I understand your concerns han-grrl and do feel a certain validity. However, I also see that you live in Ottawa. I am afraid what may be available to you in a city is not in my area. Here in the mountains of western Maine, I live 30 miles from the nearest stoplight!! We are a ski resort town, and are lucky enough to have a recreation/gym building. There is actually a pilates exercise session. That sounds good so far, right. Now the bad part. The instructor took one class of training herself, she merely leads the group with no instruction at all regardless of whether one is a beginner or more experienced. It is mostly a survival session. Unfortunately the gal is the daughter of my best friend.
I thought I might be better off with a good DVD and the machine, and that might be better than trying to learn how to do mat or ball work on my own. Further comments or suggestions???