Pilates and the 1918 Spanish Influenza
Hi love,
I don't want to be writing to you about COVID 19. It's a full moon, springtime, and the outdoors are beckoning us into a season of celebration, birth, and renewal. That said, I would be remiss If I didn't share something that's been on my mind.
Way back in November of 2007, when I first began my certification in Pilates, I read something that struck me as interesting. It made its mark on my memory, and has stuck with me all this time. Here is an excerpt from my old Pilates manual, "In 1918 a terrible epidemic of influenza swept the world, killing millions of people, tens of thousands in England. None of Joe's followers succumbed even though the camps were the hardest hit" (Power Pilates 2006).
At the time, Joseph Pilates had been interned on the Isle of Man by the British. It was WWI, and he had come to England as an aspiring boxer, and circus performer. It was during his time in the intern camps that he conceived of and began to refine his...
