The Mindful Barre is based on exercises created by a famous English dancer, and has been practiced by professional ballerinas and the elite for over 35 years. This method is a combination of yoga, pilates, ballet, the Alexander Technique, and core strength exercises. It gives you great posture, tremendous flexibility, and long, lean muscles. Muscle groups are re-shaped through slow, sustained, non
-impact movements and then intensely stretched to avoid building bulk. Students work on a padded floor with socks and with a ballet barre using their body for resistance. There is NO heavy lifting or use of machines. Light hand weights are used to shape and tone arms and shoulders. This method is east on the joints yet challenging. Each individual works at their own pace to dramatically re-shape the body. The goal: to create elongated, strengthened muscles, chiseled arms, firm thighs, narrow waists, and tight seats. You can see results in just a few weeks! The History: The Mindful Barre is based on exercises developed by the dancer, Lotte Berk in the late 1940s. Lotte had been a dancer with several modern dance companies including the Ballet Rambert after fleeing N**i Germany during the Second World War. She then suffered severe spinal injuries in a car accident and developed her own method of exercise to escape her wheelchair and rehabilitate herself. Her arms were to regain strength and suppleness, particularly in the pelvic area, abdominal and lower back, and tone and shape her entire musculature system which had weakened substantially during her months without movement. Within months, Lotte had regained much of her mobility and was working hard to develop a method of exercise, which would tone and shape every inch of her body. Drawing on her experience as a dancer and the specific advice from her orthopedic surgeon, Lotte designed an exercise method that brought her what is known today as core stability-strength, balance, and stability around the pelvis and lower back. Lotte started teaching her friends who were fascinated by her progress, and opened her first studio in London. Not before long, newspapers ran features on her and the media took off. More- As you know, this is not a workout for the faint-hearted! I believe in this method whole-heartedly and took a variation of it with my own experience to develop The Mindful Barre. The aim of the method is to isolate different muscles and tone and release them individually and in conjunction with other stabilizing and energizing muscle groups. The method is individually tailored to the client's specific needs, her build, range of motion, and level of strength and suppleness. As a teacher of The Mindful Barre, it is your responsibility to continue on this sacred method of exercise and to follow through with it's goal of empowering each individual client to reach their own potential both mentally and physically during your class.