Kathleen Stanford Grant 8/1/1921 - 5/27/2010
Kathy Grant passed away on Thursday, just shy of her 90th birthday. A legendary teacher and direct lineage holder from Joseph Pilates, her contribution to the Pilates community is immeasurable.
Starting out as dancer, Kathy Grant began teaching 1957 when she was one of only two people to ever receive a certification to teach directly from Joseph Pilates. Since 1988, Kathy Grant was based at NYU, Tisch School of the Arts where she taught a year long Pilates course. Known for her strength, and devotion to the precision of the Pilates method, Kathy Grant also touched, and changed, the lives of many students through private instruction and workshops around the country.
Kathy Grant is among a small group of instructors, known as Pilates Elders, who studied directly with Joseph Pilates. As I contemplate her passing, I am deeply touched by the tremendous gift that the Elders, like Kathy Grant, have given us. We would not have the Pilates Method at all if not for them.
A newsletter from the PMA says Kathy Grant was especially interested in the environment and the well being of animals, as well as the arts. Her family suggests that contributions to charities associated with those causes would be appropriate in memory of her. Cards and letters can be sent to: Bridge Pilates, 68 Jay St. #225, Brooklyn, NY 11201. Funeral or memorial plans have not yet been made.
Please feel free to add your memories of Kathy Grant to the comments below.
I began studying pilates with Kathy Grant in 1980, when she was still in the old Henri Bendel’s on West 57th Street. She was an excellent teacher and a wonderful person. Over the years that I worked with her I learned how to do pilates, its history and of course all the wonderful anecdotes she told as we worked out, first at Bendel’s and then at NYU. I still think about what she taught me and expect all pilates instructors to come up to her standards. She was also lively, funny and warm. I will miss her.
Our Pilates world is a little emptier now.
We’ll be celebrating her life and legacy every time we teach with the passion we have learned and inherited from the Elders.
We are so lucky to have their influence!
Thank you Kathy Grant.
Rest in peace and keep dancing graciously beyond the clouds!
I too, worked with Kathy at Henri Bendel’s and for years after at Tisch. watching the dancers file into Bendel’s was quite comical…we did stand out.
Kathy terrified, inspired, cured injuries, trained, brought women and men to tears… hung me upside down when i was pregnant …kept me strong…she would work with me for hours…i would leave knees shaking …but she saved me and many others… i loved her stories of Paris in the 50s’ i loved watching her pounce on new students..who did not follow her distinct protocol .. she knew and taught me more about Pilates Technique than anyone ever could because she KNEW EVERY exercise and some… I did not know she passed away until yesterday.. ..i regret loosing touch… I miss her…but i will never forget her.
I studied with Kathy in New York for three years. She was 71 at the time.
I was a dancer, studying and teaching Alexander Technique and getting heavily into Pilates at the time. I remember working with Kathy on some of the advanced exercises. I was inspired by the way she would use all sorts of small tools and techniques to create even movement and strengthen the weaker side of the body.
I was amazed when I struggled mightily in my 20’s at the peak of my physical training and strength to complete an exercise only to have Kathy tell me to get off the machine and then demonstrate the movement with complete ease — at 73! Any and all of the exercises!
Oh, I have missed her! In the intervening years, I’ve had a number of children (who are learning Pilates now) and have been inspired to open my Pilates business again. I remember Kathy, tell stories about her often and am still inspired by what she taught me.