18 Aug

Pilates Elders – Clara Pilates

Clara Pilates While Joe Pilates was the outspoken force behind his method, his wife Clara Pilates quietly incorporated his concepts and exercises in ways that benefited more seriously ill or injured clients. Her approachable style and special techniques spawned a dedicated lineage of teachers whose work flows through and uniquely colors the landscape of the Pilates method today. It is perhaps because of Clara that Pilates is clearly recognized as a positive form of movement-based exercise that truly can be tailored to any level of not just fitness, but also of health. – Pilates Method Alliance Pilates emigrated to the USA in the early 1920s with his wife Clara, and together they developed and taught the method in their ‘body-conditioning gym’ in New York in 1926.In 1932 Pilates published a booklet called ‘Your Health’ and followed this with another called ‘Return to Life Through Contrology’ in 1945. Through these writings[…]

14 Jan

Joseph H Pilates (1881 – 1967): Act Like an Animal

Posted under: History of Pilates, Inspiration, Pilates Elders

Olga Tamara Vice President PAA sourced this article and posted it on the PAA, 14th April 2015. This is an unedited version of an article written by Robert Wernick in 1962 and published in Sports Illustrated, 12th February 1962. KEEP IN SHAPE: ACT LIKE AN ANIMAL! So says Joe Pilates, a unique man with an unusual system of exercise called contrology. There is a happy band of people, of which I am an aspirant member, who are distinguishable anywhere by their springy step and “saved” look from the mass of their contemporaries who shuffle and shamble in untidy corpulence around us. We know that we are saved because we faithfully attend exhausting but exhilarating sessions at the Joseph H. Pilates Universal Gymnasium on Eighth Avenue in midtown Manhattan. For it is here that Joe Pilates, a white-thatched red-cheeked octogenarian, his wife Clara and Hannah (who came in for a[…]

13 Jun

Pilates Elders – Romana Kryzanowska

Posted under: Pilates Elders

Pilates Elders – Romana Kryzanowska Romana Kryzanowska was born 30 June 1923, Detroit, Michigan. Romana Kryzanowska was born 30 June 1923, Detroit, Michigan. 1941, aged 18 years, Romana trained with George Balachine at the School of American Ballet. She suffered an ankle injury and was referred to Joseph Pilates for rehabilitation. She married Pablo Mejia and moved to Peru where she had two children, Paul and Sari. Romana continued to teach Pilates from her home. In 1958, she moved back to New York as a single parent where she worked for Carola Trier, taught ballet and worked with Joe and Clara Pilates at the 939 Studio. Joseph Pilates died in 1967 aged 83 years and Romana took on the task of running the Pilates studio. The studio was moved from 939 Eighth Avenue to 29 West 56th Street, New York in 1972 and in 1973 the studio changed it’s name to[…]

29 May

Pilates Elders- Ron Fletcher

Posted under: Pilates Elders

Ron Fletcher was born in Edensville, Missouri on 29th May 1921. He moved to New York to begin a career at Saks 5th Ave and remained there for five years. At age 23 years he began training with the Martha Graham Dance Company after staking out the company for 3 weeks. Two years later he mentored ad taught in Martha’s Company and appeared on Broadway and travelled to London to perform ‘The Lute Song’. In 1948 Ron started with Joseph Pilates due to a chronic knee injury. Ron became a highly sort after choreographer and did so in New York, Las Vegas and Paris. He went on to choreograph for the Ice Capades for 13 productions. In 1967, Ron was fired from his job for turning up drunk. He began his recovery process training with Joseph Pilates and went onto be mentored by Clara Pilates. He opened his own[…]

09 May

Pilates Elders – Eve Gentry

Posted under: Pilates Elders

Pilates Elders – Eve Gentry Eve Gentry was born 20th August 1909 in San Bernardino, California by the name of Henrietta Greenhood. She began to study ballet, folk and ballroom dancing in 1917 and then moved to San Francisco in1928tostudy modern dance. Eve moved to New York City in 1936 and began her dance career with Hanya Holm Company. She choreographed her most famous piece in1938, ‘Tenant of the Street’. Bruce Gentry was a childhood friend and they married in 1942, she then used the professional name of Eve Gentry. Eve danced and choreographed for her own dance company, ‘Eve Gentry Dancers’ and after persistent back and knee pain Eve started to study with Joseph Pilates in 1944. In 1955, Eve had a radical mastectomy where they removed a lot of muscle tissue and she could not lift her arms. After training in the Pilates Method, Joe and Eve filmed him teaching[…]

29 Mar

Pilates Elders – Kathy Stamford Grant

Posted under: Pilates Elders

Pilates Elders – Kathy Stamford Grant Kathleen Stamford Grant was a dancer and a first generation Pilates instructor. “Life is a collection of experiences, the things we have done the way we have lived, the people we have met who challenged, guided and shaped our views. An extraordinary life is one where we pass on what we have learned with generosity, passion, vigour and honesty.” Born 9 August 1921 in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1930, Kathy began taking Ballet lessons at the Boston Conservatory of Music and spent her summers studying Ballet at Carnegie Hall, New York. Kathy moved to New York in 1945 aged 24 years and took a job as a chorus girl and dance captain at the Zanibar Club. Two years later she joined the first integrated broadway show in the cast of ‘Finian’s Rainbow’. She travelled abroad in 1949 to dance in Spain and Italy with Claude[…]

07 Mar

Pilates Elders – Carola Trier

Posted under: Pilates Elders

Pilates Elders – Carola Trier Born May 26,1913 in Frankfurt, Germany. In 1924, Carola enrolled in the Laban School with aspirations of becoming a concert dancer. Her parents left Europe as the Third Reich rose up, Carola chose to stay on in France and perform. The year was 1938. In 1942, Carola was sent to Gurs, an internment camp in France, 5000 Jews were sent with her. She received news that her application to travel to the USA was accepted and travelled to join her family. Kerry Roland, an apprentice of Carola, stated in his interview with Pilates Anytime that Carola told him ‘she had entertained the Nazi’s as a contortionist on roller skates’. Carola suffered a off stage knee injury in 1950. She states in an interview, Joseph looked at the knee, touched it and said, ‘sure it’s sore, that’s nothing, I’ll get you going’. (In honor of Carola, Pilates Anytime, October[…]

28 Nov

History of Joseph H Pilates

Posted under: Pilates Elders

History of Joseph H Pilates Information provided by Herman and Baker (2003-9) and A History of Joseph Hubertus Pilates (2001) inform us that Joseph Pilates was born in a small town outside Dusseldorf, Germany in 1883 and died in 1967 at age 83. As a child Joseph suffered from rickets, asthma and rheumatic fever. His father was a prize-winning gymnast and his mother a naturopath. Joseph was given an old anatomy book which he studied and memorised and in his words. “I learned every page, every part of the body; I would move each part as I memorised it. As a child, I would lie in the woods for hours, hiding and watching the animals move, how the mother taught the young”. Joseph was modelling for anatomy charts at the age of 14 years. Joseph travelled from Germany to England for work in 1914, WW1 started. Joseph was interned as[…]