Lotte Berk Method Archives

Aug 29

A Zoom call video screen featuring the Barre Fitness Alliance

What You Need to Know About the Barre Fitness Alliance

By Melissa Feeney Barre Culture, Barre News, Lotte Berk, Resources for Barre Instructors, Resources for Studio Owners, The Dailey Method No Comments

Pilates has the Pilates Method Alliance and yoga has the Yoga Alliance but up until now, there was no comparable alliance for the barre industry. Introducing the Barre Fitness Alliance.

Since barre went mainstream, anyone using a ballet barre as a prop was describing it as a “barre” class, although methods and choreography could be markedly different from one class to another. There was no oversight committee in the barre industry so anyone could put a certification course together and charge money to “certify” instructors.

It seemed fitting that someone or a collective group of people needed to come along and identify what barre is and isn’t and offer some oversight.

It has been a long time coming, according to BFA President, Lara Foldvari of Barre On the Go (formerly The Bog – Barre Over Garage.) She is joined by some industry heavyweights including Andrea Isabelle Lucas, Founder & CEO of Barre & Soul, Jennifer Maanavi, CEO and co-founder of Physique 57, Betsy Royster, co-owner of Bayou Barre and Jill Dailey, Founder of The Dailey Method. They are supported by barre pioneers Elisabeth Halfpapp and Fred DeVito of Core Barre Fit and also formerly of the Lotte Berk Method and Exhale.

In a nutshell, what is the Barre Fitness Alliance?

The BFA was hatched from a desire to assign a richer standard to barre certifications, classes and instructors.

“Our mission is to bring barre professionals together without bias to any one particular barre training,” says Lara. “We want to uphold the history of Lotte Berk both the human and the Lotte Berk Method studio in New York City and we want to ensure the quality of today’s instructors and really the integrity of the industry now and into the future. We want to ensure barre going forward remains not watered down for years to come.”

If you’re a barre teacher training organization, barre studio, instructor or even an enthusiast, the alliance is meant to be a resource for you.

What does the Barre Fitness Alliance consider to be the gold standard of barre?

If you’re familiar with the rich history of barre, then you know that there was Lotte Berk who famously invented the first iteration of what we know as barre today, and then everything that evolved from her original technique since. Considering barre fitness classes today are wildly different from what Lotte originally taught, there are actually two standards that the BFA uses as their bellwether. They are the teachings that came from the now-shuttered Lotte Berk Method in New York City, and Lotte Berk’s original technique as taught to Esther Fairfax her daughter and subsequently other trainees that carry on her legacy today like Long Beach’s theLONDONmethod.

“We’ve set the barre industry standards going back to the Lotte Berk Method in New York City for our members to uphold. Through these measures, the quality of barre instruction is maintained, which benefits those in our industry and the communities we serve,” says Lara.

A Barre Fitness Alliance Instagram post featuring Lara Foldvari, President of the BFA

What you receive when you become a member.

Members receive access to partner discounts on everything from retail to fitness equipment, certifications, apparel, AV equipment, liability insurance and more.
If you become a BFA-certified instructor, studio or training program, you can display the corresponding virtual badge on your website for everyone to see.
Anyone who visits the BFA website will be able to identify you in the public-facing directory.
You will be able to network with other highly qualified instructors through virtual and in-person workshops and events.
You will have a voice on what future industry standards should look like.

What you’ll get as a founding member.

All of the partner programs offer 20% off their training. There will be more opportunities for continuing education among partner certifications.

Pointe Studio offers product discounts. Vita Barre offers discounts on barres and other fitness equipment. AV Now offers discounts on audio-visual equipment.

An Instagram post from the Barre Fitness Alliance introducing Andrea Isabelle Lucas, VP of the BFA

How to apply to be a founding member.

You can apply on the website. To become a BFA-approved instructor, there is a one-time processing and registration fee of $140. An annual membership (at the time of writing) in subsequent years will cost you $130. To become a BFA-approved teacher training organization, membership and processing fees for the first year cost $599 and the limited founding teacher training organization rate is $549 for the first year.

