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Joseph Pilates - a brief history |
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Joseph H. Pilates at age sixty
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In 1926, Joseph and Clara Pilates, German immigrants, arrived
in New York City. Joe was a gymnast and pugilist who had creative,
indeed brilliant, ideas about physical fitness and rehabilitation
following physical injury. In a British internment camp in World
War I, Pilates rigged a hospital bed so that patients could
begin their recovery while still flat on their backs. That idea
evolved into the Cadillac, one of the main components of what
was to become a whole method of exercise, which Joe called "Contrology."
That name never stuck, but Joe's surname certainly did.
Shortly after the Pilates' arrived in New York, Joe set up
an exercise studio at 939 Eighth Avenue. While not much is
known about the earliest years of the Pilates' practice, by
the 1940s Joe had achieved notoriety in the dance community.
"At some time or other," reported Dance magazine
in its February, 1956 issue, "virtually every dancer
in New York, and certainly everyone who has studied at Jacob's
Pillow between 1939 and 1951, has meekly submitted to the
spirited instruction of Joe Pilates."
The Pilates movement gains in popularity
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Joe Pilates, at seventy-seven
years of age, demonstrates his form
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By the early 1960s, the Pilates' could count among their clients
many New York dancers. George Balanchine worked out "at
Joe's," as he called it, and also invited Pilates to instruct
his young ballerinas at the New York City Ballet. In fact, "Pilates"
was becoming popular outside of New York as well.
As the New York Herald Tribune noted in 1964, "in dance
classes around the United States, hundreds of young students
limber up daily with an exercise they know as a pilates, without
knowing that the word has a capital P, and a living, right-breathing
namesake."
While Joe was still alive, only two of his students, Carola
Trier and Bob Seed, are known to have opened their own studios.
Trier, who had an extensive dance background, found her way
to the United States after she fled a Nazi holding camp in
France by becoming a contortionist in a show.
She found Joe Pilates in 1940, when a non-stage injury pre-empted
her performing career. Joe Pilates assisted Trier in opening
her own studio in the late 1950's and the Pilates' and Trier
remained close friends until the respective deaths of Joe
and Clara.
Bob Seed was another story. A former hockey player turned
"Pilates" enthusiast, Seed opened a Studio across
town from Joe and tried to take away some of Joe's clients
by opening very early in the morning. According to John Steel,
one day Joe visited Seed with a gun and warned Seed to get
out of town. Seed went.
The second generation of "Pilates" teachers
When Joe passed away, he left no will and had designated
no line of succession for the "Pilates" work to
carry on. Nevertheless, his work was to remain. Clara continued
to operate what was already known as the "Pilates"
Studio on Eighth Avenue in New York where Romana Kryzanowska
became the director in around 1970. Kryzanowska had studied
with Joe and Clara in the early 1940's and then, after a fifteen
year hiatus due to a move to Peru, re-commenced her studies.
Other students of Joe and Clara went on to open their own
studios. Ron Fletcher was a Martha Graham dancer who studied
and consulted with Joe from the 1940's on in connection with
a chronic knee ailment. Fletcher opened his studio in Los
Angeles in 1970, where he attracted many Hollywood stars.
Clara was particularly enamored with Ron and she gave her
blessing to him to carry on the "Pilates" work and
name. Like Carola Trier, Fletcher brought some innovations
and advancements to the "Pilates" work. His evolving
variations on "Pilates" were inspired both by his
years as a Martha Graham dancer and by another mentor, Yeichi
Nimura.
Kathy Grant and Lolita San Miguel were also students of Joe
and Clara who went on to become teachers. Grant took over
the direction at the Bendel's studio in 1972, while San Miguel
went on to teach Pilates at Ballet Concierto de Puerto Rica
in San Juan, Puerto Rico. In 1967, just before Joe's death,
both Grant and San Miguel were awarded degrees by the State
University of New York to teach "Pilates." These
two are believed to be the only "Pilates" practitioners
ever to be certified officially by Joe.
Other students of Joe and Clara who opened their own studios
include:
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Joe Pilates with Eve Gentry
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The late Eve Gentry, a dancer who taught at the Pilates Studio
in New York from 1946 through 1968, also taught "Pilates"
in the early 60s at New York University in the Theater Department.
After she left New York, she opened her own studio in Santa
Fe, New Mexico. Gentry was a charter faculty member of the High
School for the Performing Arts, as well as a co-founder of the
Dance Notation Bureau. In 1979, she was given the "Pioneer
of Modern Dance Award" by Bennington College.
The late Bruce King, who trained for many years with Joseph
and Clara Pilates, and was a member of the Merce Cunningham
Company, the Alwyn Nikolais Company, and his own Bruce King
Dance Company. In the mid-1970s King opened his own studio
at 160 W. 73rd Street in New York.
Mary Bowen, a Jungian analyst who studied with Joe in the
mid-1960s. Bowen began teaching "Pilates" in 1975
and founded "Your Own Gym" in Northampton, Massachusetts.
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