Cirque School L.A.

Our semiregular rundown of Pilates news from around the Web. Enjoy!

• Been searching for a place where you can do Pilates and fly with the greatest of ease? Look no further than Cirque School L.A., which blends Pilates with the circus arts, and grew from founder Aloysia Gavre’s desire “to give anybody with any body the opportunity to ‘hang by their knees,’ even if it’s just once, and create a hybrid of fitness programming.” Read Digital City’s interview with Gavre.

• More 2010 fitness trend forecasting, this time from the American Council on Exercise. No direct mention of Pilates, but functional fitness and credentialing both get a nod.

• The hottest new Pilates prop: a baby! If you’ve ever wondered how mommy and baby Pilates classes work, check out this video news clip, aptly headlined “NBA star’s wife uses baby to exercise,”  from MSNBC’s The Grio. 

• Longtime fitness instructor Andrea Metcalf introduced Live-alates, simple Pilates-inspired moves for better living, on Oprah.com.

• Pilates trainer Meleah Rubio, a former cheerleader, works with University of Texas football players two to three times her size, and says they’ve really warmed up to Pilates. “It’s made them more aware of their body and their breathing. And injury prevention has been huge,” she tells News 8 Austin in this segment. Hook ‘em, Horns!

• Real Pilates maven Alycea Ungaro discussed tailoring workouts to body types with local cable network New York One.

• Soap opera star Susan Lucci has partnered with Fila to launch a Pilates apparel line for the Home Shopping Network. Lucci launched her Malibu Pilates System on the channel last year.

• Karena Lineback and her studio Pilates Teck got props for their homemade contribution to the Santa Clarita, California, holiday Festival of Trees, and raised cash for the local Boys and Girls Club to boot. Kudos!