If you have any questions, send an email to barrefitnessalliance@gmail.com or a direct Instagram message to instagram.com/barrefitnessalliance.

What are the requirements for a certification to become accepted by the BFA?

Certifications must be a minimum of 100 hours in training and cover:

The history of barre
Anatomy
Exercise science
Musicality
How to put a class together
Modifications/variations
Hands-on adjustments
Practice teaching
A written and practical exam
25 of the 28 exercises listed in the syllabus criteria.

You can see the full breakdown here.

A post from Jennifer Maanavi’s Instagram, Treasurer of the BFA

What you receive when you become a BFA-certified teacher training organization.

You’ll be able to display the BFA barre teacher-training badge on your website and be listed as an approved teacher training organization in the BFA directory.
You will have a voice in future industry standard discussions.
You’ll be able to offer discounts on training to other members.

Will in-house training programs from franchises like Pure Barre, The Bar Method or Barre3 be recognized?

Any certification program whether it is public-facing or not is invited to submit an application for review. Barre3, one of the world’s largest and most popular barre franchises for example auditions instructors before they go through their in-house training.

In order for a certification to be properly vetted by the board, the company hosting the training needs to provide a syllabus and training materials for review. Since some franchises are known to keep their training materials close to their chest it is yet to be seen if any of the franchises will be willing to disclose (at least to the board) their proprietary information.

If you’ve been trained through a franchise that isn’t already a BFA education partner, the BFA encourages you to speak with your managers or write to the heads of the company where you were trained to see if they would be interested in applying.

BFA Secretary and Bayou Barre’s Betsy Royster is introduced on the Barre Fitness Alliance’s Instagram account.

What are the requirements to become a BFA-certified studio?

To become a BFA-certified studio, you will need at least two of your instructors to be certified by a BFA-approved Barre Teacher Training Program. If not instructors, then a Director, Owner, Master Trainer or Manager of the studio. Also at least one of those instructors needs to be BFA approved, so they need to show proof of certification in the year they applied and with yearly renewals.

Is it necessary to join the Barre Fitness Alliance?

Like any exercise discipline with a professional association, you are not forced to join it in order to run classes. It all depends on what you’re looking to get out of becoming a barre teacher, opening a studio or offering a certification program. If you’re looking to build credibility among your clientele and peers, joining the alliance is a good way of establishing that.

If you’re a fitness instructor, having a BFA-approved certification behind your name can be an easy way to fast-track job offers, especially when busy studio owners don’t want to spend more time than they need trying to assess your skill level.

Both the Pilates Method Alliance and the Yoga Alliance weren’t built overnight. It will take time for the credibility of the BFA to grow and not everyone in the industry will be on board with this particular group of people deciding what should and should not count as barre. In my opinion, this is a remarkable who’s who of the industry. You have some of the most sought-after owners, teachers and business people on the board, and I believe they know what they’re talking about.

The Dailey Method’s Jill Dailey is introduced as BFA Director on their Instagram.

What does the future of the BFA look like?

In a Zoom call with members back in early August, the board of directors was pressed on whether certification criteria might evolve in the future to reflect the changing barre landscape. In response to that question, BFA Vice President Andrea Isabelle Lucas had this to say. “Yeah absolutely. We should all admit that we’ve all evolved the method. It will be a challenging and really productive exercise for us to start to evaluate more trainings that are maybe a little bit less similar.”

When speaking with Lara Foldvari in a separate follow-up call she seemed optimistic yet realistic about what the future could hold. She has hopes of growing the BFA base to rival industry counterparts like the yoga and Pilates alliances, while also knowing that the Yoga Alliance has 100,000 certified instructors in their base and barre does not have as much mainstream influence as yoga or Pilates. “We know how barre has evolved, we anticipate barre industry standards to evolve and grow as we do,” says Lara.

