Our “Rituals” series comes to meet you, at home, listening to your lifestyle habits.
These little routines that you have adopted more or less consciously, to improve your mood, inspire you, get in shape, ... In short, to have a fulfilling day, being faithful to your desires and efficient in the implementation of your projects.
For this fourth episode, we met Thomas Ramires.
This associate professor of physical education and sports also gives hip-hop dance classes at school. He is very active in the development and recognition of this culture in schools, particularly in view of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Thomas is a luminous man who shines through his ability to juggle his different professional activities with his family life.
He shares with us his morning routine to get in shape and devour his long days with energy.
Hello Thomas, thank you for accepting our invitation.
Can you introduce yourself in a few words?
My name is Thomas Ramires, I am forty years old, I come from a city in the southwest of France called Tarbes.
I have been in Paris for seventeen years for my work as a certified PE teacher.
[Incidentally, you don't look your forties ;)]
Do you spend a lot of time at home?
It's a bit paradoxical, because I don't spend a lot of time at home, I move around a lot between my different activities. But when I'm at home, I'm just as active as I am outside.
Tell us about your activities as a coach, sports teacher, dancer please.
My base is teaching. I work in a college in the fifteenth arrondissement of Paris called André Citroën.
I also give courses at university, at Insep, in preparation for certain competitions such as the Capes or the agrégation.
And my main area of expertise is the artistic field. In the educational framework in which I work, I dance with students, I form partnerships with structures such as La Villette or Chaillot.
The idea is to bring the artistic into the transmission with the students.
Has dancing always been in you, or is it a dating game?
Dancing wasn't always in me. I always liked to move. When I was little, I was a bit of a daredevil, I tried a little bit of everything. But my basic sport is football.
Then, I met a company called "Dans6T", which still exists today, and whose president is Bouziane Bouteldja. I give him a big thumbs up by the way ;)
With them, I was immersed in hip-hop dance and then when I moved to Paris, I also opened up to contemporary dance.
For this RITUALS series, we explore the relationship we have with our interior. What relationship do you have with your “home”?
It's a relationship that is quite active. When I'm at home, I still do things... I'm not the type to be very quiet. In my relationship with my home, the spaces have to be quite flexible.
I am not alone, we are a family of four with my wife and two children. The rooms are used according to each person's activities. We create a space here, we recreate one there...
Do you have a ritual to feel good at home?
My most important ritual is a little physical preparation routine in the morning. Every day, a quarter of an hour before going to work.
Music is very present in my home. So I put on a song, right now it's J Dilla and Mc Miller, and I start my fifteen-minute bodyweight ab routine.
I usually do it in the living room because there is a lot of light. I move some furniture, do my session and then the day can begin.
Where do you get your inspiration?
Mainly in what my group of friends does.
Quite a few of them work in the artistic field, whether in dance, hairdressing or fashion.
I draw a lot of inspiration from what they can bring me.
You spoke precisely about music, about movement…
To be comfortable at home, do you have a wardrobe dedicated to your interior?
Yes, indeed, I have "chill" clothes for my indoor wardrobe, that is to say, fairly loose clothes. For example, I have my tracksuit, solid, indestructible. We dance a lot at home, also with my daughters. We are often on the floor. This tracksuit is perfect, it doesn't get damaged...
Do you have a piece of indoor clothing that you find very comforting, a kind of “comfort” garment?
I have a big thick jacket, I wear it in the evening when we watch a movie or when everyone is in bed and I stay up a bit. This jacket, in chill mode, comforts me.
You were talking about how to be comfortable at home, you wear loose clothes.
Is this notion of freedom important to you while being in an interior space?
Exactly, the garment must allow us to move. It must give us space, possibilities. That is really important to me.
A bit of a paradox is that when I come home after work (dance and sports), I could stay in the same clothes I have during the day. Unlike people who come home from the office and change when they get home.
But I like to make the effort to change. I swap my outdoor clothes for indoor clothes. And without losing the sense of comfort that I have during the day, of course.
I like this idea: you manage to keep in mind that, even if you wear loose clothes in your everyday life, you must have an indoor wardrobe to be comfortable at home…
I still separate the idea of dressing outside and that of dressing at home.
This is a notion that I think is quite common; the sapes protect us on the outside.
Inside, we are more "chill". We do not bring home the clothes we wear outside.
If I ask your wife to define an item of clothing that represents you the most when you are at home, what does she say?
The tank top! It's the perfect combo with the tracksuit I was talking about earlier.
The tracksuit, a little high-waisted, old school, and the vest tucked into the tracksuit!
Do you like mixing styles?
Yes, I like to mix… for example a pair of old school loafers with baggy pants, a small vest tucked into the baggy pants. And on top, a fairly wide “starter”.
A little headgear, hat or cap, to finish!
I like to mix the hip-hop, street, wide side and one or two more preppy elements.
What can we wish you for the future?
That I continue to develop many things with young people, at the crossroads of the artistic world and that of transmission.
That we continue to flourish with my family of course.
And then the moments spent with our crew, which are so important to me, continue to last over time.
And there's love!
Ok, thank you!
Thank you, Honey, see you soon.
Listen to the podcast
Watch the full interview with Thomas Ramires.
(thanks to Maison Breguet for the welcome)