About Pilates

Joseph H. Pilates was born in Germany in 1880 of Greek ancestry.  As a child, frail with rickets and asthma, he grew determined to improve his health through physical conditioning.  He trained in yoga, gymnastics, boxing, skiing and diving.  He developed his Mat program for his own body, gaining inspiration from Eastern and Western training principles.

While interned in England during WWI, Joseph taught his Mat program to a group, none of who came down with influenza when it became epidemic.  He worked in a hospital with immobilized patients.  To help them learn his exercises, he attached springs to the hospital beds to support the injured limbs.  This idea spawned the design of a new generation of specialized spring-based exercise equipment. 

In 1926, Joseph immigrated to the U.S. with his apparatus and opened the first Pilates Studio in New York City.  He met his wife Clara while on the boat.  Throughout his life, he constantly improved on his equipment and further refined his exercises.

Romana Kryzanowska was 19 when she first met Joseph Pilates.  She had injured her ankle as a ballet dancer, and was advised surgery.  Mr. Balanchine sent her to Joe.  She never did get the operation:  her ankle recovered completely.  When Joseph passed away in 1967, his wife Clara asked Romana to carry on his work.  Romana has kept Pilates pure all these years, and teaches today at Dragos Gym in New York City.  She travels all over the world to teach future Pilates instructors.  She is looked upon as the last word in pure Pilates.

Gratz is the preferred equipment manufacturer of Romana Kryzanowska.  At Drago's Gym, where Romana teaches, all the equipment are Gratz-made.