The BFA plans to host a mixture of in-person and virtual events throughout the year with the hopes of hosting at least one in-person event annually. I for one can’t wait to see what’s in store for the alliance and all involved.

Elisabeth Halfpapp and Fred DeVito of Core Barre Fit are Supporting Partners of the BFA.

Sep 23

Fred DeVito and Elisabeth Halfpapp at the Lotte Berk Method studio in New York City

What It Was Like to Train and Teach at the Iconic Lotte Berk Method

By Melissa Feeney Barre Culture, Lotte Berk, Studio Spotlight One Comment

It’s the early 1970s. The Lotte Berk Method has opened on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and will soon garner a following among the who’s who of New York’s elite. This is the studio that back in 1984 The New York Times called the fanciest accommodations in town and one of the most rigorous workouts for women in New York. This is where Burr Leonard of The Bar Method trained, where a slew of celebrities from Julia Roberts to Caroline Kennedy to Bianca Jagger used to take classes on a regular basis, and where you could argue barre started in America.

Long before boutique barre studios went mainstream, The Lotte Berk Method built a cult-like following and would produce some of the most beloved barre brands in the world today.

The unassuming five-story brownstone on East 67th Street that housed the flagship studio is where you would find women (it began as a women’s only fitness studio) file into any one of the classrooms across three floors of the townhouse at all hours throughout the day.

Although I can try to imagine what it would have been like to do some knee dancing on the deep rose-coloured carpet of this iconic studio, I thought there is no greater pair of people to speak with about their time there than Fred DeVito and Elisabeth Halfpapp to really understand the brand’s lasting impact on the barre community.

Not only were the pair instrumental in the success of the business (Elisabeth and Fred expanded the teacher training program) but were there almost every day, teaching 6 classes a day, 6 days a week, managing the studio and even lived above the studio for a period of time.

Elisabeth Halfpapp and Fred DeVito at the Lotte Berk Method Studio on the Upper East Side of Manhattan

Fred and Elisabeth in the Bridgehampton barn in the early ’90s. Source: Elisabeth Halfpapp and Fred DeVito

How The Lotte Berk Method Came to Be

Lydia Bach travelled to London to study Lotte’s technique and eventually purchased the North American rights to her name. Elisabeth explained that she named it after Lotte because she had great respect for what Lotte had started, and so she called her business The Lotte Berk Method Ltd. in her honour.

“Lydia furthered it in many ways, you know with pushups and planks and added a balance of strength and stretching to it as well,” explained Elisabeth on the changes Lydia made to the original technique which included making it into an hour-long class.

In the early days, Lydia was heavily involved in the day-to-day operations of the business. Elisabeth credits Lydia for working one on one with everyone to develop what she considered to be the first barre studio in the United States. “We were really lucky to have her at that point,” said Elisabeth.

Discovering The Lotte Berk Method

Elisabeth was first introduced to the method via an ad in the classified section of the New York Times.

I was a dancer coming from the Hartford Ballet, auditioning in New York and teaching ballet. My audition class was with a teacher who was actually visiting from London, from The Lotte Berk studio there. I was in bed after 9:00 am when I got a call from The Lotte Berk Method. They said they were interested in hiring me and I almost said ‘Are you sure?’ because I couldn’t move. It was one of the hardest things I had ever done.

Fred’s background was in physical education. Having taught in the public school system as well as having been a coach and personal trainer, he credits his experience in teaching to making the transition to The Lotte Berk Method an easy one. “I saw what Lis was doing with The Lotte Berk Method and I said ‘oh my god,’ I need to teach people how to do this.” Fred also happened to be the studio’s first male barre teacher.

Immersion was the best way to learn

A year after being hired, Elisabeth started to run the studio. “I managed the studio, I teacher trained. I taught 6 classes a day, 6 days a week. Pretty much immersed myself.”

At that point, there was no manual. “Our training really was classroom teaching. You take 4 classes a day, 6 days a week and then you teach,” said Elisabeth.

Original help wanted ad in the New York Times for The Lotte Berk Method

The original help wanted ad in The New York Times that Elisabeth answered.

