The History of Pilates
Pilates takes its name from
Joseph Pilates, the German-born emigrant to the UK and the
USA, who devised it as a new approach to exercise and
body-conditioning.
Joseph Pilates was born near Dusseldorf in 1880. He was a frail
child who determined to make himself strong and healthy. He
researched and practised every kind of exercise he could, ranging
from classical Roman and Greek exercise regimes to body-building and
gymnastics, alongside the the Eastern disciplines of yoga, tai chi,
martial arts and Zen meditation. He was perhaps the first
influential figure to combine Western and Eastern ideas about
health
and physical fitness.
In 1912, he left Germany for the UK, where he became a
professional boxer, an expert skier and diver, and taught
self-defence to Scotland Yard detectives. On the outbreak of World
War I he was interned in a POW camp in Lancashire. He used this time to start
developing a new approach to exercise and body-conditioning; the
start of what is known today as Pilates.
Returning to Germany after World War
I, Pilates worked with pioneers of movement technique such as
Rudolph Laban, who created the basic system of dance notation still
used today.
In 1923, Joseph Pilates moved to America, where he opened his
first studio
in New York, along with Clara, his wife and assistant. His new
method was an instant hit, particularly
among dancers such as Martha Graham and George Balanchine.
Gradually, a wider audience got to hear of it. Joseph Pilates called his
technique Controlology; only later
did it become known by his own surname.
The Pilates Method did not return to the UK until 1970, when it was
brought back by Alan Herdman. However, Pilates
remained essentially unknown to the general public, until 1995 with
the advent of Body Control Pilates.
Pilates today is taught in several forms, directly reflecting the
legacy of Joseph Pilates. He did not lay down a formal training programme, with the
result that, on his death, his 'disciples' continued teaching by
adding their own variations to the core principles and philosophy.
This flexibility in approach is one of the reasons why Pilates has
been so successful.
"If your spine is inflexibly stiff at
thirty, you are old. If it is completely flexible at sixty, you are
young"
Joseph Pilates