We offer:
One-On-One Apparatus based sessions & Group Mat Classes.
Go to our “Contact” page to schedule your appointments and for our current Mat Class schedule.
What is Pilates?
Combining eastern and western forms of conditioning including gymnastics, boxing and yoga, Pilates is a whole body exercise system utilizing both spring resistance equipment as well a floor exercises. Pressing or pulling the springs of the Pilates equipment creates resistance and engagement of directed muscles groups. Depending on the placement of the body in relationship to springs, the force and apparatus use change function. The equipment either creates a resistance to work against, or assists in body motions to aid and increase flexibility and ranges of motion. Hence, Pilates strengthens and lengthens. The Pilates system focuses on alignment while working out the whole body. Asymmetries and muscular imbalances are addressed to create a complete and centering workout. Pilates is very helpful for stabilizing spine and pelvic imbalances and finding a sense of center.
A Brief History of Pilates
Joseph H. Pilates was born in Germany in 1880. As a child, he suffered from a variety of medical problems which left him weak and frail. Through his personal ideas and beliefs in physical fitness, he rehabilitated himself by combining eastern and western forms of conditioning including gymnastics, boxing and yoga. During World War I, while in a British internment camp, Pilates materialized some of his early rehabilitative ideas on patients. He rigged hospital beds with springs, allowing patients to exercise while lying down by moving the springs with their limbs. This idea developed into a machine that Pilates later called “the Cadillac.” The Cadillac would become one of a handful of apparatuses within his method.
Pilates immigrated to New York City with is wife and teaching partner, Clara, in 1926. He began receiving notoriety among modern dancers between 1939 and 1951 from his involvement at Jacob’s Pillow, a renowned summer dance festival. By the 1960s, his client list included many well-known dancers such as George Balanchine and Martha Graham. In 1964, The Herald Tribune noted, “In dance classes around the United States, hundreds of young students limber up daily with an exercise they know as pilates without knowing that the word has a capital P and a living, right-breathing namesake.”
With ever growing demand and popularity, Corola Trier, a disciple of the Pilateses opened up one of the first studios in New York City with the help of Joe and Clara Pilates. Corola combined the teachings of Pilates with her own ideas. The Pilateses and Trier remained friends and colleagues until the respective deaths of Joe and Clara.
Joe Pilates died in 1968 in New York. His wife, Clara continued to operate their studio on Eighth Avenue. By this time, the studio was referred to as “The Pilates Studio.” In the early 1970s, when Clara could no longer run the studio, Romana Kryzanowska became the director of the studio. All the while, other students of Joe and Clara opened studios. Ron Fletcher, a former Martha Graham dancer from the 1940s, opened a studio in Los Angeles in 1970. With his celebrity clients coming to his Rodeo Drive studio, his business helped bring Pilates to the consciousness of mainstream culture in the 1970s.
Several disciples of Joe and Clara opened studios. This list includes Eve Gentry, Bruce King, Mary Bowen, Robert Fitzgerald and Cathy Grant. Gentry taught at Joe Pilates’ studio in New York from 1938 to 1968. She also taught the method in the theatre department at New York University in the early 1960s. Gentry later opened a studio in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Bruce King opened a studio on 73rd Street in New York City in the mid-1970s. Mary Bowen founded “Your Own Gym” in 1975 in North Hampton, Mass. She is a Jungian analyst who studied with Joe Pilates in the mid-1960s. Also in the mid-1960s, Robert Fitzgerald opened his Pilates studio, catering to the dance community in New York City. These teachers passed on their knowledge of Pilates’ work to their students.
Currently there are fourth and fifth generation teachers sharing the work with clients. As Pilates enters the new millennium, the method continues to be an ever-evolving system, just as it was when Pilates was alive. Since the routines are catered to a client’s individual needs, a workout can have truly individual components. Along with modern scientific gains and insight into how the body works, Pilates is an ever growing and evolving system with a deep respect for its traditional roots.