Pure Barre (Part 1)

I first encountered Pure Barre in some of Rachel’s Instagram posts. I recognized the term “barre” from ballet, and photos showed a barre in a classroom, but what the people were doing looked more like strength training than dance. Visiting Rachel in L.A. last September, I eagerly accepted her offer to take me to a class. My thought: I’ve done lots of yoga; whatever this is, I can handle it.

The only class Rachel could fit into her schedule was a “Pure Reform” class. Turns out, Pure Barre has three types of regular classes, known as Classic, Empower, and Reform (plus a few special types). They all involve intense exercise and mind-body focus, but Reform is a bit more complicated.

My memory of that first class is a blur: friendly, encouraging teacher, mysterious equipment, watching Rachel and trying to mirror her, lots of strength work and aerobics, too. I left the class feeling energized and eager to check out my local Pure Barre studio.

The first thing you do at Pure Barre is take a free class called Foundations, in which you learn the basic moves and language. After that, I signed up for four classes over the next month. I’d been wanting to add some strength training to my routines and this seemed a good way to do that. Right away, I felt the effects: the tough workouts and the pleasant muscle soreness afterwards. Plus, the teachers at my studio were impressed that I had taken Reform for my very first class.

That was last October. This morning I took my 208th class.