Juliu Horvath is the charismatic inventor of the GYROTONIC EXPANSION SYSTEM®. An earthy Hungarian who grew up in Romania, he began his life as dancer. In his 20s he performed extensively with the Romanian State Opera Ballet, but in 1970, while on tour in Italy, he defected, and after 6 months in a refugee camp, was granted political asylum by the United States.

Horvath first moved to New York City where he was hired by the prestigious New York City Opera; touring with ballet icons Margot Fonteyn and Jacques d'Amboise. Next he journeyed to Texas where he became a principle dancer with the Houston Ballet. His dance career however came to an abrupt end after rupturing his Achilles tendon and damaging several disks in his back.

In 1977 he retreated to St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands to recover and regroup. He built a humble dwelling in the mountains and began an extensive study and practice of yoga. It was here, drawing from his movement vocabulary as a dancer, his experience as a yogi, and from his personal research and experience with injury and recovery, that he developed the GYROKINESIS® methodology, then called Yoga for Dancers.

Returning to New York in the early 1980's, Juliu began teaching his new method of movement at Steps on Broadway, a well-known professional dance studio, as well as in Central Park. With a zealous following, he opened his first studio, White Cloud®, and in 1984 began designing and building his first GYROTONIC® exercise equipment.