Pilates at the Pillow:
Keeping the Tradition Alive

In the 1930s, Ruth St. Denis approached her husband and Jacob’s Pillow founder Ted Shawn, raving of a “fine body builder” she had been training with. According to St. Denis, this trainer’s body conditioning system had finally eased the pain in her knees, improving her mobility. This body builder, of course, was Joseph Pilates, the creator of the now widespread Pilates system.

Up until then, Pilates had been teaching his conditioning exercises from his studio on New York’s Eighth Avenue, having moved to the United States in 1926 from Germany. Upon hearing St. Denis’ praise, Shawn himself sought out Pilates’ expertise. Wildly impressed, Shawn invited Pilates to the Pillow in 1941 to join the staff at The School.

For the next decade, Pilates continued to teach at the Pillow, bolstering praise of his sometimes-tough, yet effective, teaching methods. Even after Pilates formally left the Pillow staff, he purchased 56 acres and a cottage just minutes away from campus, additionally building a studio for continued teaching in the Berkshires.

Though Pilates later passed in 1967, his presence remains on campus.

This Festival season, Sean Gallagher arrives on campus each Tuesday morning to lead a Pilates Morning Class in Sommers Studio. Gallagher stumbled upon the Pilates system when a friend sent him an article in GQ Magazine, thinking Gallagher might enjoy learning about the training methodology. At the time, Gallagher had been performing as a modern dancer and working on his duel degrees in Dance and Physical Therapy from Temple University.

Gallagher enrolled in a nearby session, and was instantly hooked. He continued his training, gaining rapid momentum. Within a matter of years, Gallagher found himself the fifth owner of Authentic Pilates™.

In 1997, Gallagher met Norton Owen, the Director of Preservation at Jacob’s Pillow, so Gallagher could share his Pilates archives. In these archives were images of Ted Shawn and Barton Mumaw working out in Joseph Pilates’ studio in New York and Pilates teaching at the Pillow. It was Owen who connected Gallagher with a realtor, suggesting he had a property Gallagher might be interested in. There, Gallagher stepped foot into a room full of Pilates’ original apparatus, although the studio and the cottage were in less-than-impressive shape. It was Joseph Pilates’ studio, by then a forgotten site off of Route 20.

Gallagher purchased the property, and has spent the past twenty-four years repairing it. Having finally completed the restoration of the studio, he now plans to start building a bungalow this summer. His mission to preserve Pilates’ work has transferred directly to his teaching. In 2018 a former student of Joseph Pilates donated her notes to Owen, which Gallagher has used to revise his own teaching to more closely resemble his predecessor. Along the way, he has continued to teach at each Festival, even starting an annual Pilates at the Pillow® conference that he holds outside of the Festival months.

This summer, Gallagher is looking forward to working in-person with Morning Class students for the first time since 2019. Students can expect exercises directly derived from Joseph Pilates, and balance work that Gallagher developed himself.

Written by Emma Garber. Published July 2022.