Image of Bertha Fried with Ted Shawn at Jacob’s Pillow courtesy of the Fried family
Issue #400 – Wednesday, May 10, 2022
The Pilates Pre-Elders
by Jonathan Grubb
Most Pilates enthusiasts have heard of the “Pilates Elders” who are known as the first generation of individuals who trained with Joseph Pilates and then themselves went on to teach the Pilates method of exercising to others.
When I started my own Pilates training, my limited knowledge was that Joseph Pilates set up and ran a studio in New York and that during the 1950s and 60s certain individuals trained with him and then went on to open their own studios, with Carola Trier being the first woman to open a Pilates studio.
Therefore, I was very surprised during the course of my research to discover that not only were there many individuals who were teaching the Pilates method long before the Pilates Elders but, as well as Joseph Pilates’ studio in New York and Fred Pilates’ studio in St Louis, there were also two other Pilates studios back in 1941 which were approved by Joseph and run by individuals I had previously never heard of!
A newspaper advert in the 2 February 1941 edition of the St Louis Post Despatch advertises two “Pilates Perfect Body Gym Studios” as being located in Denver and Atlanta, USA.
I started researching the Denver studio and was very fortunate to find a newspaper article in which Joseph Pilates was interviewed and stated that his niece and nephew ran a studio in Denver. This then led me to identify that the studio was located at the Denver Athletic Club. Further research showed that Joseph Pilates’ sister, Helene Anna Pilates, who had arrived in the United States before Joseph, had a daughter called Hildegard Jeanne Menke who got married and moved to Denver to live. I was then able to find the daughter of Hildegard who confirmed that Hildegard indeed had a studio in Denver which she ran with her husband Jack Brady.
Hildegard’s daughter told me that Hildegard preferred to use her middle name Jeanne and that she and Jack had trained with Joseph in New York in around 1938/39 before getting married and moving to Denver to open the studio at the Denver Athletic Club. Furthermore, Joseph had stated in the 12 December 1951 edition of the Berkshire Evening Eagle that Jeanne and Jack would take over running Joseph’s New York studio when he retired. Sadly, this did not happen as Jeanne and Jack divorced in 1952 leaving Jeanne with two young children to care for. Jack had left the area and Jeanne could no longer continue to operate the Denver studio nor prepare to take over Joe’s studio in New York.
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The Atlanta studio was operated by Dorothy Alexander as part of the Atlanta Ballet which Dorothy had formed in Atlanta. The influence of Dorothy from both a ballet and a Pilates perspective makes her a very notable individual as she was likely to have been the first woman to open a Pilates studio, pre-dating Carola Trier’s studio which opened in 1960.
Born in 1904, Dorothy formed a dance group in 1929 called the Dorothy Alexander Concert Group, which in 1941 was renamed the Atlanta Civic Ballet. The Atlanta Civic Ballet still exists today and is now known as the Atlanta Ballet. I had the great pleasure of discussing Dorothy with Anne Burton Avery, a former prima ballerina with the Atlanta Ballet, who from the age of 6 trained with Dorothy and recalls that Dorothy “embraced both the spiritual essence of dance as promoted by Isadora Duncan and the need for strength and discipline and to that end Dorothy ensured that her dancers routinely did their Pilates exercises”.
Anne fondly remembered “we all had to do an exercise called ‘the hundred’”. Anne also told me she remembered using the reformer regularly and sent me a newspaper article which described the reformer as follows: “depending on how one looks at it, the Pilates Universal Reformer – known in Atlanta Ballet circles as the “Contrology machine” – is either a miracle or a torture machine. It looks something like a slab in a mortuary and is equipped with fearsome leather straps and strong steel springs, designed to pull the muscles of the body to their outermost limits. “It is a truly miracle machine” says Robert Barnett, Artistic Director of the Atlanta Ballet. “A dancer can come back from a lay off and in 2 weeks be back in condition.””.
Anne is quoted in the article as explaining the benefits of the reformer: “it can completely change the alignment of the body and it does not tax the respiratory system. It helps me to carry my torso rather than dragging it around. The younger dancers need it to strengthen their muscles. I need it for flexibility.”
After finding out about Hildegard Jeanne Menke and Dorothy Alexander, I then discovered another possible pre-Elder, Molly Brumby, who was a student of Dorothy Alexander for 17 years at Atlanta Ballet and became a prima ballerina at Atlanta Ballet.
