Benita Cantieni continues to develop CANTIENICA® body in evolution to this day. She teaches, trains others, writes, and continually refines her work through hands-on experience with the human body.

Cantieni describes her approach as empirical. The starting point is observation. A perception leads to a question, which in turn gives rise to a hypothesis about an anatomical or functional connection. Cantieni researches the structures involved, tests the idea on her own body, and tries it out with other people. If a connection proves itself in practical work, it is further refined and incorporated into exercises, classes, and training.

This approach has shaped her work since the early 1990s. Her decades-long study of anatomy, perception, and movement gave rise to Vivatomie®—anatomy as practiced on the living body. Today, it forms the anatomical foundation of CANTIENICA® body in evolution.

The method begins with the bones. They are stretched and aligned according to the individual’s unique blueprint. This creates space for the joints, activates the deep muscles that support the skeleton, and allows the body to connect from the inside out. From this foundational alignment, strength, flexibility, and ease of movement develop.

Since February 2025, Spiraldynamik® and CANTIENICA® body in evolution have been operating under one roof at Schaffhauserplatz in Zurich—offering separate services while maintaining mutual respect.

Christian Larsen explicitly describes Spiraldynamik® and CANTIENICA® body in evolution today as two distinct methods. He classifies Spiraldynamik® as a therapeutic concept and CANTIENICA® body in evolution as a method for maintaining physical fitness and for prevention.

The shared address thus brings things full circle, a journey that began more than three decades earlier with an encounter that proved pivotal to Cantieni’s future development.

Link:
Christian Larsen’s post from February 1, 2025. CANTIENICA® Method: Physical Revolution as a Recipe for Success ↗

Published by Südwest Verlag in 2024 Staying flexible and strong throughout life with a tiger-like spirit—CANTIENICA® body in evolution. The Original.

The book brings together key insights from Benita Cantieni’s decades of work and focuses in particular on mobility, strength, and independence as we age.

It is part of a long series of publications in which Cantieni has documented and further developed her bodywork—from *Tiger Feeling* and *Faceforming* to books on the pelvic floor, posture, running, and body awareness, and on to *Embodiment: Understanding and Utilizing the Interaction Between Body and Mind* co-authored with Maja Storch, Gerald Hüther, and Wolfgang Tschacher. *Embodiment* is now available in a revised fourth edition from Hogrefe.

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic fundamentally changed the way CANTIENICA® body in evolution was taught. In-person classes were temporarily impossible, studios had to close, and training courses and workshops could not take place as usual.

CANTIENICA AG quickly shifted its classes and continuing education programs to a digital format. Live-streamed training sessions, Zoom workshops, and online programs were expanded, making it possible to continue training, education, and collaboration remotely.

What began as a response to a need eventually became an integral part of the program. Digital formats enabled trainers and studios to stay in touch with their clients and, at the same time, made CANTIENICA® body in evolution accessible from anywhere.

Today, livestreams, online programs, and digital learning formats are an integral part of teaching this method. Some parts of the training can also be completed online; in-person sessions, hands-on training, and personalized guidance remain key components of the training program.

Links:
Online Programs – Training on Demand ↗
CANTIENICA® Training in the Studio and via Livestream ↗
CANTIENICA® Training ↗

In 2018, CANTIENICA AG began a fundamental overhaul of how the method is taught. The previous “Quality Club” was replaced by a mandatory licensing system; at the same time, training, continuing education, and the brand’s public image were restructured.

With the introduction of the licensing system in 2019, the brand identity was also revamped: a new logo and a new tagline, “CANTIENICA® body in evolution.” Since then, the new logo has made it clear which providers are part of the licensing system.

As of June 1, 2019, the CANTIENICA® training program has been linked to a license. The licensing system governs the use of the brand and ties the trainers’ independent practice to mandatory continuing education and the ongoing refinement of the method.

At the same time, the training program was organized more clearly into successive levels—today ranging from Level 1 (Bronze) through Silver and Gold to Platinum.

The CANTIENICA® Licensing System ↗

For a while, Benita Cantieni continued to pursue both careers at the same time.

In 1998, Benita Cantieni developed the German-language edition of the U.S. fitness magazine *Shape* for Marquard Medien and became its founding editor-in-chief. The German edition launched in 1999. Contemporary media reports document Cantieni’s role as editor-in-chief and the magazine’s launch.

For a time, she pursued both careers simultaneously. While she was developing and managing the editorial content of *Shape*, she continued to refine her bodywork method. *Faceforming* was published in 1998. At the same time, she produced additional books, training materials, and new exercises.

Her work as a journalist gave Cantieni financial leeway and, with it, the time to continue developing her bodywork independently and meticulously. In an autobiographical text published later, she herself describes how her work at Shape allowed her to let the CANTIENICA® method develop gradually.

In 2003, as editor-in-chief, she once again revised the concept and design of *Shape*. That same year, she stepped down from that role and from then on focused entirely on developing and teaching her bodywork.

Links:
kress: Launch of Shape with Benita Cantieni as editor-in-chief, 1999 ↗
Contemporary portrait: “Cantienica, Spring Is Here,” 1999 ↗
kress: Shape under Editor-in-Chief Benita Cantieni, 2003 ↗

Benita Cantieni had begun to integrate her anatomical findings and her own experiences into the Callanetics program as it existed at the time. She suggested to Callan Pinckney that these new developments be incorporated into Callanetics. Pinckney decided against it. Cantieni subsequently parted ways with Callanetics and continued her own development. Christian Larsen also describes this step in his retrospective on their shared history.

In 1997, Cantieni named the bodywork method she had developed on her own CANTIENICA®—Method for Body Shape & Posture.

