Pure Barre: Developing long, lean physique of a dancer

While shopping for children’s shoes in Buckhead last month, Brookwood Hills resident Kellam Mattie came across the newly opened Pure Barre studio. Intrigued by the prospect of incorporating a ballet barre into her fitness routine, she signed up for a class on the spot. Now she’s a convert.

“It’s been a fun, new exercise surprise for me,” said 38-year-old Mattie, a mother of three. “I was fit before, but I feel like I have a really flat stomach now and I’m seeing my waist again.”

Pure Barre was conceived by Carrie Rezabek, a dancer and fitness instructor who was looking for a workout that would target areas of a woman’s body that can be difficult to tone – the seat, hips, abs and arms.

“I was a professional dancer who was also an avid soccer player and taught every fitness class under the sun — pilates, spinning, kickboxing, aerobics. I even ran a marathon — but nothing was really changing my body,” said Rezabek. “I designed Pure Barre to change my body the way nothing else has.”

Rezabek opened her first studio in Michigan in 2001 and began franchising five years later. The Buckhead studio opened in August and is the first in the metro Atlanta area, with a second location in Dunwoody in the works.

The 55-minute workout class combines elements of pilates, ballet, yoga and weight training, all set to music selected to keep the heart pumping.

“One thing that’s different [from other workouts] is they work a body part and then you stretch it,” Mattie said. “One instructor explained that the intent is to get a long, lean muscle like a dancer, so if you work a muscle and then stretch it right there, it doesn’t have time to shorten up or get tight. The other thing is that the whole time there’s a focus on your core. Even if you’re doing a leg exercise you have to tuck your stomach in, so you’re getting a two-for-one.”

Atlanta resident Mary Fletcher Stewart first heard about Pure Barre from a friend who visited a location in Nashville.

“[She] came home and said we needed one in Atlanta,” Stewart said. “She even looked into opening a franchise here and we found it was already happening. We couldn’t wait to see where it would be.”

For 44-year-old Stewart, a mother of three who runs and plays tennis, Pure Barre has proven to be the perfect addition to her exercise routine. But for many women, the Pure Barre technique becomes their singular fitness plan, said Sarah Moats, co-owner with Kady Decker of the Buckhead location.

“It’s focused on toning the body, but it’s also cardio because your heart rate is up the whole class,” Moats said. “It takes ballet positions and then you stay down in those positions so it burns the muscle out. There’s a lot of muscle quivering that happens, and just when you think you can’t hold a position any more, we stop and stretch out the muscle while it’s really warm.”

Encouraged by the success of Pure Barre studios in other cities and local feedback, Moats and Decker plan to open a total of four Pure Barre locations in the metro area by this time next year.