Eve Gentry

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Eve Gentry (August 21, 1909^[1] – June 17, 1994 in Santa Fe, New Mexico) was a modern dancer who helped found the Dance Notation Bureau in New York City and later established in 1991 with Joan Breibart and Michele Larsson the Institute for the Pilates Method in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She was an original disciple of Joseph Pilates, and a master teacher of his technique to generations of instructors.

Gentry grew up in San Bernardino, California, and was studying in Los Angeles when Martha Graham saw her perform and offered her a scholarship in New York City. Miss Gentry performed with Hanya Holm's New York company from 1936 to 1942, and later founded her own group, the Eve Gentry Dancers. She danced under the name Henrietta Greenhood until 1945, when she professionally adopted Gentry, her husband's surname.

Her concern for preserving choreography led her to establish the Dance Notation Bureau in New York in 1940, with Ann Hutchinson Guest, Janey Price and Helen Priest Rogers. She was also a charter faculty member of the High School for the Performing Arts.

Persistent back and knee problems led her to investigate, and later teach, a system of physical conditioning devised by Joseph Pilates. She taught "Contrology" at the Pilates Studio in New York from 1938 through 1968. Gentry also taught "Pilates" in the early 1960s at New York University's, Tisch School of the Arts Theater Department. In 1968 she moved to New Mexico, where she established a Pilates Studio on Camino de la Luz and, in 1991, an Institute devoted to the Pilates Method. The first workshop was in October 1991 taught by Gentry using eight Mini-Moves which became the foundation of the Fundamentals which are the signature of the PhysicalMind Institute, the successor to the Institute for the Pilates Method. There are now 28 Fundamentals and they have been copied by most of the subsequent Pilates Certification companies who followed the distribution system originated by Joan Breibart.^{[citation needed]}

She died on June 17, 1994, at her home in Santa Fe. She was 84.

Awards[]

In 1979, she was given the "Pioneer of Modern Dance Award" by Bennington College. She was also deemed a Living Treasure by the State of New Mexico.

References[]