![\"Romana](\"http:\/\/www.pilatesathens.gr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/pelderRomana.jpg\")
Faithfull to Joe\u2019s method
\n<\/b>In my opinion; there wouldn\u2019t be traditional Pilates in the Netherlands without Romana Kryzanowska. Maybe something would exist that would resemble it, but I don\u2019t think Contrology<\/i> would exist. Joseph Pilates initially called his method Contrology<\/i> and that original heritage is what Romana taught the world. She never stopped to pass on Joseph\u2019s original version. She has never deviated from the original and has always remained true to what Joseph has taught her since 1942.<\/p>\n
![\"Romana](\"http:\/\/www.pilatesathens.gr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/1-300x208.jpg\")
Joseph\u2019s biggest fan <\/b>
\nIn 1942 Romana came to Joseph\u2019s Pilates studio for the first time. That same year she got accepted as a dancer to The School of American Ballet;<\/i> George Balanchine\u2019s school. Due to track, Romana was unable to dance anymore. She was 19 years old at that time. After some visits to doctors who couldn\u2019t help her, George Balanchine \u00a0(a client of Joseph himself) \u00a0took her to Joseph\u2019s Contrology-Art-Studio-Pilates of Joseph Pilates. <\/i>\u00a0When she got there, she was ordered not to dance for at least two weeks, and do the assignments Joe had given her instead.\u00a0 She later told her mom she hated the studio. It was an old, dark building and the studio reeked of sweat. She also thought it was odd that this weird, surly and intimidating man had barely looked at her foot. She didn\u2019t want to go back, but her mom made her. But, in no time Romana changed her mind. Not only did her ankle and foot heal, her dancing had improved and so had her stamina. She became Joseph\u2019s biggest fan.<\/p>\n
![\"Romana](\"http:\/\/www.pilatesathens.gr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/0-300x225.jpg\")
Follow in Joseph\u2019s tracks<\/b><\/p>\n
Romana continued to come to the studio as often as she could next to her dance practice, sometimes even twice a day! She mostly worked on the machines, because matclasses were mostly taught to clients that often travelled. She learned all Contrology- techniques and after a year Romana became an assistant and taught classes herself. \u00a0She did not get paid for her services, but she got the knowledge about the method.
\nWhen Romana was 21 she married a wealthy businessman from Peru; Pablo Meija. They decided to move to Peru, which saddened not only Romana\u2019s mother, but Joseph and Clara too. She had became a good friend to them, and also indispensable to their studio. Romana and Pablo had 2 children; Paul and Sari. She always kept in touch with Joseph and Clara, and in 1958 Romana returned to America and started teaching in Joe\u2019s studio again. At that time Joseph and Clara had gotten pretty old, but they still worked in their studio every day. Their friendship became even closer and she called them \u201cUncle Joe\u201d and \u201cAunt Clara\u201d. Together with John Winters Romana started managing the studio. In her copy of\u00a0 \u201cReturn to life through Contrology\u201d*, Joseph wrote that Romana was to be the one to step in his tracks.<\/p>\n
![\"Romana](\"http:\/\/www.pilatesathens.gr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/225548_1061289284776_3853_n-300x200.jpg\")
Romana kept the studio running <\/b>
\nRomana kept working and studying in the studio until Joseph died in 1967. Clara and Romana kept the studio running and in 1970 Romana became the manager of \u2018The Pilates Studio\u2019, which was the name of the studio at that time.
\nAfter Clara died in 1977 Romana kept working in the studio in New York together with her daughter; Sari. They later founded Romana\u2019s Pilates and travelled all over the world to teach other trainers about true Contrology.<\/p>\n
Full commitment<\/b>
\n
\n<\/b>Romana closely watched the level at which exercises were performed. She was very strict. She wouldn\u2019t accept her students doing their exercises halfheartedly. She demanded full dedication, but her sense of humor and her \u201cevery day is a party\u201d- attitude made her a well- loved person. A few trainers even lived with her, where they were able to train with her intensively. Romana continued \u2013 even until she was very old \u2013 to demonstrate the pure Pilatesmethod all around the world; she demonstrated advanced exercises on the Cadillac with ease until she was 80.
\nShe often came to Marjorie Oron\u2019s studio on The Hague to teach Pilates. Her daughter Sari Meija Santo is now in charge to teach Joseph\u2019s heritage to the world.
\n![\"Romana](\"http:\/\/www.pilatesathens.gr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/large_Romana-TX-52958-300x300.jpg\")
<\/b><\/p>\n
It later became apparent that Joseph started a few myths. She never thought it was true that he had been untrue about his age and other things. Javier P\u00e8rez Pont and Esperanza Aparicio Romero wrote the biography about Joseph Pilates \u2013 The Biography; Joseph Hubertus Pilates \u2013 <\/i>at her request. For years she relentlessly asked them to write this book about her hero and this resulted in a bulky and complete work about the life of this genius. The authors, Javier and Esperanza, frequently passed on what they had found out about Joseph\u2019s life to Romana. Romana just couldn\u2019t believe, even though this was proven by clear facts and documents, that Joseph had not always told the truth.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Marjolein van Sonsbeek Romana Kryzanowska was born into a very artistic family on June 30th 1923, in a town near Detroit. She always remained the only child in the family. Without a doubt Romana was the one who remained most loyal of all Elders to Joseph and Clara Pilates. Unfortunately Romana died not … \u0394\u03b9\u03b1\u03b2\u03ac\u03c3\u03c4\u03b5 \u03c0\u03b5\u03c1\u03b9\u03c3\u03c3\u03cc\u03c4\u03b5\u03c1\u03b1 “ROMANA KRYZANOWSKA 1923-2013”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568,564,582],"tags":[873,875,885,901],"class_list":["post-1844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history_en","category-personalities_en","category-pilates_en","tag-history-pilates","tag-pilates-en","tag-pma-pilates","tag-romana-kryzanovska"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pilatesathens.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pilatesathens.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pilatesathens.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pilatesathens.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pilatesathens.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1844"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pilatesathens.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1850,"href":"https:\/\/www.pilatesathens.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1844\/revisions\/1850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pilatesathens.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pilatesathens.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pilatesathens.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}