GYROTONIC

The GYROTONIC EXPANSION SYSTEM® Method was created by Romanian-born Hungarian Juliu Horvath. Juliu Horvath was born in 1942 in Temesvar, Romania.

 

By 21 years old Juliu was a principal dancer for the Romanian National Ballet Company. He ruptured his is Achilles’ tendon bringing his dancing career to a halt. After this injury, Juliu moved back to New York City for a short time, where he began a regular yoga practice.

 

As he got deeper into his movement and meditation practices, he began having profound energetic experiences.  In an effort to learn more about these experiences, he moved to the island of St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands in 1977. There he built a small, one-room hut in the mountains and spent the next six years studying yoga and meditation. During this time he gained new insights into movement and healing, and from these insights he began to create his own unique exercise method.

 

Juliu returned to New York City after his stay on St. Thomas, and in the early 1980’s he began teaching a new movement system that was based on what he had learned in St. Thomas. He called this system “Yoga for Dancers.”

 

Initially Yoga for Dancers was taught at Steps on Broadway and at Juliu’s own location, White Cloud Studio.

 

In the beginning, most of Juliu’s students were professional dancers. As demand for his classes grew, and the diversity of his clientele increased, Juliu refined Yoga for Dancers, creating a class format that almost any person could perform, regardless of age or state of health. He named this refined version of Yoga for Dancers the GYROKINESIS® Method. The original Yoga for Dancers movements are still taught as part of the Gyrokinesis Level 2 Program.

 

At White Cloud Studio, Juliu continued to develop and refine the method he created on St. Thomas. It was here where he began to develop the GYROTONIC® Method, and his world-renowned Gyrotonic equipment. The Gyrotonic and Gyrokinesis Methods quickly gained an international following, becoming popular in Europe, Asia, and Australia, as well as in the USA. The Gyrotonic Expansion System Method has now grown to encompass over 13,000 trainers in 84 countries.