Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7fkt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T17:39:25.383Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Pilates Pelvis: Racial Implications of the Immobile Hips

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2014

Sarah W. Holmes
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article examines the treatment of the pelvis in the Pilates exercises “Single Leg Stretch” and “Leg Circles.” The teaching practices of the hips, as commonly explained in Pilates educational manuals, reinforce behaviors of a noble-class and racially “white” aesthetic. Central to this article is the troubling notion of white racial superiority and, specifically, the colonizing, prejudicial, and denigrating mentality found in the superiority of whiteness and its embodied behaviors. Using the two Pilates exercises, I illuminate how perceived kinesthetic understandings of race in the body may be normalized and privileged. By examining the intersections between dance and Pilates history, this article reveals the ways embodied discourses in Pilates are “white” in nature, and situates Pilates as a product of historically constructed social behaviors of dominant Anglo-European culture.

Keywords

ColonizationexercisehipspelvisPilatesracewhiteness
Type
Articles
Information
Dance Research Journal , Volume 46 , Issue 2: Body Parts: Pelvis, Feet, Face, Hips, Legs, Toes, and Teeth , August 2014 , pp. 57 - 72
Copyright
Copyright © Congress on Research in Dance 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Works Cited

Anderson, Brent D., and Spector, Aaron. 2000. “Introduction to Pilates-Based Rehabilitation.” Orthopedic Physical Therapy Clinic of North America 9(3): 395–410.Google Scholar
Beltrán, Mary C. 2002. “The Hollywood Latina Body as Site of Social Struggle: Media Constructions of Stardom and Jennifer Lopez's ‘Cross-Over’ Butt.” Quarterly Review of Film and Video 19(2): 71–86.Google Scholar
Borelli, Melissa Blanco. 2009. “A taste of honey: Choreographing mulatta in the Hollywood dance film.” International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media 5(3): 141–53.Google Scholar
Bossi, Laura. 2008. “The ‘New Man’: Degeneracy and Regeneration.” In The 1930s: The Making of “The New Man”, edited by Clair, Jean, 36–57. Ottawa, ON, Canada: National Gallery of Canada.Google Scholar
Connerton, Paul. 1989. How Societies Remember. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Comar, Philip. 2008. “Crystal and Mud: Academic Approaches to Figurative Representations of the Body.” In The 1930s: The Making of “The New Man”, edited by Clair, Jean, 80–85. Canada: National Gallery of Canada.Google Scholar
Dutton, Kenneth R. 1995. The Perfectible Body: The Western Ideal of Male Physical Development. New York: Continuum.Google Scholar
Dyer, Richard. 1997. White: Essays on Race and Culture. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Endelman, Ken. 2011. President, Balanced Body. Phone interview with the author. May 18.Google Scholar
Fiasca, Peter. 2009. Discovering Pure Classical Pilates: Theory and Practice as Joseph Pilates Intended, The Traditional Method vs. The Lies for Sale. LaVernge, TN: Classical Pilates Inc.Google Scholar
Figueroa, Maria P. 2003. “Resisting ‘Beauty’ and Real Women Have Curves.” In Velvet Barrios, edited by de Alba, Alicia Gaspar, 265–82. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Foster, Susan. 2011. Choreographing Empathy: Kinesthesia in Performance. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Frankenberg, Ruth. 1993. White Women, Race Matters: The Social Construction of Whiteness. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Friedman, Philip, and Eisen, Gail. 1980. The Pilates Method of Physical and Mental Conditioning. New York: Warner Books.Google Scholar
Gallagher, Sean, and Kryzanowska, Romana, editors. 2000. The Joseph H. Pilates Archive Collection: Photographs, Writings and Designs. Philadelphia: Bainbridge Books.Google Scholar
Gottschild, Brenda Dixon. 1998. Digging the Africanist Presence in American Performance: Dance and Other Contexts. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers.Google Scholar
Gottschild, Brenda Dixon. 2003. The Black Dancing Body: A Geography from Coon to Cool. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Hagins, Marshall, Adler, Keri, Cash, Michael, Daugherty, Julie, and Mitrani, Gayle. 1999. “Effects of Practice on the Ability to Perform Lumbar Stabilization Exercises.” Journal of Orthopedic Sports Therapy 29(9): 546–55.Google Scholar
