MASTERS OF THE METHOD
Powerhouse
From Ballerina to
Businesswoman
In their fascinating new book, The Pilates Effect, Stacey Redfield and Sarah W. Holmes chronicle how the method grew from one small studio to a worldwide phenomenon, with the help of a dedicated group of teachers we now know as the Elders. Here, the little-known, awe-inspiring story of Carola Trier. C A R O L A T R I E R S AT O N T H E F LO O R I N H E R N E W YO R K C I T Y P I L AT E S S T U D I O O N W E S T 5 8 T H S T R E E T, C H AT T I N G I N T I M AT E LY W I T H O N E O F HER CLIENTS WHO HAD JUST FINISHED HER W O R KO U T. It was late in the day and the studio was
Excerpted from The Pilates Effect, by Stacey Redfield and Sarah W. Holmes, foreword by Kevin Bowen. Copyright © 2019. Published by Red Lightning Books. Reprinted with permission. To order, go to redlightningbooks.com/ pilates-effect.
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still packed with clients, mainly dancers, all focused on their routines under the watchful eye of Carola and her two assistant teachers. Carola’s hair was neatly coiffed, and she was dressed in her standard uniform—a black leotard and tights. Now well into her fifties, Carola slowly and effortlessly placed her right foot behind her head and stood up as if it were nothing. Balancing on one leg, she looked around the crowded studio, where everyone’s eyes were wide with amazement, and without missing a beat said, “You think this is something, you should try it on roller skates.” Carola never spoke at any length about her past. She preferred not to relive it. Most knew her only as a Pilates teacher. But every now and then she allowed herself to recall the devastating events of her early life. Thankfully, Carola kept detailed records of her experience; these are archived at the Leo Baeck Institute and the New York Public Library. Within hundreds of pages and dozens of boxes live the stories of Carola Strauss Trier, telling of her life of self-preservation, determination, success and failure; of the profound effect Joseph Pilates’s exercises had on her; and of how she came to be the first to teach the Pilates method outside the flagship studio on Eighth Avenue.
A PRIVILEGED CHILDHOOD
Carola was born in 1913, the daughter of a wealthy German-Jewish family. Her parents didn’t believe in spoiling their children. Still, Carola went to the best private schools. There was a staff to care for
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the house; a governess to raise her and her sister, Elisabeth; and summers in Switzerland with her family. Carola wanted to be a dancer almost as soon as she was able to walk. While her mother performed with the famous Isadora Duncan, dancing wasn’t part of her parents’ design for her. Carola was considered too skinny and ugly by society’s standards. She was sickly and awkward and hardly possessed the grace and poise of a dancer. But she had earned her reputation as a stubborn child—a true brat when she didn’t get her way. At her parents’ annual holiday soirée, Carola hit the dance floor, giving an impressive performance. Her parents had no choice but to let Carola dance.
WILL DANCE FOR FOOD Carola studied at the Laban School in Germany, even though she hated the politics of its founder, Rudolf von Laban, and two and half years later graduated with a certificate as a professional dancer. But finding work was demoralizing for a dancer who was expected to perform topless if she wanted the job. Most performances paid little if any money. Carola was reluctant to give up her dream of touring Europe as a ballet dancer. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a demand for that style of dancing and zero money to be made. Her uncle Walter would tell her, “You have to give the people what they want to see,” and in the 1930s that was a revue-style show known as vaudeville. Carola invested in 10 days of tap dance lessons, enough to get the attention of a producer who wanted Carola as his dance partner. Then Hitler came into power, making it impossible for Jewish performers to work. For the next five years, “Roli” Strauss did her best to stay out of Germany. After a tour of Paris ended, she took whatever jobs she could to avoid going PIL AT E SS T YLE .COM
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These photographs are produced with permission from Jillian Hessel's posters of Carola Trier, available at jillianhessel.com.
home, where Jews were banned from performing onstage. As long as she could convince someone to give her a work permit, she was safe. She did manage to avoid being caught by the Germans, but her desperation for work led her to a series of sometimes unfortunate and at other times humorous events. For instance, a job escorting a troupe of dwarves through Germany was a complete fiasco and almost ended in their arrest for insulting the Führer.
