Lotte Berk

Lotte Berk (13 January 1913 - 4 November 2003) was a dancer and teacher.

Berk was born Liselotte Heymansohn in Cologne, Germany to a German mother and Russian-born father, both of whom were Jewish. Her father owned a chain of menswear shops. Berk grew up to become a ballet dancer, dancing with several prominent companies. She later developed her own method of exercise that concentrated on the idea of building "core stability."

With the rise of Nazism in the 1930s she fled Germany with her husband Ernst, who was also a dancer, and her daughter. Because her husband had a British passport, the family was able to live in England, where Berk worked as a model at Heatherley School of Fine Art and danced at Covent Garden for Marie Rambert. Her style of dancing did not appeal to the British and she knew she would have to change careers to make a living. In the 1950s, with the help of an osteopath, she developed a series of exercises based on her experience with dancing. Similar to pilates and yoga, the Lotte Berk method concentrates on targeting specific areas for strength and flexibility training.