*notcot in playful , 12:58

Lotte Berk Method Imagery- 08.02.09

lotteberk1.jpg What a beautiful Sunday it is! On random inspiration (and i know, i’ve been a bit all over the place finding - or searching - for visual inspiration and feeding my insatiable curiosity just about anywhere lately - thanks for coming along for the ride as i figure things out while posting)… i never thought i’d be posting images from an early 70’s exercise book here! But as i was checking out the pdf of the now out of print (but ebook available) Lotte Berk Method: Exercises for a Vital Body by Lydia Bach, i just couldn’t get over how beautiful and artistic the imagery was ~ from the photography to the illustrations of the muscles… So naturally i had to share!

Oh and for some quick background on how i ended up at this at 3am on a saturday night… well you know how exercise fads come and go… and for some time now both the Exhale and Bar Method classes have been spreading quickly! Toning and strengthening your core and improving flexibility ~ making grown men and women twitch and weep while doing the tiniest of motions ~ giving you long lean muscles through low impact exercises mixing everything from modern ballet to yoga to orthopedic exercises… the Lotte Berk book even focuses on pelvic movements of sex as an influence on core strengthening. So while i was researching these various trends (a friend was recently working on me to come to Exhale classes, and i tried a few Bar Method classes a few years back) - i turns out that many of these “new” method all evolved directly from the Lotte Berk Method from the 70s ~ which was originated by Lotte Berk, a german dancer and teacher who developed the series of exercises to help her own recovery, and continued refining and teaching them in her studio in the UK, where Lydia Bach (author of the book) discovered her, loved her methods and licensed her name and methods, bringing them to the US. The internet says that the Exhale and Bar Method founder even came from running/teaching at Lotte Berk studios, so its no surprise that they are evolutions of the same methods from the 70s. Anyhow, that was my little random research last night ~ take a peek at the images on the next page!

p.s.
loving the workouts to slip into workaholic days with too much time spent at the computers…

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2 Notes

Yes, Bar Method is derived from Lotte Berk. Bar Method founder Burr Leonard wrote on this evolution in one of her blogs: http://blog.barmethod.com/ExerciseBlogBarMethodcom/?Tag=lotte+berk She also writes great blogs on core strengthening and body sculpting moves like the pictures of Lydia Bach above, who we met in the early 80’s.
Thanks for a great article and beautiful photos.
Mimi
Mimi Fleischman,
Director
Bar Method LA
(and sister of Burr Leonard)

----- Mimi Fleischman 03.08.09 19:15

it’s okay. retro-posting is fine by me. i agree, very beautiful.

----- Kelley 02.08.09 19:42


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