'Swimming', 'Teaser' and 'The Twist' sound like dance crazes, but they are actually moves modelled by a Bermudian fitness instructor in a best-selling new Pilates book.

Pilates is a muscle toning exercise system that focuses on movement quality rather than movement quantity.

Long-time Pilates instructor Sophia Cannonier was picked out of a host of internationally certified Pilates instructors to be featured in "Standing Pilates ? Strengthen and Tone Your Body Wherever You Are" published by John Wiley & Sons Inc. The book was written by Joan Breibart, founder and president of Pilates PhysicalMind Institute in New York City.

"Standing Pilates" shows step-by-step how to perform 22 classic exercises each with four levels of difficulty. Using numerous photographic illustrations it shows readers how to use their own body weight to get faster and more lasting results.

"I am really happy that they chose me to do some of the demonstrations," said Ms Cannonier, who has been teaching for 17 years and has been internationally certified as a Pilates instructor for five years. "I feel strong about it because I think this is the top of the line Pilates book that has just come out."

For the book, Ms Cannonier travelled to New York City to be photographed in various Pilates positions. "I spent a whole day being photographed," she said. "It was a lot to do in a day. I pretty much modelled a lot of the other ones."

Ms Cannonier runs The Bermuda Integrative Health Cooperative Ltd. on the South Shore in Warwick with her partner Michael Watson.

The Co-op holds yoga and maternal fitness classes, offers a Feldenkrais Centre (a learning modality), and runs a Pilates studio with eight functioning Pilates instructors each with 20 to 25 students.

There are many books written about Pilates, but Ms Cannonier said "Standing Pilates" is different because it encourages Pilates enthusiasts to get up off the floor, hence the term 'standing' Pilates.

Pilates is named for German fitness instructor and boxer Joseph Pilates (1880-1967) who invented an exercise system called Contrology in New York City in the 1920s. After his death Contrology became better known as Pilates.

"All other Pilates books talk you through the basics which are one the floor," said Ms Cannonier. "The standing Pilates techniques enable people to actually get up off the floor. Pilates on the floor is important fundamentally, but doing some of the moves standing is more challenging for the body and the brain."

She said she frequently hears from people that they took Pilates classes but didn't feel they got anywhere.

"That is because people are still relying on personal trainers to change or fix them," she said. "I teach my students to own the method. I tell them, 'don't rely on me. I am going to teach you as though you are going to be a teacher'.

"Whether you want to take that information and become a teacher of Pilates or whether you just want to have it for yourself, that is for you to decide. Someone once asked me, 'aren't you afraid they might take it and open another studio'. My answer was 'no, our Island needs as many good Pilates enthusiasts as possible'. I think it will help our help care system become more normal."

She said too many people are looking for quick fixes instead of taking the time to work on improving their lives. "They are running to the physiotherapist, the chiropractor, and pharmacist like crazy to get the quick fix," Ms Cannonier said. "If they have this Pilates idea of education about themselves their lifestyle and living would change.

"That is my long-term goal. Sure we all have to make money. You are not going to become a millionaire teaching Pilates. You have to do it because you love it and you love to work with people. So the reason I do it is to help the community. That is why I came back to Bermuda. I was living in New York City before for years, dancing and getting into the Pilates. I have just finished a four-year programme in Feldenkrais training."

Ms Cannonier said Joe Pilates left behind his legacy of exercise, but he also left his followers to think about the idea of Pilates and ways to develop the system.

"Pilates is not to be owned by a single person, but by everyone," said Ms Cannonier. "It is an idea, it is a concept, it is a way of thinking about your body and a way of thinking about moving.

"He left us looking for his answers. We had to go out and start talking about anatomy. He never taught his teachers to identify body parts and to instruct the students upon their bodies. He would have progressed to this level had he been alive."

Ms Cannonier gained notoriety in Bermuda for her dancing. She has danced for the Dance Theatre of Harlem, danced with singer Aretha Franklin, the Maryland Ballet and also the Bermuda Civic Ballet.

"I still dance, but I got smart," she said. "It is a beautiful art form that really gets you started early in life to understand your body and to respect your body. As you get older you recognise your body is not meant to be really be contorted in those positions, otherwise you would have been born that way.

"In order to keep dancing you have to sacrifice a lot of your health and mental health so I stopped before I got chronically injured. I still dance, but I dance with this Pilates approach. I also do Feldenkrais and I do Yoga. So dance is more like an expression to me."

Ironically, Joe Pilates' method was originally popular with dancers in New York City.

"It just so happened there was a dance studio in his building. A dance instructor there use to send a lot of his injured dancers to Joe Pilates. Joe liked dancers because they would do whatever he told them to do. It was back in the day when you had to listen to Joe and he would put you into position. Dancers found this valuable in many ways."

Ms Cannonier said she was flattered when she was asked to demonstrate Pilates techniques for the 'Standing Pilates' book.

"Joan Breibart of the PhysicalMind Institute has seen me over the years applying this in my body and teaching people. She asked me to do some of the pictures for the book."

Luckily, the photo shoot was over a year before her son Ravi arrived, but she said she has since been out to New York with Ravi who is now three months old.

"It was most definitely easy to bounce back after having the baby but not because of Pilates only," she said. "It was also because I am certified to teach maternal fitness which is a whole other kettle of fish.

"The maternal fitness class really teaches you how to exercise your abdominals throughout the pregnancy and push with them and use your pelvic floor efficiently so you don't damage your pelvic floor. I did that a year before I got pregnancy and throughout the pregnancy. I was back teaching in five weeks just like I wanted to be."

She said the maternal fitness classes are open to people of any fitness level. "Where you come in is where we start," she said. "People think, 'I have to get flexible before I do Yoga', or 'I have to be in some semblance of shape before I go to a facility'. That is what I want to change, or I have to have a certain amount of money in order to afford Pilates which is a huge problem.

"The people with a lot of money think they own the money, because it tends to be expensive. I am trying to change the cost structure in Bermuda so that Pilates can be for everyone on a sliding scale.

"I am trying to bring the price down and be quality high."

She has trained most of the instructors at her studio and she said she insists that they constantly upgrade their level of fitness education.

"We pride ourselves that we are a certifying centre," she said. "I train Bermudians to teach and I insist that their level of education be constantly upgraded. We offer apprenticeships."

She said some studios market themselves as offering 'pure' Pilates, but she does not.

"It is a lot of BS," she said. "Joe Pilates is not here. It is just like a marketing tool. They like to say, 'I trained with someone who trained with Joe'. It is just a style.

"You have to keep going with the idea of Pilates. That is what we try and do. We don't try and make people rely on us. The concept is lets get the price down, the quality up and more people responsible for their help and not reliant on a personal trainer to fix them."

In addition to other Pilates classes the Standing Pilates classes are offered twice a week. For more information call 236-0336, check out their website www.healthcoop.bm or e-mail infohealthcoop.bm .