1. Miranda Esmonde-White was born on May 9,1949 and is a Canadian fitness trainer, former ballerina with the National Ballet of Canada, and author of books on aging, health and fitness.
15 Facts About Miranda Esmonde-White
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Miranda Esmonde-White created the dynamic stretching and strengthening workout, Essentrics, and the PBS fitness TV show, Classical Stretch, based on Essentrics.
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Miranda Esmonde-White began her career studying to become a ballerina at Canada's National Ballet School co-founded in 1959 by Celia Franca and Betty Oliphant in Toronto, Ontario.
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Miranda Esmonde-White opened a dance and fitness studio in Montreal, where she became a flexibility trainer and developed her own technique.
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Miranda Esmonde-White spent much of the next ten years researching and perfecting instructor training manuals.
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Miranda Esmonde-White combined her own movements and elements of ballet, tai chi, and physiotherapy.
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Miranda Esmonde-White's technique includes no weight-bearing exercises that can stress the wrist like yoga.
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Miranda Esmonde-White's movements are easy to do, unlike Pilates where people try for technically correct moves.
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Miranda Esmonde-White realized that her technique emphasized essentric movement, something that was known to sports medicine but had been sometimes considered wasted effort.
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Miranda Esmonde-White approached PBS with a series idea in 1999, and her technique has been a successful television program ever since.
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The product of three iterations, Miranda Esmonde-White completed her textbook as manuals in levels one to four, Classical Stretch: The Esmonde Technique.
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The television audience for Classical Stretch began as mainly women in their 40s and 50s, so Miranda Esmonde-White sought to expand her audience to younger viewers.
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Six weeks before taping of the first fifteen Classical Stretch PBS shows was scheduled to start, Miranda Esmonde-White found a lump in a breast and was diagnosed with breast cancer.
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Miranda Esmonde-White found that talking with other cancer survivors helped her spirits.
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Miranda Esmonde-White has worked with a number of prominent Canadian athletes: Sports Hall of Fame diver Alexandre Despatie, synchronized divers Meaghan Benfeito and Roseline Filion, Olympic gold-medal goalie Kim St-Pierre, squash player Jonathon Power, figure skater Joannie Rochette, and pairs champions Jessica Dube and Bryce Davison.