In a fitness culture increasingly obsessed with rapid trends and high-intensity sweat sessions, Boladapo Abdul stands out as a voice of intentionality, precision, and deep-rooted discipline. A former contemporary dancer turned internationally sought-after Pilates instructor and movement educator, Abdul has spent nearly a decade refining the delicate balance between classical technique and modern functional movement.
Having trained under the prestigious Pilates Academy and currently advancing his studies with BASI Pilates in Cape Town, Abdul’s expertise spans the Reformer, Mat, Barre, Cadillac, and MOTR. But his true mastery lies in his ability to translate movement into a universal dialect. From his primary base in Lagos to studios in Libreville, Dakar, Abidjan, and Cape Town, Abdul has built a reputation for delivering intelligent, challenging, and deeply transformative classes that honor the individual body above all else.
In this interview with Lehlé Baldé, Abdul opens up about his serendipitous transition from contemporary dance to the Pilates studio, the misconceptions holding people back from the discipline, navigating cross-cultural teaching environments across Africa, and his ambitious vision to help establish an interconnected network of African movement educators.
What first drew you to Pilates, and what made you decide to pursue it professionally in 2018?
I didn’t find Pilates, Pilates found me through one of my amazing mentors.
I had just finished my NYSC service year after university. Even while I was in school, I always knew I wasn’t going to fit into the corporate world. I’m not particularly a fan of too many rules, or all the playing dress up that comes with corporate life.
A friend contacted me and asked if I would be interested in becoming a yoga instructor. At that point, I had only ever practised yoga from YouTube, but because of my contemporary ballet background, I thought, “Sure, I can do this.” I watched a few more YouTube videos and went for an interview at a studio in Lagos.
About three minutes into showing them what I had scribbled down from YouTube, they stopped me. They told me they could tell I wasn’t a yoga instructor and, interestingly, they didn’t want me to teach yoga. They wanted me to teach Pilates. Before that meeting, I had never even heard of Pilates.
I started my first Pilates training, which lasted almost six months from January to May 2018. During the training, I felt like I was back in my dancing days. I remember thinking, if I could pursue dance as a career, then this is close enough to that for me to do for the rest of my life. I remember teaching my first class in May 2018 and thinking, “They’re about to be sick of me.” laughs. And here we are, more than eight years later.
How has your training with Pilates Academy, and now BASI, shaped the way you teach?
My first formal training with Pilates Academy was in 2020, during the post COVID period. It was such a beautiful and knowledge filled experience that I told myself I would never stop learning in this profession.
I’m working with the human body, so I believe I have a responsibility to constantly update my knowledge and understand more.
That training was mostly online, during what I like to call the Zoom era, but while I was doing it, I knew I needed more. Pilates is very hands on, and there are certain things you simply cannot fully learn through online tutoring.
Fast forward to this year, I enrolled with BASI Pilates in Cape Town because I wanted that physical, hands on experience with some of the most respected teachers in the industry.
The BASI training was challenging because I had to be open to questioning and, in some cases, unlearning things I had believed for years as an instructor. There were many similarities with what I had previously learnt, but there were also significant differences.
Ultimately, it made me even more interested in clinical Pilates and much more intentional about how I teach. It reinforced something I have always believed: you have to work with the individual body in front of you rather than trying to force every body into the same movement.
You blend a classical foundation with contemporary movement. How do you strike that balance?
We are moving into an era where people sometimes move away from the original Pilates exercises, create reformer workouts and simply call them Pilates.
For me, continuing my education and constantly going back to my books helps me stay rooted in the original Pilates work. My goal is to create contemporary movement while maintaining a classical foundation.
With every movement I create and share on Instagram, other instructors can usually recognise the classical movement that inspired it. That is important to me because I want my work to evolve without losing its foundation.
I don’t think contemporary Pilates has to mean abandoning the principles and vocabulary that came before us. For me, it is about understanding the foundation deeply enough to be able to create from it.
You’ve taught in Lagos, Libreville, Dakar, Abidjan and Cape Town. What did those experiences teach you?
The beautiful thing about these experiences is that I realised I can teach almost anywhere in the world, irrespective of the language people speak.
Movement is a universal language.
The space and environment might be different, but I never felt like I was teaching a completely different demographic. Of course, it might take a couple of classes for clients to get used to my teaching style, but the transition between countries has been surprisingly fluid.
The only time I really noticed I wasn’t in Lagos was when I stepped outside the classroom, or when I had to teach completely in French. laughs
How do you adapt your teaching to different cultures and client expectations?
Like I said in the previous question, movement is a universal language.
From my first year of teaching, I understood something important: people might love Pilates for its physical, clinical and strengthening benefits, but they also want to have a good workout and enjoy themselves while doing it.
In Lagos, I can be very witty with my clients. There is a lot of banter, and that is very much part of who I am as an instructor.
