About me

I'm Aisha Trimbach. Inventive, curious, inquiring and unconventional.

I'm drawn to forms of movement in which the quality of movement and perception from within go hand in hand. I'm fascinated by the anatomy of the body in motion, by its complexity and its inner connections, and inspired by people who developed a method out of their own physical limitations.

How it began

I wanted to be a dancer. At home there was meditation every day, to rein in my restlessness, and I'd count the seconds until I was allowed off the meditation stool.

At school I was bored, and I was bullied. I wanted to work everything out for myself.

After years of pestering, I was allowed to take classical ballet. I practised every day and loved the classes, though I noticed I wasn't becoming as supple as some of my classmates, however much I stretched. Then one day free improvisation was introduced. Do something spontaneous with what you've learnt. My body froze and I panicked. I didn't know what to do, and I didn't know why.

That second part stayed with me. Years later I was in so much pain and tension that I gave up movement classes, and I had to find out where it was coming from.

In 1987 I came across Structural Integration, a method that brings the body into balance in relation to gravity through manipulation of the connective tissue around muscles and joints and re-education of postural and movement patterns. I went on to complete the four-year training in Postural Integration, and it laid the foundation for everything I've learnt since.

Ida Rolf is one of my heroes. She had a sharp eye for the relationship between patterns of fascial tension and the context in which they arose, and through her my question shifted from what causes what? to how do these things relate to one another?

How I learn

I need to understand something before I can experience it; otherwise I don't know what to pay attention to.

Training weekends rarely got me very far. I'd be straining to keep up, never quite following, and would make little use of it afterwards. What does work for me is reading, one subject with room around it, small groups or one-to-one teaching, and weeks to live with it. That's how I learnt everything that lies deepest in my work.

My classes are built the same way. I explain before we move, and there's no imposed pace. When words don't land, I show you; when seeing doesn't land, I guide you through it with my hands. I tell you where you're likely to feel something, then ask whether you feel something different. What has no name goes unnoticed.

If you run into something, it's usually relevant to others in the group as well, which is why the groups are small.

Finding my own way

At the gym I disliked certain abdominal exercises. They went too fast for me, I felt clumsy, and my lower back protested. My trainer suggested Pilates, which turned out to have a surprising amount in common with the experiential movement methods I already knew.

It was the essence that interested me. I couldn't abide the hype around it, and my body wasn't ready for the Power Pilates then in vogue. I trained as a Pilates instructor, at that point to level 1, and taught reformer group classes, mat classes and personal training on the reformer, but I couldn't identify with the way teaching was done. In 2004 I opened a studio of my own, on my own terms and with my own aims, so that I could decide for myself what happened in my classes. Later I went on to complete levels 2 and 3 and the Comprehensive level. From 2005 to 2016 I also taught Pilates classes for Maastricht University.

The principles of Pilates have stayed: precision, breathing, movement from your centre. The fixed order of exercises hasn't, and nor have the levels. I tailor each class to the people in the room.

And more has kept being added: the GYROTONIC® method and GYROKINESIS® classes, Anatomy Trains, Anatomy in Motion, and the treatment of fascia, which I've never let go of.

Why I do this work

My own body isn't free of complaints. For years I had pain in my back and legs after a walk, and stiffness getting up from a chair. At some point I noticed that each morning I was working out which things I'd need that day, so that I wouldn't have to climb the stairs again.

What I learnt then, I still use every day. Your body makes little distinction between physical and emotional pain. An old injury, a long period of tension: the response is often the same. Stiffening, withdrawing, avoiding. And sometimes no longer feeling. I know that well. Being hard on yourself, not wanting to make a fuss, brushing signals aside until you no longer notice them.

My spine hasn't become as supple as I'd hoped. None of the people I've learnt most from developed a method because their body cooperated: not Ida Rolf, not Joseph Pilates, nor Juliu Horvath or Gary Ward. Anyone who has spent years stretching without result knows how it works when nothing comes easily.

My training

I've been fortunate to be taught in person by people who defined their own fields. Many of them are original developers and authors, and their vision and methods have profoundly shaped the way I work.

• Classical ballet and modern dance with various teachers
• Year-long training in modern dance expression with Sjannie Vos
• Body and Mind Academy
  • Body Ecstatic course with Rashma Schaefer-Buss
  • Primal therapy courses with Sarojini de Krom
  • Year-long training in Tantra and Intimacy with Sarojini de Krom
  • Four-year training in Postural Integration with Jack Painter and Rashma Schaefer-Buss
  • Year-long training in Sexual Grounding and Bioenergetic Character Analysis with Willem Poppeliers
• Ten years of Argentine tango with Margreet Sweerts and Leon van Kleef
• Certified Pilates trainer, level 1
• Certified Pilates trainer, levels 2 and 3 and Comprehensive level, with Kelly McKinnon
  • Mat
  • All Apparatus
• Certified GYROKINESIS® trainer, level 1, with Kelly McKinnon

  Special courses:

  • GYROKINESIS® Breathing legacy course with Juliu Horvath
  • GYROKINESIS® Happy Moves Course
  • GYROKINESIS® Lotus Blossom Course
• Certified GYROTONIC® trainer, level 1, with Deborah Lynn

  Special courses:

  • GYROTONIC® Therapeutic application for the Pelvic girdle
  • GYROTONIC® Principles in the context of Osteopathy
  • GYROTONIC® Psoas Principles
  • GYROTONIC® Fascial Body
  • GYROTONER® Program 1 Course
• Anatomy Trains
  • Masterclass BodyReading/visual assessment with Thomas Myers, author and founder of 'Anatomy Trains'
  • Fascial Release Technique (online) with Thomas Myers
  • Body Reading the Lines (online) with Thomas Myers
  • Anatomy Trains in Motion with Karin Gurtner, author of several books on fascia in movement
  • Fascial Release and Structural Balance series with James Earls, co-author with Thomas Myers of 'Fascial Release for Structural Balance', author of 'Born to Walk'
    • Arches and Legs
    • Fans of the Hip
    • Walking the Lines
• Anatomy in Motion (AIM)
  • Finding Centre Immersion course with Chris Sritharan and Gary Ward, author of 'What the Foot?'
  • Flow Motion Model course with Gary Ward and Chris Sritharan
• Franklin workshops on knees, back and neck with Eric Franklin, author of several books on the Franklin Method
• Psoas Core Awareness course with Liz Koch, author of several books on the psoas
• Bartenieff course with Marieke Delannoy
• Fascial Fitness course with Stefan Dennenmoser
• Trigger point workshop: foam rolling with TriggerPoint