Portugal Movement Excursion
Movement, Magic, & Memories: Our Portugal Excursion 2025
If you followed along on Instagram @Pilates4Fitness, you know that part of October was not spent in the usual spaces. Instead, I proudly joined a colleague and co-led our movement practice across the Atlantic, trading the four walls for the golden cliffs, tiled streets, and endless horizons of Portugal.
From October 11th thru 18th, we embarked on a movement excursion that was about so much more than just exercise. It was about exploring the angles of a new landscape and finding new curves within ourselves.
The Setting: Angles & Azulejos
Portugal in October was perfect —the light is softer, the air crisp, and the ocean is a deep, inviting blue. We arrived with open hearts and ready bodies.
Portugal challenged each of us in the best way possible. Whether we were navigating the steep walk up to our daily movement classes, the cobblestoned hills of Lisbon (a glute workout that requires no reformer) or finding our center on a mat overlooking the reflecting pool, the environment became our apparatus.
Highlight: Our morning mat session on the hill terrace. There is something profoundly grounding about "hugging the center line" when the horizon line is right there in front of you.
Morning Pilates Mat
We didn't just leave our stress at the airport; we moved it out of our bodies.The week was dedicated to Movement Therapy. We slowed down. We focused on the breath. We worked on the spine using the yoga bolsters in place of the spine corrector, used that core to truly ride horseback and enjoyed each other poolside chatting about travel and life.
One of my favorite sessions was sunset movement with my co-lead Anayra Calderon, we enjoyed the light and her voice to move our bodies and use our balance and stabilizers. It was a reminder that both Pilates and Yoga aren't just a series of exercises; but a way of carrying yourself through the world—tall, aligned, and resilient.
Click the image for the IG post
We wrapped up our days chasing sunsets. Portugal gave us some spectacular ones. There is nothing quite like sitting by an infinity pool, watching the sky turn from blue to fiery orange, silhouetting the tall grass.
The Nourishment: A Taste of the Good Life
You can't talk about Portugal without talking about the food. Part of the "Pilates Lifestyle" is enjoying life’s pleasures, and we certainly did that.
We fueled our movement with fresh Mediterranean flavors— foods prepared specially for us by our private chef; grilled fish, chicken and/veggies, vibrant salads, homemade dressing and yes, the occasional Pastel de Nata (because balance!). We toasted our progress with local Vinho Verde and shared stories late into the night.
The perfect end to a perfect week. Serenity found.
Met Museum: African & Indonesian Artifacts
Michael C. Rockefeller Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which has been closed and under renovation since 2021, reopened May 2025. The Sept 2024 NYT "sneak peak" reported it was to be “ brighter, more open exhibition spaces for the museum’s storied collection of objects from Africa, the Ancient Americas and Oceania — including stone sculptures, detailed metalwork and colorful ceramic vessels.”
I had planned to combine my trip to Lorna Simpson's exhibit with an hour or two of an escape thru most of the work in the new wing; wood masks, sculptures and sacred artifacts, along with textile and ceramic pieces were beautifully exhibited from across sub-Saharan Africa. The NYT was right, it was bright, open and an absolutely riveting collection. Click here for the video clip of the "art escape" visit.
I loved every treasure featured and especially the textile pieces, whether kente, mud cloth and especially El Anatsui’s metal “drape fabric.”
El Anatsui
The recent series of works that "Between Earth and Heaven" relates to refer to the celebrated West African traditions of strip-woven textiles namely that of Kente developed by Akan and Ewe weavers in Anatsui's native Ghana. Those traditional textiles are at once monumental in scale and highly sculptural in the way they drape the body as the apparel of leaders. The undulation of this work evokes that tactile quality and its resplendent color scheme of gold, red, and black translate and transpose the aesthetic of finely woven silk into the medium of base metal.
Arts of Oceania
Kwoma Ceiling evokes the interior of a men’s ceremonial house in Papua New Guinea. It has more than 100 individually painted panels, in the new galleries for the Arts of Oceania in the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing.
