“It’s type two fun, I should have warned you!” says Keel Sebastian, owner and lead instructor at Confluence Pilates.
I’m ten minutes into my first-ever pilates class, and it’s not so much that the workout is hard—though it can be that, too—as that I can’t keep track of all the small movements I’m supposed to be doing simultaneously. Reach my arms over my head, press out with my legs, but also keep my core and pelvis stable? And don’t forget to breathe!
Confluence Pilates opened in September 2024 along South Third Street. Tall windows on two sides let in natural light, illuminating blond wood, rotating local artwork, and a line of “Reformers,” each resembling a cross between a rowing machine and a weight bench—if gym equipment were engineered like a German sports car.
While visually intimidating, Reformer Pilates, Confluence’s specialty, is actually designed to be accessible to all fitness levels. Promoting core strength, flexibility, balance, and coordination, each Reformer apparatus has a sliding carriage, springs, and straps that can be adjusted to make it suitable for athletes, folks recovering from surgery or injury, or total beginners like me.
Keel has been very intentional in creating an environment that is as welcoming as possible.
“We’re able to really modify and provide movement for all bodies,” she said. “I have some larger people who are not movers who feel like this is a place to be accepted. College kids. Retired people with severe scoliosis. Pro runners. Broken horse girls.”
Keel’s personal experience with injury—she places herself in that last category—informs her teaching as much as her many certifications.
“I can equate to that feeling of confusion,” she said. “The apparatus makes it so you can’t default to the bigger muscles. It’s a German activity—it’s very precise and slow.”
Nicole Currie, who teaches at Confluence alongside Keel, takes the time to welcome everyone individually to class and ask how they are doing that day.
“I try to give people that safe space to show up fully and authentically, to drop into their bodies,” she said. “We’re bringing the most up-to-date, science-backed, eastern-western blend of movement and wellness modalities. You feel more grounded in your body, and, hopefully, when you go back out into the world you feel more ready to tackle whatever you have going on.”
For former soldier Josh Akins, it’s not only what he has going on now but what he dealt with in the past.
“Many of us in the military put our bodies through quite the process, physically, but also psychoemotionally,” he said. “Over the last decade, I’ve had to unwind and unpack that.”
Josh tried yoga, strength training, and physical therapy to manage pain, and found pilates a useful framework to provide symmetry.
“If the brain is telling a muscle group to hold its pattern, it doesn’t matter how much stretching you do,” he said. “If you want to keep hiking, keep skiing, you’re going to have to address the imbalance. Someone like Keel as a biofeedback mechanism, to coax the body into new patterns. I’ve tried to encourage my friends, other men, especially as you get older, this is what you want instead of continuing to dead lift and CrossFit and all this masculine stuff.”
“My favorite part of pilates is to watch people gain stability and go back out to do whatever it is they want to do,” Keel echoed. “I look at us like doing your oil change on your car.” Confluence offers private and semi-private classes as well as a drop-in schedule, which includes evening, lunch, and weekend options. “We’re trying to create flexibility for people trying to get their outdoor time in as well as do their maintenance.”
By the end of the class, I notice I can’t finish the exercise series with the same intensity I had at the beginning. But Nicole reminds me, “An upward trajectory isn’t a straight line. Showing up is going to be beneficial.” And I walk out of the studio and into a sunny, cold Missoula morning, able to stand tall and hold my head—am I imagining it?—just a little bit higher.
“I try to give people that safe space to show up fully and authentically, to drop into their bodies." - Keel Sebastian
“My favorite part of pilates is to watch people gain stability and go back out to do whatever it is they want to do." - Keel Sebastian