The Italian Flavia Abbadessa opens the doors of its center The Garden in Madridfrom where it makes known a new exercise discipline called Gyrotonic, which changed her life.
(Discover how the KO Method changed the life of its founder and it can change yours)
Also many artists like Aitana Sánchez Gijón, Miguel Bosé and Ángela Molina who have already passed through the facilities.
The figure, athletic and graceful at the same time, of Flavia denote a lifetime dedicated to dance. He was born in Rome and lived there until he was 18.
Flavia in her sports center.
“I started dancing when I was three years old. A bit by chance, because my mother saw me dancing at home and she signed me up. But at eight I already started dancing at a professional level. I auditioned for the Rome Opera House and trained every day after school. She came home at nine at night. When I turned 18, I auditioned for the first time to go to the United States and got a scholarship to the Boston Ballet.”
And he continues: “With such bad luck, that a month after arriving in the United States, I fell doing a pirouette and broke my knee, right at the beginning of my career. They told me that I had a torn meniscus, something nothing serious, so the following year I traveled to France and stayed for a while, but I still had knee pain.
“I had to have surgery and when I did, they fired me from the company. I was practicing with the crutches when the letter of dismissal came home. I was lost for a long time. I didn’t know how to recover. I was 19 years old at that time and I didn’t know what to do with life” he confirms to MagasIN.
The Dancer in The Garden.
Who did you go to?
After many attempts and trying many things, I couldn’t get it right. Until in Paris I started training at a dance school and someone told me: ‘Why don’t you try Gyrotonic? I think you’d love it’. I tried it and fell in love right away. In a short time I recovered from the injury and after a few months, they offered me another contract to return to the United States. I traveled to Florida where I stayed for three years.
Hthere was discovered the Gyrotonic which became my way of training and in my warm up I would do an hour of training every day before going to work and that was my sacred time to connect and also to prepare for the day.
The machines to practice Gyrotonic.
When did you come back to Europe?
Dfter a few years, my husband and I decided to return to Europe. At first I danced a little and gave classes. After a year I opened The Garden, because in the meantime I had done the training to be a Gyrotonic teacher. We opened The Garden 1.0, on Maldonado street and since it was too small for us, we opened this store (C/ General Pardiñas) three years later, which is a larger and more precious center of which I am very proud.
How would you define Gyrotonic?
It is a very complete and innovative training method. A discipline that combines different techniques such as yoga, dance, swimming and tai chi. It was invented more than 40 years ago by Juliu Horvath, a former Hungarian dancer who lived in the United States for many years and developed it during his stay there.
It emerged as a technique for the rehabilitation of dancers and athletes and also as a training method to have more body awareness. From the beginning he had a very professional approach.
They soon realized that the benefits could be for everyone. There is the method with machines, which is called Gyrotonic, and the method without machines, which is called Gyrokinesis, which is the essence of the method. I work with both.
The Garden Center in Madrid.
Which of the two do you recommend for someone starting out?
They complement each other very well. The truth is that it is very nice because each one teaches you more about the other method. The machines are a guide, so they help you a lot to understand the sensations we are looking for. But without the machine, your body can go much further. It is very fun to do a combination of the two to improve and advance in technique.
What profile of people is targeted?
Anyone can do it. We work with older people who want to improve their posture or seek to find a good alignment in their body, also to prevent injuries or to do rehabilitation as well.
Of course, we also work with dancers, artists and athletes who can take advantage of all the benefits that the technique has. For me it is enormously satisfying when a dancer can return to the stage and improve their own performanceit is a wonder.
Apart from them, we also work with young people who just want to train and connect. And even with children, with whom you do a different job, more fun and it’s great for them.
What are the benefits?
The benefits really are endless. For me it is truly the most complete technique there is, and it allows you both to have more mobility and to remove accumulated tensions, which many times we don’t even realize we have.
It makes you feel muscles you’ve never felt before in your life and then allows you to connect with a much deeper musculature. It not only works on the surface, but much more inside.
In fact, it is work that is closely related to the bone structure. That is, we begin to work from our own spine and from the joints, trying to create space even around the joints, and from there we are also strengthening the muscles.
But it is not a work from the outside in, it is not a work that begins in the muscles, but through breathing, movement coordination and body alignment we act more deeply.
How is it different from pilates and yoga?
It really is more like yoga than Pilates, because of the type of movements and the intention as well. He would say that the biggest difference is that Pilates is a two-dimensional technique, while Gyrotonic is three-dimensional. They are circular, harmonious and harmonic movements.
We move in all directions, which is how human beings should really move, because we are not robots and we cannot only move in two directions.
It seems to me a very good complement to do a technique that also includes circles and spirals, because the body really needs it, and over time we lose mobility and where there is no movement there is no life. If there are parts that remain without moving, it is where we begin to have problems.
Does it include strength exercises?
Yes, because it also helps to strengthen. It’s true that, in my opinion, at first it’s not the first thing you see, because in order to work strength well you have to have a good base of connection. In Gyrotonic from the first day you work muscles that you have never used.
In other words, the first class is hard.
The overall feeling is that you feel like you’ve been given a massage. I try to make the first class quite smooth and pay a lot of attention to the relaxation of the overloaded parts.
The idea is to connect with our body because most people live in the head, and we do deep connection work. In addition, we try to be more aware to realize all the tension that we have accumulated.
And we are also building a base of strength. It has millions of benefits because it also works coordination, the brain in a different way, it is very meditative, it allows you to disconnect, it allows you to work your circulation and the nervous system… It is very complete.
What would be the ideal routine?
Twice a week. It is a bit what I think the body is asking for, and that is ideal. I used to do it every day and it was my routine.
Right now that I am an entrepreneur, unfortunately I have less time and I have to force myself to take time to train. This year has cost me a lot. I have dedicated a lot to others and little to myself. It is very important to do quality work and have a lot of body consistency.
Have you opened a center in Milan?
We are working on it and we will open in September.
Do many famous people come to the center?
Yes. We work with actors. Aitana Sánchez always comes here, Miguel Bosé also came, Ángela Molina… We do group classes for a maximum of four people, and we also have private ones, for teacher and student.
Today there are many people excessively concerned about their physique, but not in a healthy way.
This is a very important subject for me, and sometimes it is difficult to transmit it, but it is not an aesthetic work. Obviously it has many aesthetic benefits because it undoubtedly tones the muscles, makes you much more fit. It’s great, but the goal is not aesthetic. The goal is to be well, healthy, without stress.
The goal is to have a body that is mobile, to have a healthy spine, not to have so much pressure on the joints, to have a body that can also move harmoniously, not to have pain, which in the end is something very basic, but important. . It makes me sad to see that sport is so related to something aesthetic, when it should not be the first focus.
Above all, young people mediated by social networks…
That is. And many times someone is thought to be healthy because they are thin and apparently fit, but they may have aching joints, a shattered spine, and uncoordinated movements. So that is not a healthy body, but today that is the image that is transmitted, which is incorrect.
What is the price of the sessions?
A loose and private class is priced at 55 euros and a loose collective class costs 35 euros. We also have cheaper monthly bonuses and we do special prices for dancers because I would love to help others.
Aren’t you going back to the dance?
I still dance, but now in a very different way. I come from classical dance, which has a very rigid structure and when I did it I loved it. But since I have left it, because I have dedicated it since I was three and a half years old until I was 28, which was my last professional project with the National Company of Spain, I feel much more like experimenting with other types of dance that I have never done. Lately I have fun with more contemporary things, in a more free way.
Follow the topics that interest you