The who’s who of New York and beyond flocked to the studio

Thanks to prominent locations in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, the Hamptons and Los Angeles, The Lotte Berk Method attracted many notable people over the years. From Julia Roberts to Melanie Griffith, to Brooke Shields, there are just too many to name but as you can imagine, having studios located in premium markets helped to bring in a high-end clientele.

When I asked if they could recall any great stories, Elisabeth had this to say: “I really have to jog my mind to think about those special people who came because they were such a part of the group that they don’t stand out unless I really think about it. We never put them on a pedestal and I think they really appreciated that.”

In our Hamptons studio, we would have up to 6 or 7 high-profile celebrities in one class. Actresses, actors, directors, artists. In NYC we would have Julia Roberts coming every day, you know dress down, no makeup, in her sweats. She would be hanging out before class just like… People would have to do a double-take, isn’t that Julia Roberts? One time someone asked, “Are you, Julia Roberts? You look just like her.” It was so cute, she laughed and said “I am.”

On teaching notable clients, Fred recalled some advice that Lydia passed down to them. “Treat celebrities like you treat everybody else. They need something from you. They need the workout, they have injuries that need to be taken care of, they’re coming to you for your expertise. Don’t be starstruck by it all.”

We got into this routine and habit of not being starstruck and just talking to people no matter who they were, we would talk to everybody the same way, no matter whether you were a housekeeper or a babysitter for somebody coming in or you were a high-profile celebrity, we just treated everybody the same, so that made it really easy for people to all be in the same class together. And a lot of celebrities felt very comfortable.

The other locations

The Lotte Berk Method’s Bridgehampton location (where SoulCycle is now) was a 1600 square foot potato barn that Lydia renovated into a “very open, airy space” studio according to Elisabeth. “It had all sliding glass doors on one side of the studio that overlooked (back then) farm fields.”

Clients were vocal about wanting a studio in the Hamptons since that’s where they summered. “She decided Bridgehampton because it’s centrally located between South and East Hampton,” recalled Elisabeth. “We limited it to 12 people per class but by the time we left, we had 3 classes going on and there were over 60 people on the hour coming through.”

Ads for The Lotte Berk Method Bridgehampton location from the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s.

In 1983 The Lotte Berk Method opened at Sunset Plaza and West Hollywood in Los Angeles. The pair moved to LA. before being called back to New York at the end of ’83 when the Master Teacher-Trainer left the Manhatten location.

A day in the life

A typical day according to Elisabeth and Fred was a busy one. With multiple studios available, they could have three different classes taking place at one time. “We had classes going on every floor, three classes on the hour. At 7:00, 7:15, 7:30 am and continued all day long until 8:00 pm at night,” Elisabeth explained. “We would teach 3 classes in the morning and 3 classes in the evening, take a break in the afternoon, do any other work like teacher training, or client relationship things, shooting for articles etc.”

[Classes] were all by appointment before computers… it was all hand-written check-in. We had little cards that we would just mark and check people off when they came in.

Fred explained that most of the morning classes were filled with the same women every day. The same women in the same class every morning meant that they got to know each other very well. The “zoo-ey” nature as Fred described was part of the reason why they wanted to make classes more mindful. “It was like pulling teeth, you could not get these women into a mindful place,” Fred recalled.

People would walk into the room and then they would start talking before class started. It was like a school cafeteria, very loud talking about their kids and where they went and the restaurants and their social life and whatever… We came in with a policy and we said, look when you walk into the classroom, we’d like to treat it more like a sanctuary, like sit on the carpet, close your eyes, breathe, meditate, just be alone with yourself for a while. If you wanted to chitchat just do that out in the hallway.

Impacting the barre landscape

At one point during my interview, I wondered if there was anyone who hadn’t gotten their start there. You can trace so many barre brands back to this one method. Instructors and clients who have gone on to build some of the biggest franchises, studios and methods out there today. From Carrie Dorr at Pure Barre, to Burr Leonard of The Bar Method, Tanya Becker and Jennifer Maanavi of Physique 57, and of course Fred and Lis who would go onto create Exhale and then CoreBarreFit, and the list goes on and on and on.

