Who is Callan Pinckney?

Callan Pinckney (born 1939/40 as Barbara Biffinger Pfeiffer Pinckney) is an American fitness professional who created the exercise regime known as Callanetics. According to a Time magazine profile from March 1986, Pinckney is a ninth-generation descendant of one of the founding families of the state of South Carolina. She was born and raised in Savannah, Georgia in the midst of old Southern opulence.   However, she was also born with physical deformities of her spine and legs which required her to wear steel braces for seven years. She rebelled against the constraints of her social background, and left the United States without completing her college degree for what would become an eleven-year trek around the world.   Upon her return in 1972, and faced with more health problems, she developed an exercise regime based on ballet lessons that she had taken as a child. The success of these encouraged her to proselytize her techniques among her friends and eventually to write a book called Callanetics. Although slow to take off, Pinckney's persistence paid off and book sales soared on the back of appearances on the daytime TV circuit, notably on shows hosted by Oprah Winfrey, Sally Jessy Raphael and Phil Donahue. The book went on to become a major bestseller in the fitness genre and spawned a popular video as well. When she was in her 30s, Pinckney changed her first name to Callan on the advice of a New York numerologist.

Callan Pinckney (the creator of Callanetics)

Callan