Passing the Torch: Debra Rose on the Legacy and Future of San Francisco GYROTONIC®

Blog Content Interviews // April 10, 2025

Debra Rose shares her journey with San Francisco GYROTONIC®, a studio that has played a foundational role in the global Gyrotonic community. She reflects on its nearly 40-year evolution—from a small space with limited equipment to an established studio housing a historic collection of early Gyrotonic equipment models. In this conversation, Debra discusses her experiences learning from Gyrotonic creator Juliu Horvath, the development of the method and its equipment, and the importance of adaptation and teamwork, especially during the challenges of the pandemic. She also shares her pride in the studio’s legacy and her decision to pass it on to one of her Trainers, ensuring its continued growth under new ownership.

Debra’s Introduction to the Gyrotonic Method

My best friend, Catherine Oppenheimer, introduced me to the Gyrotonic Method, and I loved it immediately. I had been looking for something because I was at the School of American Ballet [in NYC], and I got the same evaluation every year. I have talent, I have physique, but I’m not strong enough for a career in dance. That’s what they told me every year. They wouldn’t say, you should do this, or we suggest that, they just would say, “We just don’t think you’re strong enough to have a career.” I went to the YMCA and tried to lift weights. I would run around on this track that was up there. There was a rowing machine. I did all kinds of stuff. Then, my girlfriend brought me to one of Juliu’s classes on 29th Street. I just totally loved it and have loved it ever since.

Nora Heiber and I built the [San Francisco GYROTONIC®] studio together. She is also a Master Trainer. We grew up together. I like to work out in the morning before class. Nora likes to work out in the evening after finishing rehearsal. She irons her body out from the day. I get myself ready for the day. That’s just one of the quintessential ways in which we’ve worked together so perfectly.

There are a group of people who have all worked with Juliu, intensively, for a long period of time, that are all still in this studio and in this area. 30 – 40. There have been two generations of the core group, which is an amazing thing to see. The evolutions of the training became what we know as the foundation training. Then, there was a final certificate course, all these pieces of how the whole educational system came to be. Somehow, I just stayed throughout the whole time.

 

The beginnings of Gyrotonic movement on the West Coast

When I moved to San Francisco 40 years ago, I was telling people about Gyrotonic exercise and asking people to get a piece of equipment here so that I could still work out and play on it. I felt that it was really going to help me in my dance career. Mikko Nissinen, who is the Artistic Director at the Boston Ballet, was a principal with San Francisco Ballet at the time. He had a Pulley Tower in his house. I was using that, and I was still talking to people about it.

One day, Dr. John Deroy (a doctor who works with Lines Dance Company) told me he wanted to check it out. Not only I had told him about it, but also Nora had been telling him about it (unbeknownst to either of us). This doctor went to New York, met Juliu, bought a piece of equipment, and asked Juliu to come out to San Francisco to teach.

I don’t know how, but it ended up that Juliu stayed at my house when he came to teach. My house was like a crash pad. Everybody would stay at my house. It’s kind of still the same today. The whole company was with us on the first day, and I think none of us realized that in his mind, Juliu wanted to help us become trainers and open a studio.

 

Evolution of Method

 

Juliu came out, every year, to San Francisco for a decade to train us. It was over that period that he started giving us more responsibilities; certain things to Nora, certain things to me. It just grew and grew. I remember the first time somebody came up to me after Juliu’s first visit and said, “Do you work in that room over there, and can I try it?” I was like, “Oh… okay.” After the session they asked, “How much do I owe you?”

That was the first moment I realized I could make money, even training with Juliu and all of that stuff, that part didn’t occur to me. Then I started having regular clients every week. It was phenomenal to help somebody grow, change and evolve. To see Nora, and for her to see me, how we evolved not just within the system but in our dance careers.

It was under Dr. DeRoy’s umbrella that we did things for a good period of time. Every year he and I would meet and say, “Oh, we made some money. What do you want to do with this?” It wasn’t that much money, but it was enough to buy another piece of equipment. Little by little,  slowly we acquired more and more equipment, and more and more trainers.

One of the early courses that Juliu taught was on the Pulley Tower, the Leg Extension Unit, the Jumping-Stretching Board, and the GYROTONER®. I worked with everybody on those pieces of equipment for a year. Then Juliu came back again and worked with all of us. Some people had questions. We looked at how the movements were in our bodies. After the second day he says to us “I think I want to change it. I think it should be a separate course for each piece of equipment.” I was like, “Yeah, that’s a great idea!”

We came back the next day and he says, “Okay, you guys. So, this is what we’re going to have. A separate course for each piece of equipment.” Some people are like, “Wow, that’s a great idea!” But some people wondered, “What does that mean in terms of what we’ve been doing for the past year?” We worked it out, of course, but that was like the beginning of trying to figure out, how it all is going to fit together.

One of the great things is I have all the old school information. I’ve just kept up with him every single year of my life, even during the pandemic, I was like, “I’ve got to see Juliu.” There can’t be a year that goes by to not see him at all. So, I have old and new information rolling around in my head.

