History of Pilates Classes
Joseph Pilates was born in Germany. As a child with many physical problems his parents enrolled him at gymnastic school. He became a very skilled gymnast and when he left school he joined the circus. By now he was also teaching boxing and there are records of him instructing the police force in the United Kingdom. When the First World War broke out like all German nationals he was held in an internment camp. Here he decided that the other detainees should exercise too and so he had everyone doing this exercise programme he had developed.
Interestingly there was very little illness in this camp where they were exercising compared to other camps where there had been allot of fatalities due to an influenza epidemic. Word spread about this man and his exercise technique and he was moved into a hospital as a medical aid. Again he could not stand watching patients laying there wasting away, so he attached springs to the head of the beds and had them start exercising. The patients that were exercising got better quicker. Following the war he went back to Germany but after a brief spell training the German police and the newly formed German army he decided he did not like the way Germany was developing so he left for America. He had met his wife Clara and they opened an exercise studio where he started teaching his exercise technique. The style of exercises attracted the dancers of the time. Martha Graham who was also developing her radical approach to movement and had a reputation as a revolutionist in the dance world allowed her dancers to attend Pilates’ studio. Later she would not be so keen, stories are told of these strong personalities clashing, but it is because of the popularity of Pilates’ method that it quickly became known as a dancers technique and through the years dancers have always used it not only to strengthen their bodies but also to rehabilitate after injury. Pilates never danced himself but the people around him obviously influenced his teachings, later in video footage of social gatherings with Pilates it is always dancers who were around him.
Pilates continued to develop his technique, eventually publishing a book that had thirty four movements in it, and it is this book that many instructors use as a reference point because he banned anyone teaching the technique but him. Many have claimed they own this technique through the years but courts in the USA have released the technique to the public as a generic exercise term just as Yoga is, no single person can own this technique. Pilates instructors continue to take the principles that Joseph Pilates originally developed and apply them to movement adding their own ideas and beliefs. I think this is the most exciting side of the technique, for me it has never been just about thirty four movements but a way of working. We now know so much more about how the human body works and I am sure that if Joseph Pilates was still with us he would be right there adapting and changing what he taught.
