When we talk about genealogy in Pilates, we are not talking about ancestry in the traditional sense. We are talking about a lineage of knowledge — who learned from whom, who taught whom, and how the work of Joseph Pilates travelled from one generation of teacher to the next.
At its simplest, genealogy gives us a family tree. But in Pilates, the tree is more than names. It represents the transmission of a method.
Joseph Pilates created what he called Contrology — a system of physical training built around a complete and interconnected body of work. He taught that work in his New York studio, alongside Clara, to a relatively small number of students. Some of those students went on to become the first generation of teachers, including Carola Trier, Eve Gentry, Ron Fletcher, Kathy Grant, Romana Kryzanowska, Lolita San Miguel, Jay Grimes and others.
Those teachers then became the source for another generation.
And another. This is how a method survives.
Genealogy is not simply about who trained where
In the Pilates world, we often hear teachers describe themselves as first, second or third generation. This can sound like a hierarchy, but I believe it is better understood as a responsibility.
If you are connected to a particular teacher, you are not simply carrying their name. You are carrying their interpretation of what they were taught.
This is particularly important in Pilates because Joseph Pilates did not leave behind the kind of formal teacher-training curriculum that we would recognise today. Much of the work was transmitted through doing: through being a student, watching, assisting, teaching, being corrected, touching bodies, observing movement and spending years immersed in the studio environment.
Books and photographs are important. The apparatus is important. The repertoire is important. But they are not the whole story.
There is knowledge that lives in the space between the written words — in the order of the exercises, the transitions, the intention behind an exercise, the way a teacher looks at a body, the way they use their hands, the way they choose what to teach and, perhaps most importantly, why they teach it.
That is where genealogy becomes interesting.
What exactly are we passing down?
A teacher can inherit a repertoire without necessarily inheriting the method.
Knowing the names of the exercises is not the same as understanding the system.
Genealogy gives us an opportunity to ask deeper questions:
What did my teacher understand?
What did their teacher understand?
What was considered important?
What was preserved?
What changed?
And why?
Every generation inevitably adds something. We teach through our own bodies, our own experiences and the people who come through our doors.
That does not necessarily diminish the original work. In fact, this is how a living tradition survives.
The first-generation teachers themselves were not identical. Their backgrounds, bodies, personalities and experiences influenced the way they understood and taught Pilates. The Pilates Method Alliance’s historical account recognises a diverse group of first-generation teachers and the different paths through which the method developed after Joseph’s death.
So genealogy should not be used to suggest that there is only one personality, one voice or one way of teaching Pilates.
Rather, it gives us a way of understanding where those different voices came from.
Why does this matter now?
Pilates has changed enormously.
What began as a relatively obscure system taught in a New York studio has become a global industry. The word Pilates is now used across studios, gyms, rehabilitation settings, fitness programs and teacher-training schools around the world.
That growth is something to celebrate. But growth creates a particular responsibility.
When something becomes popular, it becomes increasingly easy to separate the name from the thing itself.We can end up with Pilates without the history, Pilates without the system, Pilates without the repertoire, Pilates without the philosophy and, ultimately, Pilates without an understanding of what made the work distinctive in the first place.
This is why I believe genealogy matters. Not because we need to go backwards. But because we need to know what we are moving forward from.
A light on in the original lane
For me, there is tremendous value in having a clear light on in the original lane of Contrology.
That does not mean that every teacher needs to teach the same way.
It does not mean that contemporary approaches have no value.
And it certainly does not mean that one lineage should be considered more important than another.
It means that within the diversity of modern Pilates, there should remain a visible and accessible connection to the work Joseph Pilates actually created.
The original system should not become a historical footnote.
It should remain something that can be studied, practised, questioned and experienced.
Because without that reference point, future generations are left with increasingly distant interpretations of an interpretation of an interpretation.
At some point, we may still call it Pilates — but we may no longer know what we are actually referring to.
Genealogy gives the next generation a reference point
I think this is where genealogy becomes particularly important for young teachers.
A new teacher can easily become overwhelmed by the enormous amount of information available today. There are countless courses, workshops, social media accounts, movement theories and opinions about what Pilates should be.
Genealogy provides another kind of education. It teaches a student to ask:
Where did this idea come from?
It encourages curiosity rather than blind acceptance. It helps a teacher distinguish between Joseph Pilates’ original work, the interpretations of his first-generation teachers, the developments of later generations, and the innovations of the modern industry.
None of those things necessarily need to be rejected. But they should be understood. A teacher who knows their genealogy can stand more confidently in their own practice because they know what they have inherited. They can also make conscious decisions about what they want to preserve, what they want to develop and what they want to leave behind.
We are all custodians of something
Perhaps the most important thing about genealogy is that it changes the question from:
“What can I create?”
to:
“What have I been entrusted with?”
When we become teachers, we become part of a much longer story.
We receive something from the people who taught us. We interpret it through our own
experience. Then, eventually, we pass something on to someone else.
That is a privilege — but it is also a responsibility.
My own connection to the classical lineage has made me increasingly aware that I am not the endpoint of the work. I am simply one person in a much longer chain. My responsibility is not to freeze the method in time.
It is to know it deeply enough that, when I teach, explain or pass it forward, I do not become the filter through which the next person experiences Joe’s work. Instead, I allow them as much of their own experience with the work as possible.
What will the next generation inherit?
The next generation of Pilates teachers will inherit a profession that is bigger, more diverse and more visible than Joseph Pilates could ever have imagined.
That is exciting.
But what they inherit will depend, in part, on what we choose to pass on.
Will they inherit only exercises? Or will they inherit a system?
Will they know the names of the repertoire? Or will they understand the relationships within it?
Will they know that Pilates came from somewhere? Or will they understand where it came from and why that matters?
Genealogy gives us a way to keep asking those questions.It reminds us that Pilates did not appear fully formed in the modern fitness industry. It travelled through people — through Joseph and Clara, through the teachers who studied with them, through the generations that followed, and through every teacher who has chosen to take the work seriously enough to keep learning it.
The tree continues to grow. Branches will continue to develop. New ideas will continue to emerge. The profession will continue to change. But the strength of the tree depends on remembering its roots.
And perhaps that is the real value of genealogy in Pilates:
not to tell us who is better,
but to remind us what we are responsible for remembering.
Sharon Michau
MPG Pilates
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