Classical Pilates Instructor and Professional Pianist
Nadine André is a certified Level V Romana’s Pilates teacher and a professional pianist, piano teacher and chamber coach based in Ewell, Surrey.
She began her piano studies at the age of 5 with world-renowned teacher Judith Burton, and continued on to the Royal Northern College of Music under Kathryn Stott and Carole Presland, achieving a BMus (hons) in 2004 and MMus in 2005. Her career has been diverse. She has given solo and chamber recitals throughout the UK and Europe and held a one-year residency with her trio at the University of Surrey in 2018-19.
Nadine’s sensitivity and warm-hearted nature manifested itself in a passion for teaching the piano from her early professional life. Having taught in many schools across Surrey and the Royal Academy of Music as a piano teacher and award-winning chamber coach for almost 20 years, her experience of educating and mentoring people of all ages and abilities is extensive.
The mechanics and movement of the human body have always been a source of fascination and discovery for Nadine. Her professional life hasn’t been without injury and following years of sessions with physiotherapists and being a dedicated student of the Alexander Technique, Pilates came into Nadine’s life in 2013. She loved the way Pilates made her feel and, wanting to get as close to the original work of Joe Pilates as possible, Nadine had her first session with Rebecca Convey at Kinetic Pilates, London in 2019.
It was clear that from the first session with Rebecca that the depth of the work would make dramatic changes to the way her body functioned. Not only did playing injuries melt away but her playing technique at the piano greatly improved seemingly effortlessly. Six months later Nadine received her apprenticeship training and mentorship at Kinetic Pilates with Rebecca Convey (Level III), was examined by Jane Poerwoatmodjo (Level III) and was examined and certified by Marjorie Oron (Master Trainer Level IX) from The Hague in Holland. Nadine certified as a Level V Romana’s Pilates Instructor in March 2022.
Nadine continues to practice Pilates and the piano on a daily basis and has regular sessions with Rebecca at Kinetic Pilates. As well as taking lessons with Vera Müllerova in the Czech Republic, she also actively attends regular professional development workshops with Romana’s Pilates, both in London and around the world, and takes sessions with Romana’s teachers of high international standing. Nadine is dedicated to consistently deepening her own understanding and practice of both Pilates and music in order to enhance her teaching and to strengthen her Pilates technique and piano playing.
Nadine currently teaches private sessions in her fully-equipped classical home studio and mat classes in a venue in Ewell, Surrey. Piano teaching is still integral to her professional life and Nadine continues to perform as a soloist, chamber musician and part of the duo ‘It Had To Be Two’ with her husband, jazz drummer Paul Cavaciuti.
What makes Romana’s Pilates Unique?
The Romana’s Pilates apprenticeship is world-renowned as one of the most rigorous and demanding training methods. Throughout the 1200+ hours of study and observation Nadine has fulfilled in the studio, she has been amazed at the incredible results she has seen with the Pilates method leading people out of a lifetime of pain and reduced mobility. She is excited to be able to help people develop their bodies so they can live more fulfilling and happy lives and considers this to be a life-long journey of study.
The Romana’s method is unique and there is undoubtedly no better way to learn Pilates than integrating the full system of apparatus and the mat from the very beginning, the way Pilates intended it to be learnt. Every piece of apparatus is designed in connection to the others and to learn only one or two is to fall short of the remarkable results that can be achieved with the full system of Pilates. There is a strong lineage that follows clearly back to the original work of Joseph Pilates through his protege and colleague, Romana Kryzanowska who worked hard to proliferate his method after his death.
“We don’t change the work, the work changes us.” Jay Grimes
How can Pilates help training musicians?
Nadine’s lifelong experience as a pianist and teacher, combined with the Pilates teacher training, gives her a unique insight into the physical, mental and emotional demands of training to be a professional musician. By developing an integrated understanding of body mechanics through the apprenticeship, working one-to-one with clients on a daily basis and addressing issues in her own body, she is well equipped to train and educate other musicians.
Her ambition is to work with them regularly by practising Pilates to become physically stronger and freer, therefore improving their playing and performance capability. Musicians are well grounded in understanding the need for discipline and consistency when it comes to mastering their craft yet frequently don’t apply the same attitude and rigour to looking after their own body. By practising the Pilates method in a systematic, regular way, with the same focus and concentration they apply in the practice room, Nadine believes that many musicians will be saved from a lifetime of recurring injury and a feeling of failure because of physical (and therefore technical) limitations.
To read more about this, visit Nadine’s blog “As A Pianist, Why Pilates and Why Romana’s Pilates”
