The Etymology Series: Why ‘Collective’?

Why Rebel Pilates Collective? The next installment in our etymologies of words important to the RPC mission deals with the origins of the word collective and its relevance in our practice. 

Oxford Languages describes that, before Latin, Old French, and Middle English influences combined to create the word ‘collective’ we recognize today, ‘collective’ has its first roots in the Latin verb ‘colligere’ - to collect.

The sense of a collective as a group of people gathered together seems straightforward enough, but what does that mean to RPC? For us, it's important that this word started out as the verb ‘colligere’, ‘to collect'. Rebel Pilates Collective doesn't refer to a purely static set of ideas, group of people, or approach to our industry. Rather, it's essential to us that we're constantly engaged in this process of collecting, of shaping who we are to respond with open arms to events in our industry. This notion of a collective which is always in motion is what allows us to do things like constantly update our educational materials with archival research, and our mission couldn't exist without the ever-evolving community that supports it.

Colligere also meant ‘to infer’, another practice that’s essential to the Rebel method. We don’t want our students to merely repeat or memorize a static, inflexible set of exercises. Pilates is a movement system, and it requires constant adaptation for the body in front of you. Thinking for oneself can help you respond to the individual needs of each client, and a commitment to safety and accessibility requires this malleable process of inference and application in wellness and fitness. So gathering, collecting, and inferring speaks to both bringing together community and synthesizing information in service of Pilates - essential tools that we study and practice at RPC. 

As we noted last time, Toni Morrison wrote in Beloved: “Definitions belong to the definers, not the defined.” At RPC, we claim ‘collective’ like we claim Pilates, fighting for a vision of movement where everyone has a say, all bodies are welcome, and the practice only brings you closer to yourself and those around you.