“Bar Method was actually our first and only license,” says Elisabeth, explaining that before Burr Leonard went on to open The Bar Method, Burr opened up a Lotte Berk Method in Greenwich Connecticut followed by three more locations in the state. For a decade she ran those studios before deciding not to renew the license after the 10-year agreement was up.

We trained her as a teacher to open up her license of The Lotte Berk Method. She is probably the closest to The Lotte Berk Method besides Fred and me, even though everything continues to evolve.

How one business could make such a lasting impact on the barre industry

Wondering if there was something in the water since so many notable brands can be traced back to this one method, I asked Fred and Lis if they could pinpoint anything specifically.

I think Fred and I created a really thorough teacher training program. We cared about everyone who came in. We were hands-on teaching all those classes each week and hands-on with our teachers. I think it was that care and camaraderie, that inspired a lot of teachers to become who they are.

Fred also pointed out that the exercises themselves helped their word of mouth efforts. “I think one of the hooks is that it works,” said Fred. “When people see results it’s like wildfire. Their friends see their bodies changing and want to know what they’re doing.”

We got more business from word of mouth referral than any other way. There were more people wanting to take the class than there was actual space. It was just like one of those great restaurants that you can’t get in, we were that. Even in Bridgehampton, we were the only exercise studio in Bridgehampton back in the late ’80s, ’90s and up to 2000s. There was no competition so people would flock there.

“We became real disciples of the work because of the results that we saw and the benefits that people would have from it and that’s why it became so popular,” said Elisabeth.

At the time boutique fitness wasn’t what it is today. It was somewhat novel, especially in the early 1970s for women to go to a fitness studio to exercise. Elisabeth remembered when a female client asked “What are these droplets on my arm?” Lydia told her, “that’s sweat, my dear.”

What happened to the Lotte Berk Method?

Lydia preferred to keep her operation small, despite numerous opportunities to expand. So why didn’t she? For one, “Lydia was an absentee owner,” Elisabeth explains. “It was pretty much just Fred and I.” Near the end of the studio’s run, she was living in India for half the year. “Lydia was never there except maybe 2 months out of the year.”

Fred and Elisabeth departed The Lotte Berk Method and opened Exhale [Exhale Spa at the time], which was successful in its own right with the pair at the helm for two decades. “That’s another reason we wanted to move on to Exhale,” said Elisabeth. “It could have been expanded globally. When we left she closed a few years later because we did pretty much everything. She was left with no teacher training procedures or a team to help develop a training program. That’s one of the reasons it didn’t go beyond Lydia Bach.”

She was a genius when she was at her best. The barre fitness world would not be where it is today if it were not for her. Lotte, yes, Lotte was the seed in London but Lydia is really who brought it to the forefront. She was a challenging individual but we learned so much from her.

Successful as the business was, it was not without controversy

Did Lotte have regret signing away those North American rights? In her 2020 memoir How to Live and Die, Lotte’s daughter Esther Fairfax had this to say about the decision.

In America, Lotte Berk had a truly huge presence. Only no one was teaching it as authentically as Mother had–and because of a foolish decision she’d made to sign away the American rights years ago, she had not been able to set the record straight by training or publishing books there. Her hands had been tied, truly handcuffed, and no matter how hard the lawyers tried they could not break the contract. Sadly, no one could use the name Lotte Berk in the States unless they were licensed by the one person who had taken it from Mother so cunningly all those years ago. My mother just had to watch as her technique was misinterpreted and mistaught.

The legacy lives on

The Lotte Berk Method was one of the most successful fitness brands of the 20th century. When exercise fads come and go, it’s no easy feat to sustain interest over more than three decades.

“I’m just tickled pink to see where barre is at today from that little studio at 23 East 67th Street,” said Elisabeth. “What is amazing is that we still teach a lot of the same clients we had back then and their children and some even their grandchildren. It’s just so wonderful to continue the journey with so many people after all these years.”