 

Evolution of Equipment

I do love the old equipment. We have all these pieces as you go around the room. In the middle room is a Juliu piece. I choose to work on that. We call it the teaching tower. Each piece that he evolves, he comes up with more material to do on it, and more ideas about how it can be utilized. Therefore, it’s available and accessible to such an enormous array of people with different needs.

It’s phenomenal to see trainers working with a client at 10:00am that can barely walk, then a prima ballerina and next, a kid who’s a basketball player. They have plenty of stuff they can do with them, it’s fitting all these different sizes and abilities. That’s been an amazing thing to see- ­his genius of creating all of these pieces. It’s been phenomenal. There were not all those pieces when we started. There wasn’t even a Pulley Tower Combination unit as we know it today.

I will never forget it. Laying on my back, straps on my feet, holding my feet up in the air. I could do exercises and all these movements. I had freedom. I was lying down on my back and I could engage. How could somebody think of this? It was spectacular. I had done Pilates for some period of time, where you push your legs against the bar. I have one leg longer than the other, so I couldn’t reach the bar with one of my legs. What a frustration that was. But with Juliu’s system, I got in the straps, and I could work my legs equally. That felt good. I don’t remember what year that was, but I remember I got to the studio, and he had created the Tower. I was like, “Okay, how much is this?”

 

Evolution of Space

[At first] we were in a closet, and then we were in an ante room, which is sort of a waiting area before you go into a dance studio. There are usually some benches around it, and people walking in and out of it. That was a little rough, but we worked it out. We were in the LINES Ballet dressing room. We were across the street for a little while in the same building as our doctor.  We moved every two years for the first 20 years or so, and we’ve been in this one space for over 20 some years. This is definitely the oldest studio in the world.

We’re centrally-located. The famous cable car turnaround is two blocks from here. City Hall is two blocks from here. The Moscone Center is two blocks from here. The Ferry Building is down the street. Yerba Buena is right here. The whole Civic Center with the Opera House and the Symphony is right here. In that way, it’s incredible. The Lines Dance company moved into this building, and when that happened, the studio was already pretty established, and we moved along with them.

In the beginning, we built it for the dance company (and for us). Then clients and teacher-trainings came so we moved with Lines. As the first company of Lines retired, we all started to build the school together. That’s the Lines Ballet Training Program. We also have the Lines Ballet Summer program, and the BFA program with Dominican University. Three programs, year-by-year. Then SF State University, and after that SOTA High School, creating syllabi, lesson plans, and content.

I couldn’t have imagined that there would be so many trainers and studios around the world. This sounds so young because I was young, but when I opened White Cloud West, I thought, “There’s one on the East Coast and there’s one on the West Coast. We’re good! That’s all we need in the world.” Then, there was another studio here in San Francisco. Then in New York, Juliu’s 29th Street, sort of, spawned into other studios. I could not have imagined that. I had no idea that this would be something that I would do after my dance career.

Passing Down Legacy

I adore the people who bought the studio, Lynn, who has been teaching here for many years, her husband Chris, and they have a son. They are just a lovely family. They get it on so many levels. They understand what this really is and the legacy of it. These are people who really understand what we want it to be and how to do it with ease and grace. It needed to happen.

I’ll give you a small example. The 1st and the 16th of the month were payroll. I had a bookkeeper that the trainers sent their invoices to. We got the timesheets. The bookkeeper would send those to me. I would double-check them. I’d send them to my accountant, who would make sure everybody got paid correctly, and the taxes were taken out. What a laborious process that was, but Chris is coming from the tech world. He said, “We’re going to put all these numbers into this app and connect it to our scheduling software. Twice a month we press a button. Payroll is done!”

Lynn is smart as a whip, and not boastful at all. She’s sort of the quiet one in the back. Then you ask her a question and she’ll respond with 2 or 3 sentences and you’re like, okay yeah, she gets the heart of it. She’s smart. I couldn’t be happier that this legacy is being passed on in this way, and that I was able to sell to them.

I’m 62. When I was 55, in one of our staff meetings, I told my trainers that I’d like to create a legacy committee. I said, “I’m not leaving, but I’d like to have some young, fresh ideas. I’ve been doing this for a long time, and you guys need to tell me what you want to have happen here. How it could grow. How it could expand.” The Legacy Committee had, maybe, 5 trainers. We had a bunch of meetings, but I didn’t say in those meetings “I’m stepping aside”, or  “I’ve had offers” (which I have had). I’ve had a number of offers over the years, which is really nice. Ownership is heavy. It’s a big load, and we’ve carried it for almost 40 years. Nora is in Penn Valley. She’s moved there with her husband, and they live out on a farm, she’s a farm girl. She has a studio there called All’s Good Farm.

I feel incredibly proud, and I feel like there’s actually a legacy happening. I’m really thrilled about it. I love all the aspects of it; seeing clients, teaching courses, working with the staff here, working with the staff in many different places, doing it on my own body. It takes a team. It really takes a team. The Trainers at San Francisco GYROTONIC®, past and present, are incredible, not only as Trainers, but as human beings. I’ve had a lot of support along the way. I’ve had a lot of people help me out. I think you really need that.

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Want to learn more about San Francisco GYROTONIC®? Visit the website for details, Teacher Training Courses offered, and more.

You can keep up with Debra Rose at her website- www.spiralingrose.com

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