History of Pilates

I was wandering the net as I am prone to doing when I am procrastinating, and I came across this wonderful article on Jospeh Pilates and how he came about developing his exercise method. As it turns out, Joseph Pilates has met and worked with Rudolph Laban one of my heros. If I had not been exposed to the works of Rudolph Laban and his protege, Irmgard Bartenieff, I would not have been able to manage and prevent muscle injuries. I am prone to such injuries because I have Fibromyalgia and when I danced professionally, I was always nursing one injury after another. I started every day with what I called 'release work' by doing the Bartenieff Fundamentals exercises. For each show, I did a 'pre-warmup' with Bartenieff Fundamentals exercises which allowed me to perform with injuries without exacerbating them. Moreover, the injuries continued to heal even though I did not modify my training, rehearsal and show routine! The FMS eventually ended my dance career but the fascination with Rudolph Laban and Irmgard Bartenieff continued as I explored the amazing and profound effects that resulted from my consistent practice of the famous Bartenieff Fundamentals exercises. This link provides more information about Rudolph Laban, Irmgard Bartenieff and their institute for movement studies.

Now, today I discover that Joseph Pilates actually worked with Rudolph Laban at some point!!!! Now it all comes together in my mind; this is why the Pilates method had such a strong appeal for me! Read this great, comprehensive article about Joseph Pilates now.