Bob Liekens is on a mission to teach people Pilates the way Joseph Pilates intended. A former Merce Cunningham dancer, Liekens came to New York from Belgium in 1983 and, like many dancers, discovered Pilates as a way of stabilizing and strengthening his core and increasing his flexibility. He took sessions at the original and much-revered Pilates Studio with Romana Kryzanowska, began teaching there, and soon he was helping clients on the Pilates Reformer more often than he was on the stage. Three years ago, he came to Power Pilates, where he still teaches clients but mostly teaches the teachers. Liekens spends his days surrounded by women, but Joseph Pilates, he notes, intended his method for men. “Pilates was into boxing and martial arts. Dancers have softened it, made it graceful, but if you see archival footage of Joe, it was very percussive and vigorous.” Still, he’s quick to remind his students, “It’s not how well you perform on the Reformer, but how you take Pilates outside the studio and apply it.”