That same year saw the release of Tiger Feeling – Sensual Pelvic Floor Training. The book became the first bestseller related to her bodywork. Cantieni herself describes this phase and the creation of her first CANTIENICA® book in detail in a later autobiographical text.

From that point on, she continued to refine the concept. Over the following decades, her early insights into the pelvic floor, postural alignment, and three-dimensional body organization gave rise to CANTIENICA® body in evolution, with Vivatomy® serving as its anatomical foundation.

Links:
Christian Larsen on the split from Callanetics and the development of his own independent method ↗
Benita Cantieni: Catpower. The Ultimate Book on the Body – Excerpt ↗

In 1993, Benita Cantieni met the Swiss physician Christian Larsen. A question that arose during that encounter became a major impetus for her future work:

“What if you don’t actually have scoliosis, but are just pretending to?”

Larsen worked closely with the French physical therapist Yolande Deswarte on functional anatomy and movement. This work led to the development of Spiraldynamik®.

The meeting was characterized by a mutual exchange: Cantieni taught Larsen the basics of journalistic writing, while Larsen familiarized her with the anatomical principles of Spiraldynamik®.

Cantieni immediately took these new ideas to heart and began to fundamentally revise her Callanetics concept at that time. She examined her own posture from this new perspective and became increasingly interested in the spatial organization of the skeleton, the pelvic floor, the spine, the joints, and the deep skeletal support muscles.

Her goal was to develop an understanding of anatomy that would enable people to perceive and understand their own bodies and apply that understanding to movement.

Looking back, Christian Larsen describes how openly and consistently Cantieni embraced anatomical findings and used them to increasingly develop his own unique training concept.

Link:
Christian Larsen: A Look Back at the Shared History of Spiraldynamik® and CANTIENICA® body in evolution ↗

In 1992, Benita Cantieni was introduced to Callanetics. She invested in the master franchise for Switzerland and traveled to Denver, Colorado, for training.

What had initially been a business decision turned into a career change. According to Cantieni, it was there that she discovered an ability she hadn’t known she had: the ability to perceive other people’s movements and body positions with great precision and to alter them through precise instruction.

She became a Callanetics Teacher, Senior Teacher, and International Senior Teacher; she worked closely with the founder, Callan Pinckney; wrote training materials; and trained teachers herself.

At the same time, she began to question the existing exercise regimen. Some positions alleviated her symptoms, while others made them worse. Cantieni therefore began experimenting with small changes. Millimeters turned into centimeters, and eventually, entire movement patterns and positions changed.

She tested these changes not only on her own body but also within her groups . NEW CALLANETICS® emerged from this practical development work . Benita Cantieni describes this phase of development in detail in Catpower: The Ultimate Body Book .

This fundamentally changed Cantieni’s work: what had been the application and teaching of an existing system became a method in its own right, a brand in its own right, and a body of teaching in its own right.

Links:
Press Release: CANTIENICA® Method – A Physical Revolution as the Key to Success ↗
NEW CALLANETICS® – The New Method ↗
Catpower. The Ultimate Book on the Body – Excerpt ↗

As an adult, Benita Cantieni searched extensively for ways to alleviate her symptoms and improve her mobility. She gained experience with strength training, yoga, the Feldenkrais Method, the Alexander Technique, Rolfing, physical therapy, chiropractic care, acupuncture, meditation, and other body-oriented approaches.

In the process, she increasingly noticed how differently her body reacted to movements, positions, and instructions. Some experiences brought relief, while others raised new questions.

At the age of 41, while moving from Munich to Zurich, Cantieni suffered a sacral fracture. The persistent symptoms prompted her to explore her own physical makeup more deeply.

Step by step, my personal search evolved into a research interest:

What bone alignment allows for free movement of the joints? Which muscles support the skeleton? How does movement change when the body’s structure changes?

One’s own body became the first field of research.

In 1974, Benita Cantieni was part of the first graduating class of the newly founded Ringier School of Journalism. Ringier documents the 1974–1976 class with names and a group photo; Cantieni is listed there as a member of the first graduating class.

Source: www.ringier.com/de/die-ringier-journalistenschule-wird-50

She quickly rose through the ranks as a reporter and chief reporter, worked at *Blick*, and helped launch *SonntagsBlick *. This was followed by journalistic profiles, interviews, and feature stories, as well as experience as a TV host.

Cantieni later became editor-in-chief of the Swiss women’s magazine *Annabelle*. In 1988, she moved to Munich to join *Vogue* Germany. Contemporary industry news reports document her tenure there as editor-in-chief as well as her previous move from *Annabelle*.

Journalism later also shaped her work as a body researcher: observing closely, asking questions, conducting research, examining connections, and conveying complex ideas in an understandable way.

Links:
Ringier: The first class of the School of Journalism, 1974–1976, featuring Benita Cantieni ↗
kress: Benita Cantieni as editor-in-chief of Vogue in 1988 ↗

Benita Cantieni was born on February 21, 1950, in Balgach in the St. Gallen Rhine Valley.

At the age of six, she was diagnosed with scoliosis. The diagnosis stayed with her for many years and shaped her relationship with posture and movement. At the time, she could not have foreseen the significance her own physical history would later have for her work.

After completing an apprenticeship as a sales clerk at her mother’s stationery store, she learned typing and shorthand and initially worked as a secretary.

This was followed by various professional and personal experiences, including a stint in the fashion industry and stays in London and Cape Town. She eventually worked as a director at a fashion house on Zurich’s Bahnhofstraße.

In 1974, the next phase of her career began with the Ringier School of Journalism.