Lorna Simpson | 'Source Notes' MET Museum
And escape it was, into the MET and another maze thru most of museum, this time filled with a huge number of people. Fortunately, fewer were interested in Lorna Simpson or the African and Indonesian art exhibits. As a result, I felt like I had wide open space all to myself. Another immersive walk, this time into color, shape, memory and history.
Lorna Simpson: Source Notes focused on a new development in her work of the last 10 years: paintings that advance her incisive explorations of gender, race, identity, representation, and history. This is the first exhibition to consider the entirety of her painting practice to date. Similar to Mickalene Thomas, whose work I saw at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia last year, Lorna's “source imagery” and inspiration came from vintage Ebony and Jet magazines and incorporated them into screen-printed collages with washes of color - ink and acrylics - onto various surfaces. fiberglass, wood, or Claybord.
Originally a photographer, she has mixed and melded her creative expression and genres.
Ice
Apparently, she transitioned from photography to painting icy landscapes, “new territory for an artist who has focused on socio-political commentaries for much of her career” and started exploring it as a metaphor in 2018.
“Simpson compares these icy, inhospitable terrains to the current culture in America, which is still rife with discrimination, and segregation. Some of her landscape paintings also feature ghostly, African-American women's faces dissolving into her indistinct, mountainous blurs, emphasizing the hidden issues of racism that still haunt the American dream.”
“Known predominantly as a photographer, painting is a radical new development in Simpson's practice, one which was not without its risks, as she explains, "At first I was a little intimidated about working in this way," she commented, adding, "It seemed a little absurd ... and then I thought ... you fail, you fail. So what?”
No failure here.
Source: https://www.theartstory.org/artist/simpson-lorna/
Diane Arbus | 'Constellation' Park Avenue Armory
"Diane Arbus: Constellation"was on view at the Park Avenue Armory in New York City, marking the largest and most complete presentation of the photographer's work ever shown in the city. With over 450 photographs, including many never-before-seen prints, arranged in a fully immersive, very unconventional installation that I thoroughly and completely enjoyed.
It was like walking through a maze of delights and a really smart way to present this work. The exhibition, curated by Matthieu Humery and presented in collaboration with LUMA Foundation, filled half of the Armory's 55,000-square-foot hall with creating a dynamic and overwhelming experience. Designed to evoke a "constellation" or an alternate subway map, encouraged the viewer to simply "wander and discover connections through chance and exploration, rather than following a linear narrative."
This “art escape” gave me a chance to use my POV camera for a richer visual experience of the city and movement between my choices of the day. Starting with the bus ride and movement thru Port Authority, subway ride uptown to Diane Arbus “Constellation” exhibition at the Park Avenue Armory and a casual walk up 5th Ave to the MET.
The Lorna Simpson exhibition, as well as the new wing of African and Indonesian art, was the plan for later afternoon.
Interestingly, Arbus' quote on the t-shirt at the gift shop was the perfect sentiment for the POV camera walk thru the city.
Click HERE for the
video clip of the day
All photographs are prints made by Neil Selkirk, a former student of Arbus and the only person authorized to produce prints from her original negatives. “I wanted to make sure that it was as mixed up as possible,” the show’s curator, Matthieu Humery," told Veronica Esposito, author, Guardian.com, “I didn’t want to make any specific connections between images. I tried to keep out any kind of narratives so that visitors create their own narratives. There is this magic madness."
Loved the exhibition and presentation. An excellent way to experience Arbus; a one-of-a-kind photographer that opened countless eyes then, and now. The illusion of expanding the room with a mirror at the end of the room gave more depth. It also allowed one to get lost in the maze of images and occasionally led people to walk into the mylar mirror wall.
I skipped the 90 minute video; after seeing over 400+ images, I wanted to get outside and on to the Metropolitan.