GIVE THEM WHAT THEY WANT
The top-paying act on the club circuit was a group of contortionists managed by Marcel Neydorff. Carola’s act, made up of “tricks,” needed some freshening up if she wanted to avoid being sent back to Germany. Marcel was hesitant to work with Carola, who was already in her twenties—not an ideal age to learn contortionism—but he agreed. She practiced daily perfecting her tricks until she wasn’t just a better contortionist but was the best. Putting the act on roller skates was her idea. With her manager, Marcel, now her fiancé, Carola headlined the performing circuit as “Roli Strauss— The Roller Skating Contortionist!” Now famous and touring Europe, she was able to cross borders without question. Still, as a safeguard, Carola would deliberately leave her passport, stamped with a big red J identifying her as a Jew, with a friend and relied on her celebrity and Marcel’s bribes to the border guards to avoid arrest. Carola assumed that she would be safe from the Germans as long as she stayed in Paris with Marcel. In 1940, Germany’s abrupt occupation of Paris took everyone by surprise. Streets were filled with police barking orders through megaphones; anyone who wasn’t a French citizen was remanded to the downtown arena. Carola took two blankets, enough food for three days, her roller skates and a small suitcase. Marcel insisted that she wear a sweat suit, the warmest thing she owned, and her sturdiest shoes. Before entering the arena, she was given a brief medical examination, her belongings were searched, and she was told to grab an empty sack to fill with straw, which would suffice as a bed. In a matter of days, the once highly privileged child was arrested, processed and assigned to a concentration camp in Gurs in the south of France. The air in Gurs was filled with a heavy odor, a combination of human waste and death. The constant echoing of the PA system filled the stale, putrid air with harsh instructions, directives and penalties for noncompliance. There was no running water, and the bathroom consisted of an old feed trough for animals. The stench was overwhelming. The food ration was one piece of bread a day. Carola learned to faint on cue to swindle a second piece. Her only sanity came from her daily workout.
The best plan for Carola was to try to get to America, where her parents lived in New York City. That wasn’t so easy, as there were quotas in place denying her passage.
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France surrendered to Nazi Germany in June 1940. Some of the prisoners at Gurs were released and some deported to Germany. After weeks in the camp, Carola was issued release papers. Marcel was waiting for her just outside of the camp gates with only his bicycle. Carola clung to him for dear life as they sped down the hill, Marcel pedaling as fast as he could. Once far enough from the camp, the two managed to hitch a ride in the back of a pickup truck. They took refuge at a farm, where Carola caught her first glimpse of what remained of her emaciated body in the mirror. She stared at her skin, dark brown from the sun, and understood why the other prisoners at Gurs called her the “Burnt Bone”—and then she fainted. The best plan for Carola was to try to get to America, where her parents lived in New York City. That wasn’t so easy, as there were quotas in place denying her passage. The only way for Carola to leave France would be with the help of the Hebrew Immigration Aid Society, and this would take more time, money and paperwork. After months of delays, Carola finally received her travel papers to leave France. She packed her Hartmann trunk with the memories of her life as a performer: her elaborate custom-made costumes dripping with crystals, whatever clothes she had, a few personal items and of course, her skates. Saying goodbye to Marcel was difficult. They spoke of reuniting after the war, but they both knew deep down that they would never see each other again.
A NOBODY IN AMERICA The trip to America was excruciating. Carola first boarded a ship in Marseille headed to Oran [Algeria], where she boarded a train that would take her to Casablanca. There she was herded into a camp. Several days later, Carola finally boarded the SS Nyassa heading to America. The voyage was stressful. Carola was in third class—no frills—and her roommate was a miserable old woman who died a few days into the voyage. Carola was given special permission to practice her roller-skating routine on the first-class level of the ship, which gave her some relief from the misery on the decks below. The crew found her act entertaining and would give her food to show their appreciation, which she would share with her fellow passengers in the bottom of the ship. The ship finally chugged into Baltimore Harbor without even so much as a sign welcoming the passengers to America. Finally on August 3, 1942, she boarded a train to New York City. Her once athletic dancer’s body was now an emaciated skeleton weighing only 87 pounds.
STARTING OVER
In New York, Carola soon established herself on the club circuit as “Miss Carola, the Ballerina on Skates” and began touring the country. Eventually the years of stress that Carola had put on her body began to show. It had been brought to its limits physically, emotionally and spiritually and it finally started to give out on her. Yet Carola continued to push herself as a performer, still giving the audience what it wanted, risking injury to stay on top. In Boston she accidentally roller-skated off the front of the stage and landed in someone’s lap. She was obviously injured but never let it show and instead led the audience to believe that it was part of her act. PIL AT E SS T YLE .COM
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Finally, an audition at Radio City Music Hall required her to do a trick where she twisted in midair and landed in a split, which was a feat in and of itself, except Carola was performing it on roller skates. A slight bend of the knee caused her to tear the ligaments in her knee, and she was forced to forfeit her appearance to tend to her injury. Two of Carola’s dancer friends insisted that she go see Joseph Pilates. He took one look at it and said, “It hurts, but it’s not so much.” He started her on the Reformer with only one spring (the standard is three to four) until she learned how to control her movements. Carola didn’t understand Mr. Pilates, as she referred to him. What did he mean that she had no control? From years of acrobatics, Carola’s body no longer had limits. Her ligaments were overstretched, meaning that her muscles weren’t in control of her movements. Joe would bark his disapproval at her, saying, “You have no natural animal control.” As a professional acrobat, Carola didn’t like hearing the criticism, but she knew that he was right. Carola worked with Joe continuously even after she had healed enough to return to the stage. Fearing another injury, Carola committed to a daily routine of exercise, including one using one of Joe’s springs that she could hang on a doorknob to keep her knee strong. Her body was able to keep performing until 1950, when a back injury told her that it was time to hang up her skates for good.
