Hi Friends,

Welcome to My Happy Hour Blog! I am so excited to venture on this journey with you and launch this new platform for an open dialogue about health, fitness, wellness and of course, PILATES!

In this first blog post I wanted to take the time to introduce myself and get to know a little bit about you. So, without further ado, my name is Bernadette Torres and I am the founder and owner of Happy Hour Pilates & Wellness. I am a former Principal Ballerina and a graduate of San Diego State University’s College of Business. I am a certified BASI Pilates instructor, with other certifications in Pilates through Pregnancy and Beyond, Pilates for Injuries and Pathologies, Progressing Ballet Technique, the Royal Ballet School Teacher Training- Continuing Education Webinars, and Adult and Pediatric First Aid/CPR/AED from the American Red Cross. Additionally, I have completed workshops and attended in Pilates for the Overweight Client, Pilates for the Rehabilitating Client, Pilates for the Mature Client, BASI LFTL 2019, Pilates for Scoliosis, Pilates for Kids, Pilates for Men, The F2 System with Rael Isacowitz, the PMA Conference 2019, and the APPI (Australian Physiotherapy and Pilates Institute) Mat Course, a rehabilitation Pilates based program. While I have created a career out of my passion for fitness through more than 20 years of combined professional ballet and Pilates— as a practitioner and instructor in both fields—I truly see myself as a guide, coach, and mentor, healing the mind and body through movement.

I found my way to Pilates through ballet, an art I have dedicated my life to since the age of six. While I continue to coach and advise students pursuing a professional ballet career, I have directed my focus towards my passion for Pilates.

What makes Pilates so special you ask?

Let me tell you. Aches and pains come with the territory of being a professional athlete, as do injuries. I dabbled in mat Pilates as a young dancer and began to feel its transformative effects as I developed my technique and worked with a variety of instructors. I came to see that Pilates can be tailored to any individual’s needs, a realization of total inclusion that fueled my drive to learn more in an effort to 1) heal and strengthen myself and 2) figure out how to help others in a safe, yet challenging, way. BASI Pilates, a contemporary take based on Joseph Pilates’ original groundbreaking exercises (Contrology), spoke to me the most with its ever-evolving technique and dedication to creating technique backed by cutting edge science.

With hard work, determination, and a supportive community of family and friends, I developed my personal brand and am pleased to debut my new company, Happy Hour Pilates & Wellness. At Happy Hour we offer more than Pilates, we are a resource for all health and wellness aspirations.

Now enough about me. I’d love to hear from you… What forms of fitness are you passionate about? Are you working toward any specific goals?

With love, Bernadette