The magic of movement through GYROTONIC®history

What is the history of the GYROTONIC® Method?

How did it develop and grow? 

Coming across  the history of the equipment and method video brought back memory when I first time met Juliu Horvath during my examination workshop in 2007.  I loved his easy approach and this depth of body knowledge. But let me tell you about the history.  

It all began in 1980 in St. Thomas when Juliu Horvath was teaching Yoga for dancers, which in time became the GYROKINESIS ® method. At the same time a woman who had undergone shoulder surgery came to see him as she was not getting results from the exercises prescribed by doctors which were simple ball squeezing exercises. Juliu developed an exercise routine for her including walking her fingers up, down and sideways on a wall, then introduced circular movement in her rehabilitation program. Commencing with a nail in the wall with a string attached so that she could make small symmetrical circles, which gradually were increasing in size, making her movements larger. These exercises being close chain exercises made her movements more precise. This accuracy would become very important in later years when Juliu began creating the equipment.

It is important to mention that Juliu was grounded in movement — in addition to creating Yoga for Dancers, he had been a gymnast, a swimmer, and a ballet dancer in his earlier years.

Several years later when Juliu was living and working in New York City from his White Cloud Studio, teaching yoga for dancers, he happened to find two discarded barstools on the street, a thought crossed his mind that he can use them in movement. Moving the barstool seats around, immediately figure 8’s were born, he then began wondering how to transfer these learnings into a machine. Old experience from St. Thomas with the string in the wall flashed in front of his eyes.

The imagination process and creation started in his head and through different scenarios with the two stools in between a door frame for his hands, or on the floor for his legs, the whole thing came together to be one piece. After a few months an idea formed, then he went to Canal Street in Lower Manhattan in search of salvaged or discarded parts and pieces from this and that to build his first piece of equipment. When he had commenced building and seeing the movements that were possible he then added the jumping board. Jumping is the most important element in dancing. He created a platform that rolled back and forth on skate wheels and against the wall to push away, then added some springs to pull the platform back, creating a jumping scenario. This also exercised the legs that allowed for full extension of movement for long and lean legs and didn’t make for short, bulky legs like traditional machines found in a gym do. This first leg extension unit was made completely of things he’d found on the street — nothing was purchased.

Eventually, these three elements came together to create Juliu’s first patents — the Jumping Stretching Board, Leg Extension Unit, and the Gyrotoner. After numerous variations this equipment became what it is today.

The birth of the Pulley Tower

Juliu had no formal training in engineering or building. When he began building he only had a jig saw, a rasp and sandpaper. After experimenting and learning from his work, he became very handy and began to expand the tools he used. His creation continued with the intention to provide solutions for the needs he had identified. The idea formed to put rings on the wall and floor, placing two wheels on the top with an added string for a pulley-like action, thus imitating the exercises he would have done with the rings pulling back-and-forth. To stop the weights jumping and falling he created a transition with a triple loop to make the weight move slower when he moved fast, allowing for a shorter range of strings to make long movements. This is how the Pulley Tower was born.

The Pulley Tower has proportions like a human body. The middle is the spine, the two moving elements and cables represent the arms, and the legs are the support, representing human legs. The curvatures were intentional and built to be beautiful.

Juliu’s deep experiences with movement orientation and understanding the body, where it needs and wants to move formed what became the Gyrotonic Expansion System. In other words, the equipment was built to facilitate the movement he was experiencing in his body.

Juliu built about 400 Machines by hand in his living room as he couldn’t afford to have both a living and a working space. He had two helpers who were brothers from Poland, and their father worked in the building where Juliu’s workshop was located. They did not speak English, so communication would be with hands and feet and through grimacing, but surprisingly it worked really well according to Juliu. Dancers would help him in the workshop trading Gyrokinesis classes for help. To Juliu, learning how to work with the body on the wood meant the students would learn how to work their bodies and gain sensitivity when working with others to notice things including imitations in a persons movements and why this is occurring.

Photo by Bianka Tuzèe

Dancers and non dancers in the Gyrotonic Expansion System

Originally, the entire method was created for dancers, eventually word spread of the benefits and non-dancers started coming to Juliu’s studio. The exercises required modification for their needs. Next people with injuries also began to come to him and the system had to be adjusted again. It is important to mention that with an injury in the general population the emphasis was always placed back on people and whether they were willing to put the time and effort in to achieve their goals. Julio had a belief that after understanding what each individual wanted to obtain, be it strength, flexibility, agility or something else, he could recount how much time they needed to achieve those desired outcomes according to what he saw in their bodies and movement. Those who agreed to do the work got good results and the methods began to grow outside of the dancer population.

I agree that the use of the equipment has taken people’s work to a new depth and better understanding of the movements.

Everything has the inside and outside. The outside movement creates the inside effect and the inside movement creates the outside effect.

Photo by Bianka Tuzèe