Guest Lecture Gabriele Klecok

This lecture explores the uniqueness of the movement methodology we today know as “Pilates” and that its founder Joseph Pilates labelled “Contrology.” In his books Your Health (1934) and Return to Life through Contrology (1945), Pilates described how his exercise system restores physical fitness through the “complete coordination of body, mind, and spirt.” Points of discussion will be the standing of Contrology/Pilates within the realm of American Physical Culture, similarities and differences to exercise programs developed by e.g. Sandow, Mcfadden and other pioneers of so- called western mind-body exercise methods and the current development of the Pilates industry.

Gabriele Klecok received her degree “Magister Artium” from the John F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies (FU Berlin) in 2002 with a thesis on “Motives of captivity narrative in Western.” She was also awarded an Erasmus scholarship which allowed her to study at the Departments for Dutch Literature, Cultural Education and History of the Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht. An avid gymnast and dancer since early childhood, she pursued her passion for movement and became a licensed instructor for group and functional fitness in 1998. From 2005 to 2006, she conceptualized and wrote a sports dictionary for the prestiguous publishing house “Brockhaus.” Discovering Pilates in 2004, she completed her comprehensive teacher certification through Peak Pilates. She has had the fortune of being able to learn from a plethora of 2nd generation Pilates teachers in Berlin/Potsdam, New York, Hamburg and The Hague such as Galina Rohleder, Alycea Ungaro, Clare Dunphy, Brett Howard, Moses Urbano, Shari Berkovitz and Jane Poerwoatmodjo all of whom were trained extensively and certified by Joseph Pilates’ late protégée Romana Kryzanowska.

The event is free and open to the public.

This lecture is organized by the Department of American Studies.

Department of American Studies Graz
Institut für Amerikanistik
Attemsgasse 25/II
A-8010 Graz
Tel. +43/316/380-2465
amerikanistik(at)uni-graz.at

http://amerikanistik.uni-graz.at/