Teaching in French speaking countries taught me to be a little more conscious of how I communicate. Something that might come across as playful banter with an English speaking client could potentially be interpreted differently across another culture or language. So I still keep my wit, because there is no me without my wit and banter, but I have learnt to adapt it in a way that remains respectful and doesn’t cross into being offensive.
Regardless of culture, though, I have found that clients everywhere have one major expectation: they want a good workout.
Those 50 minutes where they can disconnect from everything happening outside the studio make people genuinely happy. So I want my classes to be more than just exercise. I want them to be a fun space that people look forward to.
Life be lifing sometimes, and we all need somewhere to breathe. smiles
You describe Pilates as more than a workout. What does it offer people beyond physical fitness?
A lot of my clients don’t come to Pilates simply for the workout.
Beyond the health and rehabilitation benefits, one of the most rewarding parts of teaching is hearing clients tell me that they no longer feel the back pain they had been living with, or that they can move their shoulders or other parts of their body in ways they couldn’t before.
Sometimes clients come in with old injuries or areas of their bodies that have bothered them for years, and gradually they begin to feel better without even realising how much progress they are making.
Those moments make me feel like I’m performing little miracles sometimes. laughs
But beyond the physical benefits, I think Pilates gives people an opportunity to put some of the weight they are carrying down for a moment.
When my clients come into my class, they know they are going to work, but they are also going to breathe, laugh, move and disconnect from everything happening outside that room.
Sometimes that is just as important as the workout itself.
What misconceptions about Pilates do you encounter most often?
There are so many misconceptions, but two bother me the most.
The first is that Pilates is only for women. People sometimes forget that Pilates was created by Joseph Pilates, a man, and that his early work was heavily associated with rehabilitation and physical conditioning.
The second is the idea that Pilates isn’t a “real workout” because someone only does it once a week or on their rest days.
I always tell anyone who cares to listen that Pilates should be treated like any other form of training. You can combine it with other workouts, but if you want to experience its full benefits, consistency matters.
Personally, I recommend incorporating Pilates into your routine at least three times a week, depending on your overall training programme.
Doing Pilates once a week and expecting to experience everything it has to offer? You dey do yourself, no be me. laughs
Alongside padel, Pilates has become one of the fastest growing fitness movements in Nigeria. What do you believe is driving that growth, and is it a passing trend or here to stay?
I have actually only played padel once or twice, despite working in a space where we have a padel court. laughs
But from my observation, I think padel is here to stay. I have seen how obsessed and competitive people become with the game. People take their padel sessions seriously, and I think that is part of what makes it different.
I also see an interesting relationship between the two. Someone might play padel for cardio and then come to Pilates to strengthen, improve mobility and build strength from the deeper stabilising muscles outward.
That combination is valuable because fitness shouldn’t only be about developing the muscles we can see. We also need to develop the muscles responsible for stability, control and efficient movement.
I have watched Pilates grow globally over the years. There was a time when people would ask me what I did for a living and I would have to explain Pilates to them over and over again.
Now, when you tell someone you are a Pilates instructor, they immediately understand what you mean, and sometimes they even associate it with celebrities and lifestyle.
If Pilates ever stops being a trend, instructors like me who were here before this current wave will still be here. We started teaching Pilates because we genuinely have a passion for it, not because it was trendy.
What role do you see yourself playing in the growth of Pilates in Nigeria and across Africa?
smiles I think I’m already playing that role, to be honest, not just in Nigeria or Africa but around the world.
It is becoming increasingly rare to see instructors whose work remains authentic without becoming overly modernised. As instructors, we recognise those differences, and we know the people who are genuinely committed to the work.
A few years ago, a studio owner in Ghana and I tried to bring together some instructors we knew across Africa to create a networking platform, something that could eventually become a professional body for Pilates instructors on the continent.
It wasn’t successful at the time because there simply weren’t as many instructors as there are today.
Now that the Pilates community is growing so rapidly, I think it is something we could revisit.
I actually need to pitch the idea to her again. We need a Pilates convention or instructors’ retreat in Africa. laughs
I would love to contribute to creating a stronger community of instructors, sharing knowledge and creating opportunities for education across the continent.
Where would you like to see your work in the next five years?
To begin with, I’m grateful to God because I honestly didn’t see myself here a few years ago.
The firm decision to travel the world and leave my footprints on the Pilates sands of time only really came to me in January 2025. I’m the kind of person who, once an idea drops into my mind, prays about it, and starts noticing everything around me nudging me in that direction, I go for it.
In the next five years, I see myself being a serious part owner of a Pilates studio and becoming faculty at a prestigious Pilates academy somewhere in the world.
I have always wanted to teach beyond the studio floor, to contribute to education and help shape the next generation of instructors.
At the same time, I still want to travel the world as a guest instructor, teach workshops, train instructors and continue leaving my footprints in different Pilates communities around the world.
Ultimately, I don’t just want to teach Pilates. I want to contribute to the industry that gave me a career, a community and a life I never imagined for myself.
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