The Lenox Hill brownstone where the Lotte Berk Method housed their operation in New York is now the site of luxury apartments, art galleries and high-end retail.

Want to know more?

Fred and Elisabeth are going to dive into the history of barre during their lunch and learn session of the same name during this year’s Virtual Barre Summit. You don’t want to miss it! This year’s summit takes place online over two weekends beginning October 16. Visit barresummit.com for more details and to purchase tickets. The Barre Blog is proud to be the event’s Media Partner. Look out for more complimentary content in the weeks to come!

Mar 09

The Dailey Method Creator, Jill Dailey Talks About the Origins of Her Technique, Perfecting Her Craft and the Future of Barre

By Melissa Feeney Studio Spotlight, The Dailey Method, The Founders Series No Comments

How did Jill Dailey of The Dailey Method manage to grow her namesake workout into a more than 50-studio franchise across four countries? The Barre Blog had the chance to dig into TDM’s history with its founder and creator, and to talk all things barre.

If you’re not familiar with The Dailey Method, their focus is on alignment and form and is designed to deliver a balanced, full-body workout resulting in a high-calorie burn.

Among their barre class offerings are a signature Dailey Barre class, a cardio-infused Dailey Interval class, a basics class appropriately called Dailey Barre Basics, and a fast-paced Dailey Fusion class among many others. They’ve also launched an on-demand service for anyone to access their classes online.

The Dailey Method Venice Beach Exterior — Image courtesy of instagram.com/daileymethod

Our Interview With Jill Dailey

You’ve built quite a following since you first opened the doors to your Marina District studio in San Francisco. In the early days did you ever think that your workout had the potential to turn into an international exercise phenomenon?

No idea! Really my intention was just to have my own little fitness studio and run that, I never expected it to go big… franchising, expanding was not really my drive. Mine was just teaching classes which is still what I love to do the most… is teach the classes and teach teachers.

I got a lot of women coming and taking my classes that wanted studios of their own, saying “I love this community, I love what you offer, I want to have this in my neighborhood, I want to have this in my town,” and it really just organically grew from that.

People working out at a Dailey Method studio. — Image courtesy of instagram.com/daileymethod

When you started your business, the barre scene must have been almost non-existent in the Bay Area.

I was the first barre studio on the west coast. There was really nothing. I got it from going to New York and taking Lotte Berk classes, so that was really where I was inspired. I was a pilates teacher so I started incorporating a lot of Lotte Berk’s moves into my pilates training and then realized I liked that better.

Taking classes at the Lotte Berk Method in New York must have meant you had some pretty famous classmates since there have been many studios and spawns to have come out of that method like Physique 57, Exhale, The Bar Method and others. How would you say your method differs from those other franchises?

I think that our focus on alignment and always really analyzing the body and letting the method evolve based on making it better for people is a little unique. We have alignment principles, we have a very intense teacher training program, we format our classes with a reason. Anytime you say “why do you do that before that?” I’ll be able to tell you because we really looked at your physiology and understand what people’s needs are. I feel like it can take on a little bit more of a rehabilitative [practice]. We don’t do anything in our classes that we don’t think is a functional movement.

Women at a Dailey Method barre class in runner's lunge position. — Image courtesy of instagram.com/daileymethodboulder

Do you have any interesting stories from your days in New York?

I had a client who was from New York who loved the Lotte Berk Method. A couple of times she flew me out there to take classes so that I could train her. I went out there a couple of times. I did spend a week with a woman who owned a studio in Larchmont [New York], Debbie Frank, she owned a studio there, she was an ex-Lotte Berk teacher. I was introduced to her and spent a week with her, learning her systems and all of that before I opened.

So you had a personal training business before you started this —

It was mostly pilates is what I did. I did pilates and personal training.

From what I understand, you brought some of those clients over [to your first studio]. How did you convince your early day’s clientele to try a class when they may not have even known what the barre workout was all about?

