for this test cause you have to pay shot. And we were still fine.

But that's where Sean then came back into the picture cause we had not ever seen it. And we thought also at the same time, the same friend Sarah Smolan, um, had given I think a combo birthday gift. And my birthday's in April. His, his in September, she gave us, um, a free session with Bob or duet sub that Bob Lukens. So that's the first time we also met Bob. We knew that he existed, but we hadn't met him in the year that we are there. Um, if he came into the studio, I didn't know who he was, so I wouldn't have known who Romano was talking to. Um, so that's when we first met Bob and that's when we first went up to 2121 Broadway to take this test. And Romana also had made a big issue out of it because obviously there was something they didn't like. The fact that we didn't do the seminars. Um, during that seminar I felt like we were on display for all of Romanos things. We were, it was, we were showing off. I mean, it was like doing a lot of the advanced work and doing, because it was the advanced system review or something like that. But you know, you just get the feeling that, okay, she's trying to prove a point here. Like, you know, my boys without manuals are fine. Um, so we sort of knew what was going on. We took the test for Shawn. Um, but that's when we first became connected with Sean because what existed at that time, which we didn't really know about until this time, was there was Dragos, which was downtown and it was Romanos Kingdom Romanos place. She worked there in the mornings and that was cart, um, uptown, however, um, was a studio called 2121, which was located to politely step body studio. Yeah. And pardon for her name, not 2121. It sounds like a nightclub. Um, but anyways, it was connected to steps for people that don't know what steps was.

It was a famous, um, dance studio where all the dances when it was an uncommon in 2129 to ride up the elevator with Baryshnikov and Ryan Canine. I mean, all these stars from the ballet world in musical theater were all there. And it was always in this small little, you know, typical New York elevator. Um, that's deviating a bit from the story, but that was the plot. His studio at 2121 Broadway. And that's also where Bob Lukens worked uptown with Shawn. And in that building in steps, there was the Plati studio and then across the hall there was the performing arts physical therapy, which was Sean's practice.

So that was divided by a hallway. So you got off the second floor and the elevator walked down the hallway, ply the studio on one side, and then there was the PA p t the performing arts physical therapy on the other side. So 2121 Broadway. The his studio was the headquarters for the organization that we were soon sort of learning about that Romana hinted at in our very first meeting of like she and this Sean Guy were starting a certification program and we were like, well, fine, fine. You and Sean, you know, that's fine. But she had said one of the apprenticeship, but that the 2121 studio was his headquarters and the sort of that, the legal headquarters of the entity, the ply, the studio, which was Romanos thing. And that's how it all sort of ties together. One of the things that happened everyday during our apprenticeship was the day ended with a Q and. A.

So before she left, we, like we said, like in, um, I think we said in the beginning when the elevator, they were couches there in front, she would sit there before she would leave and she would say like, or she would say, what did you learn today? And you had to say something that what you learned today. So it was always, it didn't matter what it was. Um, but she was so smart. So after a while you just go like, okay, what am I going to say now? You know what I mean? It's like, um, or you get like, oh, I'm going to say something that I said like a couple of weeks ago. And then you know, like, oh, when someone does a back problem, you started them on the reformer, you know? And she was like, you set that already, you know? And so it became sort of like a game with all kinds of different games going on.

But it was like one of the things, if you learn new thing every day, you'll be a genius. And then she would say like, I want you to ope tonight. I want you to go home and open the dictionary and find a new word that you don't know yet. And I want you to use that word tomorrow because you want it. She thought that the way you described the exercises had to be uniquely yours.

She didn't want you to be a copycat of her. She wanted you to find your uniqueness as a team, as a teacher. Um, so she used to do that. Then she, um, she, we would do, uh, find the injury. So she would not tell you what the new client [inaudible] yeah, that was our game. But she played along. She would go, not tell us what was wrong with this client. And she would give her them a session. And by the exercises, the ordered, the speed, the modifications, the way she put the sessions together, we would try to figure out of like, oh, this person has a blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Of like, so and then we, after the session was gone and it was or done, we would say like, so this person had a hip problem. Right? And she was going to like, well either yes or no, you know, they better be right or wrong. But that was sort of like a part of our whole, our of our whole apprenticeship. It was very interactive.

It was very hands on and it was very, um, you know, you, you dove in, you know, mind, body and soul. And then she, she um, demand that, that full commitment to to, but she [inaudible] this game that we played in sort of came out of a phrase that, cause these am little meetings where every day from the first day that we start our apprenticeship with her. And then again, she always would say, we'd ask her questions like, okay, well she has a back injury. So you've started her here, but yesterday you started, you know, Rebecca with the back injury here, why is the difference? And now she goes like, well, it depends. And that used to just make us mad because it would just, just depends, you know? And we were like, well that's not an answer. You know, we were like every other applies instructor in the beginning.

I'm on a black and white answer, you know, you don't use, you don't really understand that plot is, is gray. And so that's when it came like, okay, well that's the game she's playing with. It depends then that's how this game that we would play of like, okay, I'm watching her, we watch her and go, so what do you think? Do you think that it's actually a hip or do you think that's a knee or you know, and then the body would often surprise you of that. Then it would be, it taught us to watch and develop the eye of how you can look at a body and the body. Like she always said, we teach you what you need to now you would see it. And so, and she sort of liked the fact, I think that we just play long and made up games that we could play with her of um, you know, in our question and answer period every day. And, um, she would say if you learn one thing new every day, you're a genius.

But it also taught us not to take things, um, for any way at face value. So you know, you, you might see it in the ankle that the ankle is out of Lima today. They stand on the outside of the foot inside of the foot or whatever's wrong, but it might have nothing to do with the foot. And in the beginning we didn't get that you cause we were going like, why is she just not fixing the foot, you know, just fixed a foot. And as she was working on the back or the hip and whatever, and that sort of like Todd has of like where you see them as alignment might not be, might be the end result of a problem somewhere else in the body.

And she was a genius in, in following that line of like, you know the f okay, I see it here, but it's not here. It's, it goes up here. Oh, it's not here. It goes up here. I'd go, and then she would just go, go down that path. And she really taught us that of like, you know, like she said, the body doesn't lie. It's right in front of you. Just follow the body and it will teach you. It will tell you everything you need. You need to know.