JOSEPH PILATES

Joseph Pilates was born in 1880 in Germany. A rickety child suffering from asthma and rheumatic fever, he devoted his entire life to improving his physical endurance. During his youth, he successfully practiced gymnastics, bodybuilding, diving and skiing. By the age of 14, he was muscular enough to pose for anatomical plates.

In 1912, he moved to England, where he became a boxer and then a circus performer and taught self-defense techniques to English detectives. When the First World War broke out two years later, he was interned with other Germans in the Lancaster camp, then on the Isle of Man. He became a nurse in this camp and taught the other prisoners the concepts and exercises that he himself had developed during 20 years of study. None of them succumbed to the influenza epidemic that killed thousands of people in 1918 in England.

After the war, he continued his training program in Hamburg and refined his method with the city's police force. In 1926, disappointed with his collaboration with the German army, he emigrated to the United States. During the trip, he met his future wife Clara. The couple set up a studio in New York where they taught what they called "Contrology" - control of body and mind. Joseph Pilates and his wife personally led their clients' training at the studio until the 1960s.

The method was particularly popular in the dance world. Famous dancers such as Martha Graham and George Balanchine became followers, and entrusted their own students to it.

Joseph Pilates died in 1967 at the age of 87. His method and exercises are used worldwide today by dance companies, theater troupes, students in performing arts schools, professional and amateur athletes, and health-conscious individuals.