I had quite a few clients but when you’re doing personal training versus what you need to do to pack a room it’s totally different. I think the ones who were working with me who came over knew what I was doing because I was training them in a similar way. Oddly not a lot of them came with me because if you’re someone who wants a personal trainer to come to your house or you’re going to go workout one-on-one with somebody you don’t generally then just go take classes, it’s a different mindset. It was almost all word of mouth like I remember doing a whole bunch of mailers 19 years ago, like postcard mailers, I maybe got a school mailing list or something [laughter] and mailed those out, but it was just word of mouth. I was packed from the minute I opened my doors. In the beginning, it was like people really want this and people need it and it was an awesome reception.

How do you think barre has evolved since then? There are so many companies that are coming up now, so would you say it’s changed at all since you started?

My barre has changed for sure. I would love to have a video of myself teaching class 19 years ago versus the way I teach it now. I think a lot more knowledge has come into it, I mean obviously, the fact that it’s still around and it continues to grow shows that it’s something that’s a very valid method that really works. I mean there’s just so many different barre studios now [laughter]. When I opened it was Lotte Berk and then The Lotte Berk Method moved into The Bar Method. When their 10-year licensing agreement finished they moved three blocks away from me in Cow Hollow. There wasn’t a barre [studio] anywhere and then there were two barre studios right here. You walk around downtown San Francisco now and there’s a barre or pilates studio on every single street.

..and now they’re also incorporating barre into pilates studios, yoga studios as well, so you have that to compete with…

I feel like a lot of places do that, but one of the things about barre is people really love it and they make it their practice so they want to do it almost every day. When it’s in a gym they don’t really have that capacity to take…you know I have 8-15 classes a day on my schedule. That gives you a lot of freedom. When you go to a gym, they have barre, they have pilates but they have it three times a week. You have to be very specific about when you can go.

Part of your offering is also Cycle.

It is. We have a Dailey Cycle component. It’s generally 40 minutes on the bike, and it’s really alignment-based, so we talk a lot while you’re riding, how you should be riding, how you should be sitting. Then it’s 20 minutes of arm work, stretching and core work so you’re still getting that full-body workout.

How did you decide to incorporate that type of exercise, was it to compliment the barre classes?

It actually really was the brainchild of a studio owner in Illinois. Their clientele likes to work out really, really hard, so she really wanted to have a cycle component but have it work with the barre. I let her test it and it worked great, and then others wanted it too.

Do you think that there isn’t enough cardio in a barre class alone, that you do need that added component?

I don’t, personally. I took an interval class yesterday morning and I guarantee you my heart rate went way up. A lot of studies show that cardiovascular strength isn’t as important as the muscular strength and the foundation of your skeleton and all of that. As long as you eat well, don’t smoke and don’t stress your heart out unless it’s genetic, doing work that actually works the muscles gives you more benefit than doing a bunch of cardiovascular work. Cardiovascular work just makes people feel good, it’s the endorphins. But I personally feel better during a barre class, than I do a cycle class. I do it but it’s definitely not my favourite.

What can people expect when they walk through the doors of a Dailey Method studio?

I hope the first thing they get is a big smile from somebody. That’s a big part of having a welcoming community and having a place where you come in and you feel seen and you feel safe. In general, I think that The Dailey Method studios are really friendly and welcoming. Generally, you check-in at the front desk, somebody will show you where the mats are, where the weights are and you wait for class to start. We try to get you up by the mirrors so you can see your body when you’re exercising but a lot of times if you’re a brand new person you like to hide in the way back corner. I know I do that when I go to classes that I’m intimidated by. I think generally it’s a very positive experience and supportive.

How would you say the culture/vibe differs from your competition?

I could say even within The Dailey Method there’s a different vibe in different studios, which I think is so much of the intrigue of the boutique studio business. You have an owner, so that studio takes on the personality or the life or the energy of the owner. If you’re someone who is really hard, you’re going to attract a whole bunch of people who are really intense and like to work out really hard. If you’re really open and playful and really just believe in alignment and teaching the best class possible, that’s going to show through in your studio and I hope that’s what shows through in mine.

