Can someone help me understand the point of pilates?

okay, a little gym story for you...

(and no pictures in this post either.  Maybe I will go find a random one from my phone)

yesterday, for the second day this week, I showed up to spinning to find, tragically, that all of the bikes were full.  Granted, several of the bikes were only full of someone's water bottle and not an actual someone, but still, I got the message.  No available bikes.

So, for the second time this week, I scouted out a class schedule, desperately hoping that there was another class option because I hate the tread mill.  The only thing on the horizon was a 9:45 pilates class, and it was only 9:20.  So...I headed up to the treadmill, very reluctantly, and I climbed on.  After proceeding to run for only five minutes at a ten minute mile pace, I was already over it.  I was exhausted.  What is wrong with my body?!!  I can't run.  Ten minute mile pace, for five minutes!!!  Anyway, to get on with the story, after battling with my mind for a while, I opted to give pilates a go.  It did say full body work out, so off I went...

My first warning sign when I walked into the room was that everyone was taking their shoes off.  I did not feel good about that, but I pressed on towards the goal of calories burned without the help of a tread mill.  The sinking feeling increased when the instructor turned the lights off and started the very slow music.  When I think burning calories, I think loud music, high energy, fast pace...you know what I mean?  And I wasn't clueless about pilates, but I did think maybe there was more to it than lights off, quiet music, etc.  But again, I pressed on.  And we proceeded to stretch? for an hour?  I guess that's what we did?  There's was lots of talk about whatever feels right for you, follow your body's instincts, connect with the energy within....I kept looking around to see what other people were thinking, and they were so into it.  So much so, that I felt really weird about walking out, so I stayed, waiting for that total body workout that was promised.

It never came.  And in fact, for the last ten minutes of class, we just lay on our backs, with our eyes closed, in the dark.  I really wanted to scream, ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  I was really frustrated that I spent an hour of my day doing this, and I still had not worked out, except for that 15 minutes on the treadmill that really didn't even count because I walked half of it.

And then the instructor told us to be very careful coming out of the "rest pose," because the rest pose can be very intense.  We were laying flat on our backs, in the dark, listening to music.  It was intense, in the fact that I kept almost falling asleep.

But here's the thing.  I know a lot of people love pilates.  What's the deal?  What is the purpose?  I felt nothing.  Was it just a bad instructor and sometimes pilates really does offer a total body work out?

The good news is, today I made it in time for Body Works, which is a weight lifting class, with loud music, fast pace, and an appropriate amount of muscle fatigue at the end of class...