Holmes, Sarah. 2013. “A Critical Dance Studies Examination of the Teaching Methodologies, Exercises, and Principle of Pilates.” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of California, Riverside.Google Scholar
IM = X Pilates, Inc. N.d. IM = X Pilates Studio Franchise: The Total Package for Owning Your Pilates and Fitness Business. [brochure]. http://www.imxpilatesstudio.com/Brochure.pdf.Google Scholar
Isacowitz, Rael, and Clippinger, Karen. 2011. Pilates Anatomy: Your Illustrated Guide to Mat Work for Core Stability and Balance. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.Google Scholar
Jonas, Gerald. 1992. Dancing: The Pleasure, Power, and Art of Movement. New York: Harry N. Abrams Inc.Google Scholar
Lesson, Deborah, editor. 2005. The PMA Pilates Certification Exam Study Guide. Miami, FL: Pilates Method Alliance.Google Scholar
Lewis, Christen. 2009. “Yoga and Pilates Studios Weather Recession.” Fitness Business Pro 25(7): 10, 11.Google Scholar
Loosli, Alvin R., and Herold, Diana. 1992. “Knee Rehabilitation for Dancers Using a Pilates-Based Technique.” Kinesiology and Medicine for Dance 14(2): 1–12.Google Scholar
Malnig, Julie. 2001. “Two-Stepping to Glory: Social Dance and the Rhetoric of Social Mobility.” In Moving History/Dancing Cultures: A Dance History Reader, edited by Ann Dils and Ann Cooper Albright, 271–87. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.Google Scholar
Mathias, Helena, Franca, Selma, and Bittar, Adriano. 2004. “Pilates Technique in Patients with Osteomuscular Disease Related to Work.” Research Presentation at the Polestar Pilates Conference, Miami, Florida.Google Scholar
Needleman, Sarah E. 2011, August 24. “Study: Yoga and Pilates Studios Poised for More Growth.” Wall Street Journal. [online]. http://blogs.wsj.com/in-charge/2011/08/24/study-yoga-and-pilates-studios-poised-for-more-growth/. Accessed March 23, 2012.Google Scholar
Pilates, Peak. 2009. Peak Pilates System I Instructor's Manual. Venice, CA: Mad Dogg Athletics, Inc.Google Scholar
Pilates, Joseph, and Miller, William J.. 1998. A Pilates’ Primer: The Millennium Edition: “Return to Life Through Contrology” and “Your Health.” Ashland, OR: Presentation Dynamics, Inc.Google Scholar
Polestar Pilates, LLC. 2002a. Polestar Education Scientific Foundations Manual. Coral Gables, FL: Polestar Education, LLC.Google Scholar
Polestar Pilates, LLC. 2002b. Polestar® Education P-F Manual: Polestar Pilates Fitness Principles. Coral Gables, FL: Polestar Education, LLC.Google Scholar
Polestar Pilates, LLC. 2002c. Polestar Pilates™ Education S-1 Manual: Polestar Pilates Studio Level I. Coral Gables, FL: Polestar Education, LLC.Google Scholar
Polestar Pilates, LLC. 2002d. Polestar Pilates™ Education S-3 Manual: Polestar Pilates Studio Level III. Coral Gables, FL: Polestar Education, LLC.Google Scholar
Redfield-Dreisbach, Stacy. 2010a. “Physical Culture: The History of an Industry.” Presented at the Pilates Method Alliance Conference. Long Beach, CA, November 6.Google Scholar
Redfield-Dreisbach, Stacy. 2010b. Pilates Teacher and Author. Phone interview with the author. April 15.Google Scholar
Rouhiainen, Leena. 2006. “The Pilates Method as a Somatic Practice.” Presented at Continuing Dance Culture Dialogues: Southwest Borders and Beyond, The 38th Congress on Research in Dance Annual Conference, Tempe, AZ, November 2–5.Google Scholar
Self, Brian P., Bagley, Anita M., Triplett, Teresa L., and Paulos, Lonnie E.. 1996. “Functional Biomechanical Analysis of the Pilates-based Reformer During Demi-Plié Movements.” Journal of Applied Biomechanics 12: 326–37.Google Scholar
Shilling, Chris. 2003. The Body and Social Theory. 2nd ed.London: Sage Publications.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Siler, Brooke. 2000. The Pilates Body: The Ultimate At-Home Guide to Strengthening, Lengthening, and Toning Your Body—Without Machines. New York: Broadway Books.Google Scholar
Toepfer, Karl. 1997. Empire of Ecstasy: Nudity and Movement in German Body Culture 1910–1935. Berkley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Vieira, Claudiane Brum. 2004. “The Efficacy of the Pilates Method in the Treatment of Knee Osteoarthrosis.” Presented at the Polestar Pilates Conference, Miami, FL, June 9–11.Google Scholar
Wheeler, Roxanne. 2000. Complexion of Race: Categories of Difference in Eighteenth-Century British Culture. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar