WASHINGTON 鈥� It seems fitness buffs can鈥檛 get enough of barre; studios are popping up all over D.C.聽But if you have yet to step up to the barre, you need to know聽a few things if you want to make a graceful entrance at your first class.
What is barre
Barre (pronounced like “bar”) is a ballet-inspired group exercise class that gets its name from the horizontal wooden rod that dancers use as a prop during warm-ups to help build strength, balance and flexibility.
The fitness industry has since co-opted the barre and packaged聽it into a franchise-ready format.
“You’re using the muscles you need to stand better, walk better, move better,鈥� says Jane Brodsky, owner of .
Most barre classes start with some sort of warm-up that may or may not involve a mat. The class may move into arm and ab exercises involving light free weights, stretch bands or rubber balls. Then the class shifts over to the barre for leg work.聽A class typically ends with聽a聽core routine or a short concluding session on the mat.
What to expect at a barre class
Fitness class reviewer Chelsea Clark, a 26-year-old resident of NoMa, maintains her blog and was a contributor for , a New York-based blog that provides fitness class reviews from all over the world.
She’s聽attended several barre classes around聽the region and says she鈥檚 a fan of FlyBarre, housed at Flywheel, in the Dupont Circle area — the only place she鈥檚 come across with a male instructor.聽The class makeup for barre skews female, Clark says.
鈥淚t’s not the kind of class where you’re going to be jumping all around and you’re going to be really sweaty at the end,鈥� Clark says. 鈥淚nstead, it’s the kind of class where you’re going to be working different muscles that you didn’t even know you had.鈥�
Most barre classes last an hour, and in the D.C. region they can cost $20 to $30 for a drop-in class. Clark says you can usually snag a deal on Groupon.
Barre is generally a come-as-you-are affair 鈥� most studios will provide you with the equipment you need, such as聽mats, weights, small rubber balls and stretch bands.
Clark recommends wearing leggings and a form-fitting tank top — something that 鈥渨on鈥檛 get in the way.鈥�
Socks can聽get dicey: Some聽studios prefer that people dance barefoot, while others require special grippy socks. Others leave it to attendees鈥� preferences, Clark says.
鈥淚 would alwaysrecommend calling in advance …聽about the socks,鈥� Clark says.
Do you need to know ballet to do barre?
It would seem that actually having a background in dance would be an advantage in an exercise class inspired by ballet. But do you have to have Misty Copeland chops 鈥� or any sort of dance background, for that matter 鈥� to keep up in a barre class?
鈥淎bsolutely not,鈥� says Brodsky. 鈥淵ou do not need dance training at all. You do not need to be a yoga master. You don’t need to be a ballerina. It’s really good for anybody.鈥�
The fitness aspect of聽barre traces back to Lotte Berk, a European dancer who decades ago fused ballet with exercise and packaged that in a barre-based group exercise format accessible to non-dancers.
Brodsky says the draw to barre is its focus on dance conditioning. “It takes some of the of the movements that dancers do to prepare themselves for the actual dancing.”
Barre鈥檚 spin on ballet鈥檚 standard grand pli茅, for example, looks and feels more like an air squat 鈥� graceful arm movements optional. The overall kinetic experience聽feels more like yoga or Pilates.
Clark says most people expect ballet and barre to be similar. 鈥淚t’s not very similar to ballet at all,鈥� she says.
But she said the lack of ballet didn鈥檛 bother her. 鈥淚t [barre] felt more like a workout,鈥� she says.
