On a lovely late August morning, I had the opportunity to sit down
with Kiki Markovits, an author, wife, Ismakogie instructor,
and creator of Nimble. She hails
from the country of Austria; growing up there during the 50s and 60s meant that
Kiki could witness the reconstruction of Vienna following World War II, as
it was a time of happiness brought about by a new era. Kiki grew up with
her mother, as her father died when she was five years old. Kiki's mother
was from Budapest, Hungary, a woman who cared very much about style and
appearance. Being elegant was very important to her-not only for her own
regard, but also in other people’s eyes. Dressing up to go places was a
standard as it was a way to have self-respect and to show that one respected
everyone else by putting in the effort to look nice. "This old time
glamour where people had good posture, held their heads up, and had an
elegant composure is something which has greatly diminished over the last
several decades", Kiki says.
Kiki's mother wasn't wealthy, but she showed that one doesn't need
to spend lots of money on fancy clothes to look elegant or to make good
impressions; "the key is the way in which you wear the things you
have", said Kiki. Nowadays, people seem to dismiss these things as
being unimportant and it certainly shows--how many people do you see daily, who
are hunched over their cell phones or laptops? This lack of consciousness
about posture and healthy body movements makes people feel lousy and weak
inside instead of strong and confident. These poor habits also bring
about arthritis and all sorts of joint, muscle, and bone damage.
Kiki's mother loved dance and movements associated with the fine
and performing arts. She grew up around the time of World War I, thus
there were naturally things that she wasn't able to do; she lived her wishes and
dreams that were put on hold through her daughter, Kiki. Kiki danced
ballet and played piano while growing up; she was enrolled at the Lycee
Francais, a private school. At the age of fifteen, Kiki was asked to join
the Vienna Opera Ballet as she was a talented dancer, however, Kiki's mother
didn't want her to follow the entertainment path as it is short-lived
with no longevity. Ballet wasn't intellectual in her mother's eyes; it
was a good hobby but a bad career. Kiki went on to university which led her
to pursue a career working at the largest bank in Vienna. At the bank,
she was involved in a women’s group which focused on acquiring the
same rights for women and men in management position and compensation.
During this time, the very first women’s spa in Austria opened up and it
offered relaxation, yoga, and Ismakogie. Kiki
started attending the spa twice a day and absolutely loved it. Her
instructor-a woman in her 60s-taught the class with incredible vibrance,
elegance, and energy. Participating women even did things like walking
with candles on their heads in order to improve balance.
Quite a few years later, Kiki married her current husband, Andrei Markovits.
The marriage brought her to the U.S. in 1997, and the couple lived in
Cambridge, Massachusetts, as Andy
was teaching at Harvard University. A couple years later, they moved to
Ann Arbor due to Andy's
teaching position as a political science professor at the University of
Michigan.
Once she came to America, Kiki realized that Ismakogie did not
exist in this part of the world, thus she wanted to spread her knowledge and
show people how wonderful, simple, and practical it is. Ismakogie is a well-being method that was
developed by Anne Seidel in 1950. It
places an emphasis on repeating small exercises until the effects of them are
felt on the whole body.
All these years, Kiki had kept her apartment in Vienna and so she
decided to go back to her hometown to become certified in Ismakogie. She took
intense medical seminars in anatomy and did research on the practice, which is
prevalent in the Netherlands, Germany, France, and Italy. She came up
with her own, comprehensive version of Ismakogie-Nimble: Numerous Ideal
Movements for the Body for Lifelong Elegance, Enhancement, Enrichment, and
Enjoyment. Her method is built on the premise that everything is
connected; every limb in our body is connected to other parts and thus if we
start fixing one part there will be a chain reaction-the other parts of the
body will improve as well do to the effort put into just one area. The
method helps one focus on elegance, and integrate the path to lightness and
agility in daily life-it's not just another workout, but a lifestyle.
