In honor of Women’s History Month, BET.com’s “How She Built This” series is delving into the stories of Black women who’ve both shifted culture and built a lasting legacy in the process.

​This week, the spotlight is on Kathy Stanford Grant, the dancer, choreographer, and the person responsible for Pilates going “mainstream.”

In case you missed it, there have been numerous discussions around how Pilates — the full-body, low-impact workout that focuses on building core-strength, flexibility, and posture — is often marketed to white women. Rightfully so, as studios often lack diversity, and one scroll on TikTok yields numerous stories about Black women feeling unwelcome in Pilates studios.

Though thanks to a new crop of Black-owned Pilates studios and Black instructors, the tide is shifting. But long before Pilates exploded on TikTok and was name-dropped in Kanye’s “The New Workout Plan,” there was Kathy Stanford Grant.

As a Black dancer-turned-choreographer-turned-Godmother of Modern Pilates, she pushed the workout method out of elite studios and toward the broader, more diverse audience now flocking to reformers and mats worldwide. Here’s how it all began…

Born Kathleen Brown in Boston on August 1, 1921, she grew up obsessed with dance at a time when mainstream stages were off-limits to Black performers. As a teen, she earned a scholarship to the Boston Conservatory of Music and is widely cited as the first Black student to study classical ballet there in the early 1930s. This barrier-breaking set the course for her life thereafter.

​After Boston, Grant moved to New York City and danced in Harlem clubs like Zanzibar and Club Ebony before eventually landing roles in Broadway shows including “Finian’s Rainbow” and “Kiss Me, Kate.”

​Grant toured the world — from Europe and the Middle East, to Africa, and South America — and built a successful career as a performer and choreographer. Though the work was demanding and the toll it took on her body not only impacted her career but also the future of Pilates.

Around 1954, a devastating knee injury led to surgery and a long, painful recovery that threatened her dancing career. Little did Grant know that this life-changing injury wasn’t a setback — it was a redirection for the greater good.

​A fellow dancer recommended her to a then–little-known conditioning studio run by Joseph Pilates, a German trainer, who worked with dancers, boxers, and soldiers in New York. Her training in his studio helped her regain strength and mobility and turned what could have been a career-ending setback into a new beginning.​

She didn’t just recover and walk away; Grant immersed herself in the method and became one of only two people worldwide formally certified to teach the practice.​

As a teacher, Grant ran various programs, but it was running the Pilates program at New York’s Henri Bendel department store, where she worked with a mix of affluent clients and professional dancers, that put her on the map. She later taught in Harlem and eventually joined the faculty at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in 1988, bringing Pilates to generations of student dancers and non-dancers. Her classes became a lifeline for injured performers and everyday people dealing with pain, long before “injury prevention” became a fitness buzzword.

She took the reins of the practice and found ways to connect to students by using her own “Kathy-isms” and sequences. This made the practice more down-to-earth and less intimidating to everyday people.

She died in 2010, at 88, leaving behind a community of teachers who still reference her methods in class. Grant shaped modern Pilates into what it is today. Writers and scholars are increasingly pointing back to Grant as a central figure in the practice’s evolution. Her story and her career are a reminder that this wellness trend sits on the shoulders of a Black woman who pushed forward despite the odds.

Learn more about Grant's extraordinary life in dance and Pilates in the documentary below.