Speaking of owners, what do you typically look for in owners?

Because this started so organically, and it was so long ago, it was all about the product. We didn’t have to do a lot of marketing or social media when we first opened. I worked and worked and worked on the product, and I still do, I’m always making the product better.

It really drew people that appreciated that and fell in love with that. Owners, in the beginning, were really people that were good at the method. They were good at performing it, at teaching it, they had the personalities. It was really just about, can you deliver this? Because if you can deliver this, I’ll let you be a studio owner.

It worked for a while but as times have changed you have to have somebody that is also business savvy. All these women would open studios with no business background, no idea how to run a studio and they were fine but now you have tonnes of competition and you have to market it and you have to work on your sales pitch and all of that, it’s a different animal.

Now I really have to find that combination of someone who has both capabilities, or who has a partner, because I don’t allow someone to own a studio that doesn’t teach the method. One person could but within that partnership one of them has to be the face of their studio. I’m very protective of the product.

So going forward how do you see The Dailey Method evolving? Are you thinking of introducing new classes, are you looking at expansion?

We’re always doing a slow expansion and again I really go based on the individuals versus getting out there and opening up a whole bunch [of studios]. It’s finding the people who love The Dailey Method and supporting them having a studio themselves. We have an online product now, and we’re spending a lot of time and energy on that, to get more exposure and have it available to more people.

It seems that’s the way a lot of companies are going…

It’s just this day and age. We have a basics of barre certification that you can get continuing education credits for and am planning on putting that online. That’s supporting our owners to help train their teachers so they don’t have to do it all themselves. They have a platform to get them 10 of the hours there, 10 out of the 15.

Do you think the barre workout has staying power?

I think so. I don’t see how it can’t. It’s been around for so long and people love it. One of my studios just had its 16th anniversary and there were five women in the room that have been coming to me since we’ve been open.

I think one of them had just gotten married and now she has three kids and one of them her kids had just left the house and now she is 75.

It works for them, they don’t get injured, and if they are injured they can come in and rehab themselves. I know that there are a lot of fitness fads and I like to go try them out too but this is based on this is actually safe for you. It’s going to make you feel good in your body.

I definitely think it has staying power. I can’t see it going away anytime soon.

I know not every studio has the cycle component but it’s nice to have that component because it makes it more of an appealing membership if you have both options.

In regards to adding other formats, no. We have a really good range of barre classes. We offer Dailey Gentle which is very, very fundamental, functional movement based around a barre class but super slow.

I’ve had people coming back from injury, with broken knees come in. For people who are older or who might feel intimidated then we have a basics class that is kind of like the next step up.

Then we have Dailey Barre, then we have a fusion class which is barre and interval combined and then we have our interval. So we have a lot of formats but they’re all based on the same alignment principles.

You’d be comfortable in any one of those classes if you take the regular barre class because we’re using the same names, doing the same movements, it’s just whether we’re doing them at a quicker tempo or more repetitions.

It gives people some variety in the type of classes they can take —

Yeah, but it’s like I’m not going to start jumping rope. [Laughter.]

Right, you don’t need to reinvent the wheel.

Exactly.

Okay, so now I want to ask you some fun, rapid-fire questions…

What’s your favourite barre exercise?

Standing parallel seat work.

Planks or push-ups?

Planks, always!

Favourite time of day to take a class?

8:30 am

Favourite barre prop?

Definitely the circular band. It’s one we just added.

Favourite post-class activity?

Either taking my dog on a hike or depending on the time of the day going out and having a drink with a friend.

Go-to leggings?

Two. Alo and Beyond Yoga.

This interview has been edited for content and clarity.

For more information on Jill Dailey and The Dailey Method, visit thedaileymethod.com.

Have you tried a class at The Dailey Method before? What did you think? Write a comment below, to let us know.

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