Kiki sat down and started writing her book in 2012, and she filmed
a short video to accompany it. The two were published at the end of 2012. They were introduced to the public with an
event at Ayla,
a stylish boutique in downtown Ann Arbor.
Continuing the dispersion of her knowledge and teaching, Kiki published
a second book in 2013, entitled Nimble: A
Guide for Brides which continues the Nimble theme with techniques
especially designed to help brides present themselves elegantly in their
wedding ceremony.
Nimble is for anyone who wishes to improve herself/himself
physically and mentally. Older people tend to appreciate Nimble more than
the young as they can feel the effects of aging on their bodies and how Nimble
teaching can address infirmity and significantly improve their body movement. The young, however, can find the method
beneficial. It helps them establish
proper posture and movement, avoid bad habits and integrate Nimble early on.
Men are usually much less interested in appearance compared to
women, however, most people don't want to lose the abilities that their bodies
had at a young age, thus their motivation is health which, in turn, effects
outward appearance.
One of the primary steps to self-improvement is for people to have
constant support in their feet in order to support other joints and muscles. Kiki emphasizes the importance of starting
with the feet, the base which holds up all of your body weight, and then working
your way up the body. When her book came out, people were very
interested, but quite a few were also hesitant because Nimble seems so
simple.
Kiki has incorporated digital techniques to market her works such
as having her website, putting up content on Youtube, and her Facebook.
Every month she sends out a newsletter, that anyone can sign up for on
her website. The newsletter not only reviews exercises in the book, but also
reveals new ones that are not in the book. In the future, she will create
a blog in order to reach out to her followers and connect even more with those
interested in Nimble.
Kiki also offers private lessons. Sometimes whole groups of
people have a lesson on how to sit and walk properly. Group lessons make the educational experience
fun. Mothers and daughters have tea sessions together while taking
lessons. The practice facilitates
bonding and investing in health simultaneously.
Nimble sessions focus on the way you move, as it is your identity.
If you watch someone walking from afar, you can tell a lot about the
person from the way he/she moves. During
the sessions, Kiki primarily focuses on balance, picking up the feet instead of
shuffling, and having good posture with a straight back and shoulders down. She watches her clients walk and then
critiques and targets their specific goals.
For senior people, the goal is to help them walk in a refreshingly
steady way, so that their movement does not reveal their age. The lessons
last about two hours and they are typically every six weeks. Kiki doesn't want people to rely on her by
having lessons every week. She gives her
clients time to practice the skills they learn.
Kiki also conducts sessions in Detroit to young women from poor
backgrounds to help them with their self-esteem. She says, "it is
important how you feel and how you carry yourself, not the amount of money you
have".
.jpg)
People wonder how long it usually takes to go from thinking about
things like posture and body movements to being able to subconsciously move in
the correct manner. Kiki says that certain things are quick, such as
sitting the correct way by sitting on the edge of a chair, on the sit bones.
It is almost always difficult for people to correct a hunched head, neck,
and spine. One of the main misconceptions Kiki clarifies for her clients
is that relaxation doesn't have a positive connotation and that stress or
tension doesn't have a negative connotation. We are never completely
relaxed. Even while we sleep, breathing requires energy and muscle
tension. We are always flexing or stretching and so being relaxed is not
a goal for the body. Being completely relaxed with no tension is
basically “being dead” so the goal is to be grounded-to be in the middle of
“self” and find balance. We need to gain back the natural resonance and
balance of the body. For example, we usually forget about the hands and
if you think about it, we are always gripping or grabbing things but we never
truly stretch our hands. An analogy is the breaststroke. You crutch
the body together as the hands brush the chest and then you stretch and
elongate the body. The duality of life is a constant theme that holds
true for the body. One must balance out one extreme with the other.
Kiki says, "Outside posture reflects a lot of your inner life". Our exteriors are a reflection of our
interiors and vice versa, they are interdependent on each other. Changing your outside appearance and feeling
can change your inner self, and this is the epitome of Nimble.
