The Fletcher Perspective

Still vibrant and opinionated at 90, this first-generation teacher opens up about his experiences with Joe and Clara, his career and what he’s learned in 60 years of Pilates. Pilates Style was recently fortunate enough to catch up with Ron Fletcher. And when you’re talking about Ron Fletcher, the term “catch up” is both figurative…

IN TODAY’S CELEBRITY-DRIVEN culture, Pilates–a style of body conditioning that’s been around since the 1930s–is enjoying new popularity. Most instructors working today are not old enough to have studied directly with Joseph Pilates and his wife, Clara, although there are a few, including 82-year-old Run Fletcher, a lively and still-limber man who studied with Martha Graham…

By Kyria Sabin While there are many valid forms of conscious breathing that support different forms of movement and relaxation, Pilates teachers emphasize posterior-lateral breathing over other techniques. Cues like “breathe laterally” and “breathe into the back” are common. Uncommon are the WHY and HOW. The Whys of Posterior-Lateral Breathing The four basic “whys” are…

‘Pilates is an art’ Ron Fletcher was one of Joseph Pilates’ original students, and is largely responsible for popularising what Pilates called ‘body contrology’. He tells Alice Wignall why he is exasperated that people still mistake the system for an exercise routine. An estimated 12 million people around the world practise Pilates. Conceived and developed…

“It’s a fine feeling when a teacher can reap and enjoy the gratification of seeing the progressive change in a student who has been surely and carefully taught.” – Ron Fletcher A top-flight dancer and Hollywood choreographer during the 1940s and 50s, Ron Fletcher began his Pilates odyssey over five decades ago. One of the…

Ron Fletcher, one of the great visionaries of the Pilates world, passed away December 6, 2011. He had a Hill Country connection in that he spent his final years at home in nearby Stonewall, TX, where he came to know and love Gail Sears, local fitness guru and founder of both The Center for Fitness…

One afternoon in 1971, Pilates master Ron Fletcher was teaching a class in his original studio on the corner of Rodeo Drive and Wilshire Blvd. in Beverly Hills. He asked his students to lift their arms evenly overhead. In attempting this simple movement, recalls Ron, “They made 180 different designs with their bodies, all of…

Google “Ron Fletcher” and you’ll turn up an impressive resume that tells ofa successful dance career and collaborations with Hollywood luminaries like Marilyn Monroe and Marlene Dietrich. You’ll also finnd accounts of his injury, which led him to a lifechanging encounter with Joseph Pilates – a visionary who advocated a radical approach to fitness and…

When Ron Fletcher sin’t relaxing at his Stonewall, Texas ranch, the curriculum director of the prestigious Ron Fletcher Program of Study is traveling the glove to share a wealth of knowledge in his sought-after methods of Towelwork, Floorwork, Percussive Breath and movement-philosophies.  At a youthful 87, Fletcher continues to play a principal role in the…