Bess Mensendieck
Bess Mensendieck was an American physician and gymnastics teacher of Dutch descent who developed the Mensendieck System, a therapeutic teaching methodology for female physical education claimed to be both corrective and preventive. She was one of the most important founders of early breathing and physical pedagogy in Europe and America.
Mensendieck published several books on the subject starting with the German publication titled Körperkultur des Weibes with practical hygienic and aesthetic tips, 1906.
Life
Mensendieck grew up in New York City and studied medicine in Zurich. To complete her practical knowledge of movement, posture, and breathing, she took singing lessons in Paris and continued to study gymnastics with Genevieve Stebbins in New York. Here she also learned the movement systems of François Delsarte and the Swedish remedial gymnastics of Pehr Henrik Ling.Her particular concern was the improvement of posture and muscle structure of the women of her time. Based on her medical background, she built her gymnastics according to the Mensendieck system strictly on the anatomical and physiological findings of the time. The focus of the bodywork was again and again on the self-perception of posture and movement. To effectively demonstrate the exercise techniques and change in physical postures, she included a series of photos showing herself nude before, during, and after three months of training in her German book Körperkultur des Weibes, illustrating what can be achieved with her training. Mensendieck believed that nudity was fundamental in enhancing women's body consciousness, which motivated all activity that made the female body strong, healthy, and beautiful. However, because of the nude content, her published work was not equally accessible in the same way in all countries.
Mensendieck's books had a pervasive influence on German women instructors of gym classes into the 1930s. She taught her "Mensendieck System" mainly in Europe. In 1910 the first institute for the training of gymnastics teachers was founded. After the First World War, Mensendieck left Europe, worked mostly in New York, and gave annual training courses in Germany and Denmark. She spent the summer months in her Norwegian summer house. In the 1950s she lived in Copenhagen for a few years and eventually moved back to New York.
Mensendieck also worked on the German documentary film Wege zu Kraft und Schönheit, a silent black and white cultural film about the Weimar Republic directed by Wilhelm Prager released in 1925, which aimed to show the place of the body in modern society in which both men and women were not caring enough about their physical health.