OPEN FOR BUSINESS Carola married Edgar Trier, moved into the apartment on West 58th Street, and retired from dancing. Her passion for the human body, spurred by her experience with Pilates exercises, inspired her to study anatomy, physiology and massage. Carola worked as a teacher with Joe for almost 10 years before she approached him about having a studio of her own. She liked the therapeutic effect that Pilates’s exercise had for rehabilitating injuries and was interested in a practice that would be specific to the needs of dancers. Although Pilates’s method had been responsible for saving dozens of dancers’ careers over the years, he didn’t enjoy working with them as much as the more macho male athletes. He felt that the dancers distorted his work, so he was happy to send them to Carola. The idea of a woman owning a business in the 1960s was virtually nonexistent. But Carola had already made a name for herself through her tenure at Pilates’s studio, working with the patients—
Carola worked as a teacher with Joe for almost 10 years before she approached him about having a studio of her own. She liked the therapeutic effect that Pilates’s exercise had for rehabilitating injuries and was interested in a practice that would be specific to the needs of dancers. 86
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primarily dancers—sent to her by Dr. Henry Jordan, head of orthopedic surgery at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City, who had endorsed Joe Pilates’s work for many years. Carola’s studio was set up in the front room of her apartment. Now on her own turf, she was able to teach more freely. While Pilates struggled to make his method easy to understand, Carola translated Joe’s method into dance terminology, making it easier to communicate with her clients. Where Joe would say, “Lift your heels,” Carola substituted “relevé.” “Bend your knees” was clearer to dancers when Carola would ask them to “plié.” Carola was the first to establish a progressive system to teach the Pilates method. Her teaching was much different from Joe’s—for instance, she wouldn’t throw a client out of the studio for failing to remember the exercises. She remembered her own frustration and the need to read between the lines in order to understand what Joe wanted her to do. What was innate in Joe wasn’t always obvious to others. So Carola created a foundation for teaching the Pilates method that Joe neglected to establish. Whereas Joe would give clients the “once-over” to evaluate their physical deficiencies, Carola would show them. Each client started with a confrontational look at his or her posture. She would roll out a full-size mirror, stand a person in front of it, and start pointing out the imbalances in their posture. She would look to see if clients were equally weighted on their feet, if their arches were lifted, or if they leaned forward. She looked for legs that were bowed, knees that knocked together, or hyperextension of the joints. Did the hips tilt forward, or were they tucked under? Did the back sway, did the ribs push forward, were the shoulders level? Once clients were familiar with everything that was wrong with their posture, it was time to learn how to breathe properly, inhaling through the nose and exhaling completely, over and over again, until breathing had been executed to Carola’s satisfaction. Then she would begin to teach clients a routine of exercises specific to their physical needs. At the end of each workout, Carola preferred that clients spend a few minutes on her couch, strategically located next to her desk. Carola led them to believe that they should take a moment to rest before jumping back into the hustle and bustle of New York life. But actually it was a chance to make sure that no one got out of the door without being paid up and their next appointment confirmed. It wasn’t long before her studio was packed full of prima ballerinas, actresses, conductors, lawyers, designers and other New York City trendsetters, all in desperate need of Pilates. Word traveled quickly, and soon she had more clients than she could handle. Joe Pilates was jealous of Carola’s success, accomplishing what he couldn’t after more than 30 years in business. Still, he supported her studio, sending one of his teachers when she was overwhelmed with clients. She started a photographic archive of the mat and Reformer exercises and had the mat exercises transcribed in labanotation and bound in a leather book, which she presented to him for his eightieth birthday. She did what she could to bring attention to his work through her contacts in the medical community, but Joe was a suspicious and untrusting man, so nothing ever came of it.
Carola knew how to run a business and led by example, complimenting her clients, encouraging them, making them laugh. She structured her payments so that multiple lessons were paid up front, almost guaranteeing a return to the studio. Her studio was immaculate and well maintained, down to the bar of soap in the shower that was never allowed to be under a certain size.
THE MORAL OF THE STORY
Carola lived out her dream as a performer, and while never a classical ballerina, she rose to stardom in her own way. Only Carola had the chutzpah to tour through Europe as a Jew, rollerskating under the noses of the German police. Her humor was captivating, her courage inspiring. Two weeks after Carola left France, the Germans invaded the free zone, and the Jews in hiding were sent to Auschwitz. Her roommate and best friend, Hede, died in Auschwitz. Her fiancé, Marcel, joined the French Resistance and was eventually arrested
in Cannes and turned over to the Germans. Interrogated and brutally tortured by the German police, he was sent to a labor camp and later died. Carola eventually learned that the friends who had bravely helped her escape were killed by the Germans. Having survived one of the most devastating experiences in history, Carola continued to prevail. She found in the Pilates method not only a source of empowerment and personal preservation for her body but also a way to help save countless dance careers. Her presence facilitated changes in the Pilates repertoire as she worked to meet the needs of injured bodies. Her innate compassion for the injured was considerable. While she could have chosen to keep the Pilates method quiet, limiting it to a personal practice, she instead structured the work to disseminate it to the masses—and created an industry. PS Carola Trier passed away in 2000 at the age of 87. PIL AT E SS T YLE .COM
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