Pilates history

This is a work in progress as generally there are plenty of ‘non-truths’ in the industry, some of which Joe himself started.

How it all began Joseph Hubertus Pilates was born in Monchengladbach Germany in 1883. As a child, Joe had asthma and other ailments. He turned to exercise and athletics and studied various exercise regimens to expand his knowledge base. He became enamored by the classical Greek ideal of a man balanced in body, mind, and spirit, and started developing his own exercise system based on this concept. Growing into adulthood, Joe became an avid skier, diver, gymnast, and accomplished boxer. In 1912 Joe went to England, where he worked as a self-defense instructor for detectives at Scotland Yard. At the outbreak of World War I, Joe was interned as a German “enemy alien”. During his internment, Joe refined his ideas and trained other internees in his system of exercise. After his release, Joe returned to Germany. His exercise method gained favor in the dance community, primarily through Rudolf von Laban, who created the form of dance notation most widely used today. Hanya Holm adopted many of Joe’s exercises for her modern dance curriculum, and they are still part of the “Holm Technique.” When German officials asked Joe to teach his fitness system to the army, he decided to leave Germany for good. It was clear that he couldn’t support the new political regime of Europe and although he spoke English with a distinct German accent, he did his best to distance himself from his German heritage.

Pilates comes to the U.S. In 1926, Joe emigrated to the United States with Clara Zeuner - true story, they met on the ship and lived as a married couple but never legally married. Joe and Clara opened a fitness studio in New York, sharing an address with the New York City Ballet. By the early 1960s, Joe and Clara trained many New York dancers. George Balanchine studied “at Joe’s,” as he called it, and invited Pilates to instruct his young ballerinas at the New York City Ballet. Pilates was becoming popular outside of New York as well. As the New York Herald Tribune noted in 1964: “in dance classes around the United States, hundreds of young students limber up daily with an exercise they know as ‘a pilates’, without knowing that the word has a capital P, and a living, right-breathing namesake.”

Joe’s students begin to teach While Joe was still alive, two of his students, Carola Trier and Bob Seed, opened their own studios. Trier, a dancer, came to the United States as a performing contortionist after fleeing a Nazi holding camp. She found Joseph Pilates in 1940, when a non-stage injury ended her performing career. Joe assisted Trier in opening her own studio in the late 1950s, and remained close friends with Trier until their deaths. Bob Seed had a different story. A former hockey player turned Pilates enthusiast, Seed opened a studio across town from Joe and tried to steal some of Joe’s clients. According to John Steel, Joe and Clara’s business manager, one day Joe visited Seed with a gun and warned Seed to get out of town. Seed went.

Joe continued to train clients at his studio until his death in 1967, at the age of 87. When he passed away, he left no will and had designated no line of succession for the Pilates work to carry on. Nevertheless, his work would remain and eventually flourish in large part due to his protégés, referred to as the “elders.”

For the most conclusive and authoritative account of JHP’s life, we suggest finding a copy of the biography written by Eva Rincke.