Molly subsequently went on to form her own ballet company in Montgomery, USA which became the Montgomery Civic Ballet. Prior to forming Montgomery Civic Ballet in 1959, I have found a newspaper article showing that Molly went to New York to study rigorously with, amongst others, Joseph Pilates. It is not clear whether or not Molly taught Pilates at Montgomery Civic Ballet, however, she clearly learned and practised Pilates under both Dorothy Alexander and Joseph himself. Following Molly’s marriage to an air force officer, she moved around in Europe and the USA, continuing to teach dance wherever she lived. On her retirement to Florida she took up painting and jewellery-making before she passed away in 2003.
The influence on the dance world of the Pilates method of exercise stems not only from injured ballet dancers in New York finding their way to Joe’s nearby studio, but also from Jacob’s Pillow Dance Academy, whose owner, Ted Shawn, invited Joe to teach there. Joe is known to have taught at Jacob’s Pillow for many summers and the well-circulated photographs of his mat classes there show the dancers practising mat Pilates under Joe’s instruction.
It was here at Jacob’s Pillow that two other Pilates pre-Elders encountered Joe and his method, leading them to also learn the method and go on to teach it to others.
Virginia Butterfield was born in West Virginia, USA and passed away in 1971. For 12 years Virginia was the assistant to Ted Shawn at Jacob’s Pillow where, in her own words, she “ran the box office, looked after the business end of things year-round and even made breakfast.” She would also have had lots of contact with Joseph Pilates and it is of no surprise that Virginia was inspired to go on to train with Joe and to teach his method. A newspaper article I found in the 1943 Vancouver Sun states that “Virginia was teaching Contrology in Vancouver”. I have spoken to Virginia’s grandson who was unaware that his grandmother had taught Pilates, but he did know that the husband of one of Virginia’s daughters (his uncle) who passed away in 2020 aged 96 also trained in New York with Joe in the 1940s.
Bertha Fried was a former assistant of Joseph Pilates and in a newspaper advert I found from 1947 she was teaching Contrology at the now-demolished Santa Rita Hotel, Tucson, Arizona. The 8 June 1952 edition of the Baltimore Sun reports that in 1952 Bertha gave a talk to the Better Health Club of Baltimore about Contrology. Bertha was a dance student of Carol Lynn Fetser, the renowned dance educator. For many years Carol was the Associate Director at Jacob’s Pillow and the archives at Jacob’s Pillow confirm that Bertha Fried was registered as a student there in both 1942 and 1945. Bertha would have experienced the teachings of Joseph Pilates at Jacob’s Pillow before becoming one of his assistants as recorded in the advert from the 3 March 1947 edition of the Tucson Daily Citizen.
My most recent discovery was that of Polish born Halina Lutomski (1925 – 2002) who married an American war veteran, Floyd Lutomski and moved to Elmira, New York in 1947. There she opened Madame Halina’s School of Dance Arts. She would have met Joseph Pilates at Jacob’s Pillow Dance Academy on one or both of her visits there in 1947 and 1948. She subsequently trained with Joseph and went on to teach his method for over 40 years. She is pictured here with her daughter Ilona who also opened a dance studio and taught Contrology.
March 2022
Finally, one teacher who at present remains a mystery to me, is Dr Anita Hayes Kelley. According to newspaper articles she attended Columbia University and the National College of Massage and Physical Therapy. The newspapers state that she was a national lecturer on nutrition and health care and in 1942 was giving talks on the art and science of Contrology yet nothing more is known about her. Research continues and perhaps one day I will have more information to share with you about Anita.
In the meantime, I am currently researching several more 1st generation teachers and will be sharing the information in my Facebook group Joseph’s Legacy – Pilates 100 +
Jonathan Grubb was born in England in 1962 and has lived on the Isle of Man since he was two years old. His great grandfather Jakob Grub was interned on the Isle of Man until 28 August 1919 in the same camp as Joseph Pilates.
In his younger days Jonathan was a keen amateur sportsman and particularly excelled at football (soccer), representing the Isle of Man in international games on numerous occasions. An anterior cruciate ligament injury sustained towards the end of his playing days led him to discover Pilates and he has been a passionate practitioner ever since. He has traveled to various countries to attend conferences and courses and been fortunate to be mentored by very experienced local teachers.
Having previously been an advanced instructor for several years in the Wu family style of tai chi chuan, Jonathan is currently studying to become a Pilates teacher with MKPilates and his teaching has been enthusiastically welcomed in classes throughout the island already. More on the story of Knockaloe Internment Camp can be found at knockaloe.imCheckout Jonathon’s Facebook page Joseph’s Legacy – Pilates 100 +!