Stacey Redfield and Sarah Holmes - The Pilates Effect: Heroes Behind the Revolution

The
Pilates
Effect

The
Pilates
Effect

HEROES BEHIND THE REVOLUTION

Stacey Redfield & Sarah Holmes

This book is a publication of

Red Lightning Books

1320 East 10th Street

Bloomington, Indiana 47405 USA

redlightningbooks.com

2019 by Stacey Redfield and Sarah W. Holmes

All rights reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.481992.

Manufactured in the United States of America

ISBN 978-1-68435-096-4 (hdbk.)

ISBN 978-1-68435-086-5 (pbk.)

ISBN 978-1-68435-088-9 (web PDF)

1 2 3 4 5 24 23 22 21 20 19

Human beings are wired to learn through stories, which is why the most effective teachers have an instinct and talent for story-telling.

Ed Morris, Wall Streeters

Contents

by Kevin Bowen

FOREWORD

One great aim of every civilization is to assure its people a preponderance of joys over sorrows.

Joseph Pilates, 1957 AMERICAN FOUNDATION OF PHYSICAL FITNESS PAMPHLET

Physical exercise is just as essential for the best health as are rest and sleep, food, job, recreation, and peace of mind.

Paul Dudley White, MD, 1957 AMERICAN FOUNDATION OF PHYSICAL FITNESS PAMPHLET

Joseph Pilates, who developed the Pilates method over his lifetime, and his partner, Clara Zeuner, trained, coached, and encouraged the individuals introduced in this book. His method of physical and mental conditioning seemed to reverse the signs of aging, enlighten the mind, and elevate the human spirit.

Joe and Clara inspired Ron Fletcher, Eve Gentry, Kathleen Stanford Grant, Romana Kryzanowska, and Carola Trier in many ways. This inspiration, in turn, allowed these practitioners to literally move through life and develop a rich legacy of their own. They carried on Joes teachings and ideas as well as developed, contributed to, and continued to embolden Pilates. Compelled by their rich movement and life experiences, they became proponents of Joes legacy. Each continued tirelessly to walk the talk they learned from Joe and Clara.

Kevin Bowen, President, Core Dynamics Studio Santa Fe, New Mexico, May 2018

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Many curious minds and helpful hands went into creating the stories in these pages. Over the years of putting this book together, we spoke with teachers, dancers, choreographers, social activists, movement practitioners, and leaders in the Pilates and fitness industry, each one offering his or her own memories, thickening and coloring this project with personal accounts of what is was like to work with the people celebrated in these pages. Their endless intellectual and spiritual generosity continues to amaze us.

We would especially like to thank Ashley Runyon and the team at Indiana University Press for embracing our ideas and giving us the opportunity to share them. Their guidance, insights, and feedback were fundamental to bringing this idea to fruition. A special thank-you goes to Arthur Mitchell, Mikael Salazar The Pilates Guy, Wanda Bouvier, Ton Voogt, Michael Fritzke, Irene Zelonka, Pat Guyton, Kyria Sabin, Kathy Cory, Blossom Crawford, Jillian Hessel, Gordon Troy, Howard Boris, Louella Rehfield, Phoebe Higgins, Alycea Ungaro, Clare Dunphy, Michele Larsson, Allegra Kent, Carolyn Digovich, Cara Reeser, Maria Earle, Elizabeth Jones Boswell, Debora Kowley, Mercy Sidbury, Cathy Barker, Joan Breitbart, Ken Endelman, Suzanne Gutterson, Peter Rol, Oliver Tobin, Kathy Ross-Nash, Colleen Glenn, and Mary Bowen. The stories in this book could not have jumped from the pages without their inspiration. We are grateful for the Zelonka family for their support and permission to use materials from the Pilates historical collection. We are also in debt to Kevin Bowen, whose generosity, open-mindedness, and rainmaking abilities made this book a reality.

Public and private institutions contributed greatly to the completion of this work. We are grateful for the unwavering and generous guidance from the New York Public Library; the Leo Baeck Institute, New York; the Boston Public Library; the Los Angeles Times; Northeastern University Archives; the University of Nevada, Las Vegas; the California Room in San Bernardino; the Santa Fe Public Library; the Jacobs Pillow Archives; the American Dance Festival Archives; the Guggenheim Museum; the Boston Conservatory of Music; the administrators at the Dance Theatre of Harlem; the Ford Foundation; the Manx Heritage Collection; Washington University in St. Louis; the Missouri State Archives; the St. Louis Public Library; the Library of Congress; the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC; the University of Texas at Austin; the University of Utah; Emory University; the Santa Fe Treasures organization; and the Martha Graham Resources. Collectively, each one of the silent heroes at these institutions carried the research forward in ways previously unimagined.

A special thanks of appreciation goes to Kristi Cooper with Pilates Anytime, Inc., and Alysa Wyatt with Pilatesology, Inc. Their future-forward creation of subscription-based online access to archival video footage acted as the jumping-off point for much of this research.

Ultimately, the minds and hearts of our clients inspired and encouraged The Pilates Effect. Their courageous journey of self-discovery and desire to live better than the day before keep us believing that Pilates is the key to a healthier lifestyle. This book is for you.

Sarah: A special note of gratitude goes to the Department of Dance faculty at the University of California, Riverside. Their belief in a fledgling PhD student years ago helped me on a path through Pilates that continues to baffle me today. While this book is far from a critical exploration of Pilates, it is the first of its kind. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, this project would not have become a reality without the unwavering support from my husband, Riley, our four-legged adopted son, Sam, and incredible family.

Stacey: I would like to thank my coauthor, Sarah, for her blind faith. This book would never have happened without it, and it is an honor to share these pages with her. My assistant, Julie, deserves recognition for her many years of support and dedication and for inspiring me to keep pushing forward. Sierra and Austin are my heart and soul, and I thank Ken for his love and patience. And finally, I am forever indebted to the clients of Physical Methods, with whom I have laughed and cried, for their belief and trust in me.

The
Pilates
Effect

INTRODUCTION

What Is the Pilates Effect?

T he story of Pilates is filled with greed and ego, celebrities and lies. Its hard to imagine that an exercise system commonly known today as the go-to solution for strengthening the core was almost lost to nostalgia. Over the past eighty years, the exercise was picked up, embraced, shunned, dismissed, copied, and transformed and miraculously continues to survive. This method of exercise had limped along for decades under the guidance of its creator, Joseph Pilates, its success dependent on word of mouth passed along among friends who found value in the exercises. In the late 1960s, with Joseph Pilates gone, the studiofloundering from lack of leadershipall but dissolved into the New York City skyline. But a handful of people, recognizing the effect the program had on their bodies, refused to let go of the Pilates system.