Rael Isacowitz - Pilates

Kathleen Stanford Grant (August 1, 1921May 27, 2010) wrote the following words for the first edition of this book. She will be desperately missed by her family, her friends, and by the entire Pilates community. She left an indelible mark on this industry.

When I first met Rael in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1991, the Pilates community was indeed very small. Upon the recommendation of John Claude West, who had studied with me and was running his own studio in New York, I was invited to teach a workshop on the Wunda Chair, a Pilates apparatus that I had worked on a lot with Joseph Pilates. Until then, I had not been consulted for professional advice by the Pilates community. The gathering in Santa Fe was a breakthrough; first and foremost, in recognizing the first generation of Pilates teachers and also in the sharing of information and drawing on our collective experience and expertise.

I was guided to Mr. Pilates by Pearl Lang, the renowned dancer and choreographer, after undergoing double knee surgery. He used the Wunda Chair extensively for my knee therapy, believing it to be most beneficial for that purpose. I learned a vast amount about the Wunda Chair during my rehabilitation and went on to develop my own repertoire. I continued to use the Wunda Chair in my teaching at Henri Bendel, from 1973 to 1988, and I still use it in my teaching today, including the Pilates program I run for the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU.

When I entered the studio in Santa Fe, I was immediately surrounded by a group of seasoned professionals who had come from far and wide, hungry for information and enthusiastic about spending time with me. I noticed a man in the group and when I asked for a volunteer to demonstrate some of the work, he eagerly jumped up. He got on the Wunda Chair and started demonstrating. I immediately recognized that he was an accomplished mover and that he knew Pilates well. As I started prodding and poking, making intricate adjustments to his alignment and movement, I could see a look of astonishment cross his face. The young male ego! This made me chuckle inside. He was clearly strong, but he relied too much on his strength and athletic ability rather than on his core.

We proceeded to work for several hours together as I taught, demonstrated, adjusted, and corrected. I respected his openness to learning and his humility in the presence of another teacher. That workshop was a pivotal point in the evolution of Pilates. From that point on the Wunda Chair, which had become all but obsolete, boomed in popularity.

Rael, for the young man was of course him, has often expressed to me that our meeting changed his career. It set him on a path of inner exploration and self-assessment. His work changed and his teaching changed; he discovered how to work from within. Rael and I went on to become, above all else, good friends. I am now regarded as one of the elders of the Pilates community, and Rael as a world-renowned teacher and a leader in his own right. He has developed a fine teacher training program, Body Arts and Science International (BASI Pilates), to which he invited me to serve as honorary advisor.

Back in 1991 Rael requested that I conduct a workshop at his center in Southern California. I made a promise to him that I would do it, but I could not say when. Thereafter, on every occasion we met, he would remind me of my promise. It took 14 years for me to fulfill it. In 2005 I came to Southern California from New York to give a workshop at On Center Conditioning. Although Rael also taught, the students got to witness their mentor being guided by his mentor. This in itself was a valuable lesson, possibly more valuable than the work itself.

Rael performs the work with unique mastery, and he certainly moves from within. At the same time he demonstrates an ever-present youthful desire to continue learning and growing. We need to keep the lineage of Pilates alive, preserving the past and respecting the future, upholding the values and principles of this systemand few have done as much toward that end as Rael. He is the male that Mr. Pilates wished for to continue his work.