A while ago I came across a mention of this thing called Floor Barre®. As it was described, it's kind of like barre exercises done while laying on the floor. It's someone's registered trademark, hence the ®, which means only certified instructors can teach it. I filed it away in my mental warehouse of useless trivia.
I'm off work this week, and two of the three classes I'd normally take are canceled due to the US Thanksgiving holiday. Looking at the class schedules at the various studios I discovered that one of them offers a Floor Barre class Monday and Wednesday this week. So rather than sleeping in this morning, I got up and went to class.
As it turns out, the class is exactly as advertised. The focus is on training the body to take on proper alignment while in a position where you're not fighting for balance, and mostly not fighting gravity, and a comfortably slow pace. I sort-of expected it to be hokey, but it's surprisingly good. The instructor was very good, and as the new (and only) guy I got my fair share of attention (if not more). This instructor is very hands-on, and not shy to encourage you to take the proper position by gently moving your foot, leg or arm.
There are a few mental challenges you might not expect, like how to do an échappé while laying on your side (why she didn't just say "move to seconde" I don't understand). A lesser problem was when she said "arms to third" — I'm still learning port de bras and third isn't an arm position I knew — but that was resolved easily enough.
The instructor and one of the regular students told me I did really well for a first time. I may try to get down here for the Wednesday class too. Shame it's only offered mid-day on weekdays at a location that's impractically far from work.
I'd catalog all the various new places I've discovered can ache after class except that I got Shanghaied into a Stretch class that started shortly after Floor Barre finished. That created a whole new set of aches overlaid on the first, so it'd be hard to separate them.
I'm off work this week, and two of the three classes I'd normally take are canceled due to the US Thanksgiving holiday. Looking at the class schedules at the various studios I discovered that one of them offers a Floor Barre class Monday and Wednesday this week. So rather than sleeping in this morning, I got up and went to class.
As it turns out, the class is exactly as advertised. The focus is on training the body to take on proper alignment while in a position where you're not fighting for balance, and mostly not fighting gravity, and a comfortably slow pace. I sort-of expected it to be hokey, but it's surprisingly good. The instructor was very good, and as the new (and only) guy I got my fair share of attention (if not more). This instructor is very hands-on, and not shy to encourage you to take the proper position by gently moving your foot, leg or arm.
There are a few mental challenges you might not expect, like how to do an échappé while laying on your side (why she didn't just say "move to seconde" I don't understand). A lesser problem was when she said "arms to third" — I'm still learning port de bras and third isn't an arm position I knew — but that was resolved easily enough.
The instructor and one of the regular students told me I did really well for a first time. I may try to get down here for the Wednesday class too. Shame it's only offered mid-day on weekdays at a location that's impractically far from work.
I'd catalog all the various new places I've discovered can ache after class except that I got Shanghaied into a Stretch class that started shortly after Floor Barre finished. That created a whole new set of aches overlaid on the first, so it'd be hard to separate them.
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