Amy & Toyin
After enjoying, what felt like five rooms of large scale portraits, I sat still to watch the 14 min video below, and then went back to several pieces, the details of which the clip highlighted, and I missed on the first pass.
Amy Sherald
”In her studio in New Jersey, artist Amy Sherald paints portraits that tell a story about American lives. Her face just inches away from a canvas, the artist carefully applies stroke after stroke, building her narrative through paint. “I really have this belief that images can change the world,” says Sherald, a belief she acts upon in her compelling paintings, which depict everyday people with dignity and humanity. Following the tradition of American realists like Andrew Wyeth and Edward Hopper, the artist uses her paintings to tell stories about America. Searching for models, settings, and scenarios that would convey the kinds of stories she wanted to tell, Sherald began to populate the world of her paintings with everyday people in everyday situations.”
Good Read — https://news.artnet.com/art-
Toyin Odutola
Unforgettable Experiences
Experiences that I am grateful and blessed to have had the chance, opportunity and gumption to go.
At this writing, I am beginning the planning for an excursion-retreat-escape to Portugal in 2025 with the hopes and intention of keeping a good thing going….traveling and exploring. Planning to co-host a movement excursion with Anayra Calderon, the trip leader for both the Egypt and Morocco trips.
An African Proverb says,
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
Want to come?
A few incredibly memorable experiences.
Japan at 30
- Bullet train to Mt Fuji province
- Weekend in Kyoto
Turkey & Paris 2007
- Turkish Tea sitting on the Bosphorus River
- Strolling Taxim Square cafes drinking Raki
Egypt at 65 years
Morocco in 2023
- 5am Sunrise Balloon Ride and Breakfast
- Mountain trek to visit Women’s Cooperative
Costa Rica @ 67
- Afternoon lunch spent in the BLUE Zone Guanacoste province with coffee farmer and his family.
- Costa Rica in the Rain
Costa Rica in the Rain
It rained quite a bit while we were there. As a result, it allowed me to slow down and appreciate the special peacefulness of being in a Blue Zone region of the world and the wonder of nature’s elements.
This was a Pilates Retreat with a gifted friend and teacher, Bonnie Grove, and move we did! A lot of it, in the rain, via TukTuk shuttles back and forth to a health and wellness facility that housed the Pilates Apparatus we had the pleasure of using throughout the week.
While it was wet, it was wonderful.
Guanacaste Blue Zone
Coffee, lunch, and a visit with Don Vidal, a 72 yo Guanacaste Province Farmer, and his daughter, Mariaolsa.
Purely magical afternoon of sharing the genuine simplicity of life and #BlueZone living.
They opened their home and shared all the produce of the farm with us with such love and generoisty.
True love for the earth and its bounty.
Guanacaste Province is home to the Nicoya Peninsula, recognized as one of the world’s five Blue Zones, where residents often live beyond 100 years.
Click here for video clip
After preparing and serving lunch for the group, Mariaolsa shot the header image of Bonnie and I giggling like two kids. 😉
Whiskey, Art, Laughter and Friends
An amazing weekend with friends in DC hanging out with two amazing southern brothers, Charles Kelly and Anthony Walker. Both of whom are great whisky drinkers. And bourbon whiskey bar hopping was definitely part of the planned agenda.
Took a train ride down to drink, laugh and visit the African American Museum and hang out with these friends. Joined by my PilatesSister, colleague and friend, Danica Kalemdaroglu. As one might notice, we fully let our hair down.
A weekend well spent and fully enjoyed.
Grateful for the friendship of these two guys, and particularly Anthony’s long and strong arms, eyes, ears and wherewithal for keeping me lifted and upright while giggling throughout his city.
Street Scenes | Egypt At Work
Streets are bare. Dirt and sand can be found everywhere. Construction and renovation was ongoing and yet, everyone appeared at peace with the chaos of life.
Tourism, and its support system, is the major driver of the economy.
