Welcome to Brighton People, a new series from We Love Brighton celebrating the brilliant individuals, organisations, and businesses that make our city shine. Meet Debbie Jaye, aka DJPilates.
What is DJPilates for anyone who doesn’t know?
DJPilates is me, I am a fully qualified level 3 Pilates instructor, who teaches Pilates and Stretch & Wellbeing classes.
How did DJPilates come about?
DJPilates came about during lockdown, when all the gyms and studios shu tdown, I took my teaching online. I’m Debbie Jaye, hence the DJ and I’m a classically trained Pilates Instructor.
What do you love about running DJPilates?
I love running DJPilates because I teach classes in my own style, mainly online from home, using only my own lesson plans.
What would you like people to know about you?
The main thing I’d like people to know is that all my classes are written by me and I am completely authentic. What you see is what you get. I’ve done Pilates myself for the last 35 years and I qualified to teach in 2007.
What is your connection to Brighton?
I moved to Brighton in 2017 to live with my then boyfriend, now husband. We got married on the bandstand in April 2019. I’d love to give a little shout out to my husband Nick Jaye, otherwise known as Bald Chef Nick, who has very recently written and had published a cookbook called Deliciously Dyslexic. He’s a 61 year old dyslexic chef, who only qualified three years ago.. So the book is for people who have trouble reading but who love to cook.
Also, my half brother had already been living in Hove for 10 years and I’d been coming down to see him regularly from South London, where I used to live.
What do you love about the city?
What I love about Brighton is the diversity of people that live here. We can all be ourselves, have our own style and personalities. People are friendly and smiley. I adore living by the sea. I grew up in Westcliff-on-Sea in Essex, so coming back to live by the sea felt completely natural. My happy place!
Anything else you would like to share?
I’ve taught people in New York, in Switzerland, in Norway, Spain and France, as well as across the UK, all online across different time zones but at the same time.
I’m also very humbled to say that at the age of 60 last year, I managed to secure a support teaching position at Brighton College! It was like applying for a job in the diplomatic service. I had to give details of my education from school age, going back to the 1970s onwards, as well as all addresses I’d lived at, work history and marriages etc. As well as the obvious enhanced CRB checks but after several months of research and sheer determination, I got the job. I’m pretty tenacious when I need to be, guess that’s the Cancerian part of me coming out.
DJPIlates: Website | Instagram
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