The Pilates Elders
- Jan 29, 2023
- 3 min read
Updated: Feb 12, 2023
The Pilates Elders
Often called the elders, the people usually included in a list of the original instructors are:
1) Clara Pilates (1883–1977): As the wife of Joseph Pilates, she worked closely with Joe for many years. She continued to teach and run the Joseph Pilates studio after his death.
2) Romana Kryzanowska (1923–2013): A close student of Joseph Pilates, Kryzanowska took over as director of the Joseph Pilates studio a few years after he passed away. Romana is one of the most well known and highly regarded keepers of the classical Pilates tradition. She dedicated the rest of her life to educating Pilates instructors around the world. Her daughter, Sari Mejia Santo, also trained with Joseph Pilates and taught with her mother. Now Romana's granddaughter, Daria Pace, owns Romana's Pilates, with affiliates teaching classical Pilates around the world.
3) Mary Bowen (1930– ): Mary Bowen became a Jungian analyst but continued to study Pilates with Joseph Pilates and others of his students. She continues to teach Pilates through her ninth decade and developed a Pilates Plus Psyche program.
4) Jay Grimes: Another dancer, Jay Grimes studied extensively with Joseph Pilates and with Clara Pilates after Joe's death. He also studied with Romana Kryzanowska and eventually taught with her. He continues to teach Pilates as the director of Vintage Pilates.
5) Lolita San Miguel (1934– ): She was certified to teach Pilates by Joseph Pilates and continues to teach Pilates. She introduced Lolita San Miguel's Masters Program.
6) Mary Pilates (1920- ) is the only living Pilates family member to have actually taught in the New York studio. She is the niece of Joseph Pilates and she was an apprentice under him for several years before returning to her father’s Pilates studio in St Louis, Missouri. Her father, Fred Pilates, was a carpenter and he helped design and manufacture the Pilates equipment. Mary taught and trained at the studio and was also involved in making the apparatus. Mary has been teaching Pilates in south Florida since the 60’s.
7) Eve Gentry (1909–1994): She was a dancer who, like Ron Fletcher, brought her dance training into her work as a Pilates teacher thereby expanding the Pilates teachings. She developed her own "pre-Pilates" approach, calling it The Gentry Method. In 1991 she was one of the founders of the Institute for the Pilates Method.
8) Kathy Grant (1921–2010): One of only two students who was actually certified to teach Pilates by Joseph Pilates himself, Kathy Grant taught Pilates at the Tisch School of the Arts in New York City, holding a faculty position there since 1988. She passed away May 27, 2010
9) Robert Fitzgerald: He was a dancer and opened his own studio in New York City in the 1960s that catered to the dance community.
0) Carola Trier (1913–2000): She was the first person to open her own Pilates studio with Joseph Pilates' personal blessing.
1) Anna Shaffer, Shaffer has been doing Pilates for 66 years, and at age 82, she’s not slowing down yet. After spending 16 years training with the creator of this fitness method, Joseph Pilates, Shaffer started instructing the art to others.
“At 16, I walked into [Joseph Pilates’] studio, and he said ‘I will change your life, and you will live my way of life,’ and I have ever since,” Shaffer said.
2) Ron Fletcher (1921–2011): Ron Fletcher was a dancer with the Martha Graham dance company. He opened a Pilates studio in Los Angeles and went on to develop his own Pilates style which is now known as Fletcher Work.
3) Bruce King: Bruce King received national recognition as dancer, choreographer and author. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, and earned his M.A. at New York University. His lifelong study of movement began with his early dance training and was extended through years of study of exercise with Joseph Pilates. The writings of Mabel Elsworth Todd and Lulu Sweigard have greatly influenced his work.
4) John Howard Steel , practiced law for sixty years and Pilates for nearly as long. As one of the few people still alive who studied with and knew Joseph Pilates both in and out of his studio, Steel is in a unique position to tell this story. Steel has been interviewed in numerous publications and regularly lectures to teachers and studio owners on the history of Pilates. He lives in Santa Barbara with his wife, Bunny. Caged Lion is his first book.
5) John Winters, Joseph's right hand man.
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