Wondering if Barre Training might be right for you? Ahead of our signature Barre Training next month, we sat down with teacher trainers Shirah Perry and Katherine LaPlant to find out more about this 80-hr immersive program.

1. What inspired you to build this training?

Shirah: Since Barre is still relatively new in Berlin (as well as in Germany and much of Europe), we felt that there was a lot of inconsistency in the types of classes being delivered around the city and a lack of any real industry standard in terms of what a barre class should be. We felt that it was unfair to clients that they might not know what to expect when they were coming into the studio for a barre class. While it can be cool for each class to be wildly different, it’s also extremely important to us that everyone feels that they got a lot out of the class and that people’s experiences are overwhelmingly positive. So we started to talk about what barre meant to us, and spoke at length with Gundula about what was important to her, as the founder of BECYCLE. At first we were simply cultivating a set of values and parameters to guide the BECYCLE barre team, but it kept expanding, and we got more and more excited about the project, and before we knew it we had a 180 page training manual! That’s pretty much how the training was born.

Katherine: We built this training because we were largely uninspired by the formatting choices of most well-known barre franchises. Although I enjoyed the actual exercises in barre workouts I had taken in the past, the classes in general felt overly formulaic and lacking in creativity. We approach formatting from a choose-your-own-adventure standpoint where trainees can sequence exercises with any of several focuses in mind. I find that this keeps things fresh, interesting, and ultimately effective.

2. Why should someone take this barre training?

Shirah: This training is for anyone who’s interested in teaching group fitness classes, whether or not teaching barre is your ultimate goal. If it is, you’ll be thoroughly prepared to crush it as a barre teacher by being able to deliver super creative and effective sequences, and whether you plan to teach barre or other modalities, this training will equip you to really understand how your students’ bodies should be working and how to efficiently keep them safe. We also had people take the training with zero interest in becoming an instructor, simply to enrich their personal fitness practice with an in depth understanding of their body, so really anyone who’s curious to dive into the science of movement can get a ton out of this training!

Katherine: Someone should take this training if they want to be creatively stimulated by the process of planning a group fitness class. It’s a great fit for anyone who is curious about how anatomy informs our movements, why breath is important, how to spot misalignments, what makes a class challenging, or how to build and integrate an engaging playlist.

3. Which skills can people expect to walk away with?

Shirah: How to format a class, keep students anatomically safe, build a playlist, direct a room full of students effectively, and more. And most importantly, how to do those things because you really understand the whys and hows, not because you’re following a script that somebody gave you.

Katherine: An understanding of how to move safely through a rich catalog of exercises, and know how to strategically sequence them to achieve a variety of goals. We observed our last group of trainees become confident, assertive, and empathetic conduits for fun and intelligent movement.

If you are interested in joining the 80-hr Barre Training in February 2020, read more info and register here.

Interview by Stephanie Cusack - marketing/events manager and yoga teacher at BECYCLE.

Is Barre Training For Me?