Our Method
Pilates is like an equation..the numbers have to add up to make sense!
Reflecting on all I have learned, I continue to take private lessons with teachers that inspire me and help me truly deepen my understanding of this genius system of corrective exercise.
Its important teachers and clients feel all senses of gravity and control, using all pieces of apparatus and mat.
— Keren Patzia, Founder
Keren Patzia has been in the Fitness Industry since 1999
Upon her return to Greece in 2007, her severe back injury led her to further her fitness knowledge into a more therapeutic approach, and committed to Pilates by completing her Comprehensive Teacher Training in Classical Pilates through Power Pilates NY.
She has attended Contemporary and Classical Pilates Conventions and Workshops all over the world and has been taught by teachers directing straight through to Joe and Clara Pilates ever since. In 2013 she finally met her match with her mentors Jay Grimes (First Generation Teacher, also known as an "Elder" in Pilates), Sandy Shimoda (Owner of Vintage Pilates LA) and Karen Frischmann (Master Trainer of Vintage Pilates). www.vintagepilates.com
Keren was chosen to complete "The Work" in 2015 through Vintage Pilates LA, a one year, intense and very selected Master Training Program, with only 12 candidates from all over the world each year.
As a second generation teacher, she is now committed in passing on Jays words of wisdom, teaching and philosophy, just as the original intentions were in Joe's studio back then.
Since her completion, she has been teaching and hosting workshops, Teacher Trainings and seminars in Athens, Thessaloniki and Paros island to instructors from all different backgrounds.
Keren hosted the first Classical Pilates Convention in November 2018 at the Olympic Stadium, sponsored by Gratz,
and was honored to host and co-teach alongside Jay, Sandy and Susanna Foustok in the first ever “Vintage Pilates Summer Camp 2019” in Greece, and teach at the Learn2day conference, Pilates Beyond Basics in 2020.
Keren is inspired to continue teaching the roots of Contrology, as Joe Pilates created and now teaches an exclusive and very thorough Teacher Training programme in collaboration with Cosmos Pilates, Athens.
Find out more about our Comprehensive Teacher Training schedule for 2023/24 here.
Physical fitness is the first requisite of happiness.
— Joseph Pilates
The Pilates Method.
Joseph Pilates was born in Germany, 1883. His name is of Greek derivation (Pilatu) but was changed to Pilates. As a child, he suffered from rickets, rheumatic fever and asthma. For this reason, his parents as well as himself when older, started to study, analyze and create new forms of exercises that he later called “Contrology”.
In 1912 Joe went to England as a boxer and gymnast, but also worked as a circus performer, when two years later world one broke out and was interned along with other Germans as an immigrant in Lancaster. This is where his theories and techniques started to evolve. After a failed attempt to move back to Germany, he decided to head off for New York, where he also met his wife Clara.
In 1926, Pilates opened up his first gym at Eight Ave. NY and collaborated with famous choreographers and dancers such as George Balanchine, Martha Graham, Romana Kryzanowska, and many more. Through these years, Joe evolved his technique, invented apparatus and equipment, and created over 40years a specific exercise repertoire that was so precisely and carefully designed as a System. Its a System of movement throughout the entire body, gently massaging the spine and mobilizing the joints, to create efficient movement supported from the centre, the seat and the connection of the upper and lower half of the body.
Utilising this System of exercises and working on the apparatus specifically designed by Pilates himself (Classical Equipment), the body becomes strong, pain free, efficient, young and flexible again. In 1967, Joseph Pilates died at the age of 84.
His students, colleagues and doctors, took on the role to spread their knowledge on what is now worldwide known as the Pilates Method. The Pilates Method was modernized since the death of Joe and Clara Pilates by fitness trainers and Training Certifications, creating a vast confusion as to what is Pilates and who teaches it.
Pilates taught in his later years a handful of students which we are blessed to still have them around the Pilates scene, these student of Joe’s are called the Elders (also known as 1st Generation Teachers).
Elders and Second Generation Teachers (Teachers that have studied directly and comprehensively with an Elder) play an important role on keeping the true, original and authentic Method alive and preserved to its intentions until today. Its is inspiring to say, that Pilates Teachers from all over the world and from all types of Pilates Schools, have now started to embrace and search for the true understanding of Joes years of research and work.