My dreams of ever becoming a professional ballerina were crushed at the age of six when my teacher observed that I had the wrong feet. But nearly three decades later, I still havent shaken my Black Swan dreams.
For most of my adulthood, Ive taken drop-in recreational ballet classes at places like City Dance Corps and the Underground Dance Centre. It can be fun and freeing and really good exercise to pirouette and jete your way across the floor. But it can also be incredibly intimidating if youre trying to get started.
This may be why ballet barre workouts, which eliminate choreographic elements while retaining the physical benefits of dance, have gotten increasingly popular over the past few years. Its a way to achieve a dancers body without actually having to dance.
Pure Barre, an American barre-fitness chain, is opening its first Canadian location at 737 Queen West (near Bathurst) on February 22.
First launched in Michigan in 2001, the company is now the largest barre franchise in North America, with over 350 locations. The Toronto studio is owned by Paige Carper, an Ontario native who taught at Pure Barre in the States for two years before returning home.
As the location gets ready to open, staff have been hosting free preview classes (all you need to do is register online in advance). I went to a class last week and despite walking in with the confidence of having done ballet, Pilates, yoga and other similar styles of exercise in the past, it turned out to be very challenging.
Each 55-minute workout consists of exercises done at a ballet barre and on the floor. Sometimes, free weights and exercise bands are incorporated to increase the challenge. Movements are small and repetitive, thus seemingly easy, and the instructor walks around the room making individual adjustments on participants.
The class itself wasnt difficult to keep up with. People of all fitness levels can participate and are encouraged to work at their own level and rest when necessary. Its challenging because the exercises train muscles that arent typically targeted in gym exercises.
Plus, all those small, repetitive movements that feel manageable at first, add up and make your muscles ache and burn by the end.
So how similar is a barre-style workout to ballet? Well, leotards and pointe shoes arent necessary (participants are asked to wear form-fitting workout wear and socks). Plus, classical piano music is replaced by energetic EDM. You might not feel like a black swan or a white one, for that matter while doing the exercises, but youll damn well look like one afterwards.
michelled@nowtoronto.com | @michdas
