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While studying at the Graham School on East 63rd Street and at the Finis Jhung Studio on 77th and Broadway, I met a dancer who kept talking about this new type of training she was getting. She was amazed at how strong she had become from it and swore her teacher was extraordinary.

I won’t name the year.

She told me that her teacher had a small studio in the penthouse of Bendel’s — for the younger ones, Henri Bendel’s was a privately owned, high-end boutique department store on East 57th Street. Geraldine Stutz,  fashion visionary and Bendel's President loved these classes, called Pilates, and created a tiny studio in the penthouse.

The instructor was Kathy Grant, who had trained directly with Joe Pilates throughout her diverse and remarkable dance career. Kathy worked with a small, selected group of dancers. My friend was one of them and convinced me to try this technique. She offered to ask Kathy if she might consider taking on another student.

The acceptance process depended entirely on Kathy’s impression of you — and I was hesitant. Tiny, muscular, and abrupt, Kathy was terrifying. And brilliant. That meeting began my years with her, first in Bendel’s and then at the Tisch School at NYU, continuing through my marriage, pregnancy, and well beyond.

Her sessions could last for hours. She taught me my weaknesses and my strengths. Kathy was a force of nature; the elevator man at Tisch used to call her “General Grant.” Over those years, she told me stories about her career, the legendary choreographers she knew, and her life as a dancer of color in Paris in the 1950s.

I felt she trusted who I was becoming. She came to my daughter’s birthday parties. I was blessed to know her — and blessed by the technique she passed on to me.