Recently I was asked, “ What is your Pilates lineage?” I had not gotten this question in awhile and as I answered the client, it was revealed that legacy was a deep value she had. What proceeded was an interesting conversation that left me sensing that others may benefit. It mattered greatly to her that our Pilates lineage was still connected to the past and essentially was not diluted beyond recognition in how we work and teach in our studio.
It is a good question. It is like asking someone, “Where do you come from”? Or better yet, “ Where do you belong?”
It is valuable for our studio community to realize that we are part of something bigger;to say we are Pilates practitioners today says that we are continuing the training and human support work that started with Joseph Pilates.The Method itself is not random or disjointed movements strung together. It is an exercise system guided by principles which match our human design.People NEED Pilates, that is the genius of it.
Our Pilates lineage begins with Joseph Hubertus Pilates himself. From there he had students whom he taught in person, firsthand. After you earned trust, respect and proved yourself he would essentially give you verbal permission to continue on and teach. These teachers grew their own studio communities and trained students. The cycle would repeat itself time and time again.These are our Pilates Elders. Today there are only two Elders still living, Lolita San Miguel and Mary Bowen (95) to date.
photo credit Pilates Anytime
This is the part that gets truly interesting.How did( and does) the Pilates Method maintain its mission but still move forward into our present time?
Enter the normal problems that show up when humans are trying to expand work but keep it true.
Imagine that you first hand apprenticed under your great grandfather, who was a master craftsman. You spent multiple years learning the craft and growing under his watchful tutelage. Then one day he tells you he needs you to take over, that your training was done and you are more than ready.
You would most likely begin working in the same exact vein as you had learned, no deviation. The system works, if it is not broken don’t fix it, don’t create problems when there are none. Time passes, problems arise. You must change your systems in how you work and craft, because survival demands such.
Thriving skills were given to you from your training with your great grandfather, but without his presence to guide decisions it truly is up to you to bring the craft forward into what crosses your path.
This analogy is Pilates teachers world wide. Some remember their great grandfathers and do not feel right adapting anything, some maintain all the big parts and use their skills to forge ahead and adapt ( honor the grandfather but grow outward) and some don’t even know that they had a great grandfather so it is of no consequence to them.
Pilates was really on fire with a mission; he left behind a huge body of work, various tools, people whom he had helped through various challenges. Many Pilates students today may not even be able to name him or one of the Elders but they know that Pilates is their favorite activity or special place they go for self care.
That is Legacy. The spirit behind his choices,what he cared about and stood for;That is our legacy as teachers. As you read the influences below in our studio community try to picture how this affects your workouts today.
Our story begins with Eve Gentry. Eve Gentry was a professional dancer who had a full mastectomy in 1955 and it left her unable to use her arms. After a year of using the Pedo Pull as a student of Joe Pilates she returned to dancing and performing; her doctors considered it miraculous.
Eve believed that Pilates was a concept. In order to do Pilates, you needed to understand it as a philosophy and concept, not a group of exercises to perform.
She relocated to New Mexico, where she was creating art and teaching pilates lessons to those who wanted to learn. She developed her own style, as most working artists do, as all the students of pilates have done to keep the work alive, true to its intentions, and actually carry the practice forward.
Eve gentry noticed that people needed to learn how the movements worked in their bodies, what the path of motion is within the exercises, to become confident in doing them, as well as figure out how to use the method for themselves. One of the significant things we experience from Eve Gentry’s students are the Fundamentals. Fundamentals are the elements of the actual exercises from Pilates Method. In our studio we use them as warmups, teaching tools to practice opening a path of motion in the body, homework to keep the session progress at home, and restoration of times when our activities have not been so balanced. Try to identify what Pilates Fundamentals you know in your workouts currently. If it is not obvious ask your teacher, you may be surprised how many you know!
Eve Gentry passed the work to Michelle Larrson and Michelle designed a teacher training program called Core Dynamics. I took the Core Dynamics program in 2000-2002 and fell in love. This remains a strong influence to how we build a client up, progress them and now how we prepare teachers to be a guiding light for others.
Our influences would not be complete without Romana Kryzanowska represented.
Romana Kryzanowska was born in Farmington, Michigan on June 30,1923.She was an only child of artistic parents.
Romana studied ballet as a child. At age 16, while studying at George Balanchine’s School of American Ballet, she suffered an ankle injury, and was taken by Balanchine to Joseph Pilates to see if exercise rather than an operation would resolve the problem. The exercises were a success, and she continued to study with Pilates. Romana Kryzanowska became Pilates’ protégée, Before I knew it”, she said, “I was named a helper, which meant I didn’t have to pay anymore.”
After marriage, she moved to Peru. Returning to the US in 1958, she began working again with Joseph and Clara Pilates at their studio in New York City.Toward the end of his life, Pilates named Kryzanowska as the director of The Pilates Studio. Romana and Clara Pilates continued to operate Joseph Pilates’ original studio.
Romana was instrumental in the growth of Pilates due to her abilities,personality and being in the right place at the right time. Her teacher training program has spurned on dozens of other branches from this source.
Our study time with Romana’s students was strongly between 2007-2013. The way you communicate the work, the language and rhythms of the work, how you use the various elements of the system to problem solve for clients, how you pace a workout and develop it so that the progress is natural and the work sticks in their body and mind, many many wonderful things. This spirit and part of our legacy is daily used and remembered today.
Christin Lukondi brings in the influence of Lolita San Miguel as another link to the Pilates Legacy.
Lolita San Miguel, born on October 9, 1934, in New York City, to Puerto Rican parents, is a distinguished figure in both the dance and Pilates worlds. She began her dance training at the age of 7 in Puerto Rico and later moved to New York, where she studied at the School of American Ballet.
In 1958, after suffering a knee injury, San Miguel was introduced to the Pilates method at Carola Trier’s studio, an experience that would shape her future career. She later sought out training from Joseph Pilates himself and, along with Kathy Grant, became one of the only two people ever certified by him to teach the Pilates method.
In 2005, at the age of 70, she stepped down from her role as Artistic Director of Ballet Concierto and shifted her focus to teaching Pilates on an international level. Since then, she has dedicated her time and energy to promoting and teaching the Pilates method globally, actively participating as a presenter at events such as The Pilates Method Alliance Annual Conference.
To be a client in our studio practice is to be part of the Pilates Method family tree and tradition, while moving forward into our time and place. Christin, Sarah and myself are 3rd generation teachers from the top down and we are training our 4th generation at this time. Just as we might know the lineage in our birth family trees to gain perspective of our lives presently and to foster connection to our ancestry, this is available for Pilates students today. Our Pilates legacy is that we are part of something much bigger than ourselves and our choice to actually learn and daily use the tools and craft that has been shared with us, keeps that connection alive and tangible instead of growing dusty and faded on a shelf.
