A History of Joe, Discover the Man Behind the Movement...
To understand where Pilates came from, it helps to first study the man who brought this great movement into the world.

Joseph's definition of physical fitness was the "attainment and maintenance of a uniformly developed body with a sound mind fully capable of naturally, easily, and satisfactoriy performing our many and varied daily tasks with spontaneous zest and pleasure."

Joseph was born near Dusseldorf, Germany in 1880. He grew up a somewhat sickly child, and suffered from asthma, rickets, and rheumatic fever. His father was an award winning gymnast, and his mother was a neuropath. As a young boy a family physician gave him a book on human Anatomy, of which he learned and memorized every page, inside and out. Joseph recalled "I would move each part as I memorized it. As a child, I would lie in the woods for hours, hiding and watching the animals move, how the mother taught the young." He studied many forms of exercise from eastern to western including yoga. He'd worked so hard on his physique, that he was asked to model for anatomy charts at the young age of 14. In Germany, he was able to achieve some success growing up as both a boxer and gymnast, besides being an adequate skier and diver.

In 1912, Joseph, hopped on over to England to further his skills as a boxer. He found work as a circus performer, and by 1914 he was a star, touring England with his troupe. His act was that of a Greek statute, which he performed with his Brother.

Then came 1914, when WWI broke out he was detained in a "camp" for enemy aliens. To pass the time, he taught wrestling and self-defense, intent on making sure his students would emerge stronger than they were before being interned.

It was in the "camp", that Joseph began development of a system of exercises which later became known as "Contrology".

He was transferred to another camp on the Isle of Man, where he acted as a nurse, working with internees suffering from wartime disease and incarceration. It was here that he began devising methods and equipment to rehabilitate them. Amazingly enough he would take springs from the bed and rig exercise equipment for the bedridden.

His method of rehabilitation not only helped rebuild fitness, it also provided a boost to the immune system. So much so, that in 1918 when the horrid influenza epidemic swept throughout the whole world, killing millions, and thousands just in England, all of Joe's patients and clients were able to completely dodge the flu. Which is amazing, considering the camps were hit the hardest by the bug.

Post-war, Joe decided to return to his homeland in Germany, where he began training the Military Police in Hamburg on how to defend themselves, he also worked on teaching them to condition themselves and improve their physical fitness levels. During this time he also took on many personal clients, as word of his techniques began to spread.

He worked in Germany until 1925, when he met Rudolf van Laban, a reknown movement analyst, who is believed to have added some of Joseph's exercises into his own methods. Mary Wigwam, a famous German dancer and choreographer at the time, used Joseph's exercises in her dance warm-up.

1925 brought the opportunity to train the New Germany Army, however due to a political indifferences with his homeland he decided to leave, altogether, and come to America. Along the way to America, he met Clara, who would become his second wife. (*Note: Little to nothing is known about his first wife..)

Clara was a kindergarten teacher, suffering from arthritic pain, which Joe worked to help her heal, while on the boat.

Upon arrival in New York city, Joseph and Clara opened a gym, located at 939 Eight Ave. He shared the building with a number of dance studios and rehearsal space. Being so close to so many dancers, is what made "Contrology" such an important part of the training and rehab for so many dancers, and in fact many "broken dancers", were sent to Joseph for "repairs." (Contrology is the set of exercises that became known as: Pilates.

A famous choreographer, by the name George Balanchine studied with Joseph, and sent many of his greatest dancers to Joe for strengthening and "balancing" Another famous dancer/choreographer Martha Graham, also took advantage of Joseph's Pilates.

Between 1939 and 1951, Joe and Clara went every summer to Jacob's Pillow, a well-known dance camp nestled in the Berkshire Mountains. He was a friend and teacher to such renowned dancer/choreographers as Ted Shawn, Ruth St Denis, Martha Graham, Jerome Robbins, and many choreographers, made it a requirement for all new dancers to learn Pilates.

Hanya Holm and Martha Graham, were known to incorporate Joseph's exercises into their lesson plans.

Although a health and fitness nut, Pilates was also a supporter of moderation and a fan of using fitness as a way to build up support so that you could have the occasional cigar, or glass of whiskey without it hindering your physical prowess or health.

In fact Joseph was well known for liking cigars, whiskey, and women, and was often seen running on Manhattan streetsin the dead of winter, with nothing so much as a Speedo.

January of 1966 brought with it destruction, as there was a fire in his building. Shortly after, he returned to his studio to try and salvage anything possible, when he fell through the burnt floorboards, where he hang by his hands from a beam for quite some time before being rescued by firefighters.

It is assumed that this incident, may have directly or indirectly influenced his death in 1967 at 87 years of age. Clara, known as the more patient instructor, continued the work of running the studio until her death 10 years later in 1977.