The Studio
Attracting a lovely community of like minded souls, it’s an urban sanctuary, a New York loft style dance studio (and when the sun goes down, a naughty party den). It allows you to escape the demands of modern life and the city and clients always comment that their troubles are left behind at the door.
It’s home to Disco Barre™, The Lotte Berk Technique (the original barre class) and a range of other fun, barre concepts all taught by exceptionally brilliant teachers.
Signature classes:
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Created by studio owner, Sophie Ritchie, with the aim that you feel more a slave to the rhythm than the treadmill, Disco Barre is the hardcore barre workout to underground house and disco with its roots in club, not gym culture.
It combines the discipline of ballet with strength training, isometric holds, circular movements for mobilisation and small but intense and sexy, choreographed sequences. Bridging the gap between a dance and a fitness class, you will feel like a dancer and get strong fast.
The music gets as much attention as the moves as each class is set to a personal selection of sublime underground disco, house, boogie, funk, pop, Balearic, Italo and acid - anything that will help you get into the groove and help you forget just how hard you’re working -your muscles will be literally pulsating to the beat. Close your eyes, feel the burn and you could be in The Paradise Garage or be taken back to the best night of your life.
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*Trigger Warning for the Trans and Non Binary Community.
The original barre class, Lotte Berk invented this powerful, fiercely feminine and fun series of exercises over 60 years ago and we are thrilled to be the only studio to bring the ORIGINAL barre class back to London.
Lotte Berk was a contemporary dancer with a fascinating history and character and when she retired, devised this stunning regime with the help of an orthopaedist to help women achieve the body and poise of a dancer whilst supporting spine health.
Often working in a pelvic tilt to decrease the range of movement, muscles are deeply targeted and there’s something almost magical in it’s biomechanics that helps you lose inches from your waist and move with greater fluidity and grace. This method works you from the inside and out, your energetic and erotic body as well as your physical.
Sophie is the UK Master Trainer in the technique and trained under Esther Fairfax, Lotte’s daughter.
*This class is woman empowering and was designed with the female body in mind and welcomes anyone who identifies as a women in part or whole. There is mention of female genitalia within a section on the pelvic floor called 'the inner spirit'. This section is performed with eyes closed.
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Disco Barre Flow, Floor and Restore with is a mindfully moving, flowing and expanding, floor based barre class set to some seriously good, grooving house rollers. Each class finishes with deep restorative, myofascial release stretches. Sophie and Felicity have created a class to become part of the Disco Barre brand and to compliment the other barre classes at the studio.
Whilst drawing on Felicity's Vinyasa and Yin Yoga training, we are conscious not to appropriate the practice of yoga. It's a new way of moving, featuring signature Disco Barre moves with The Lotte Berk Technique exercises. Expect a strong, full body workout. Sophie says, “it’s been a complete joy to create with Felicity and to share my knowledge with her. Felicity has such an understanding of the Disco Barre brand (and its house heritage) and has intelligently drawn from it and The Lotte Berk Technique".
Other classes:
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BarreForm is a low-impact high-intensity workout class, integrating elements of Pilates, ballet, yoga and strength training. Choreographed in time to the music, we focus on small movements and isometric holds, to challenge every major muscle group of the body, building strength, mobility and self-confidence! Professional contemporary dancers Bella Wilson and Maria Munkowits developed BarreForm drawing from their years of experience working in both the dance and fitness industries, to create an inclusive and body-positive workout class concept that is fluid, technical and most importantly, fun! Expect to get a bit sweaty, feel the glorious barre 'burn', and leave feeling amazing.
Bio:
Bella is a professional contemporary dancer, choreographer, teacher and barre instructor from Aotearoa (New Zealand). Her fitness ethos is centred around her love of movement as a way to facilitate stress relief, to build confidence and develop a stronger mind-body connection. Known for her creative choreography, curated playlists, and her inclusive, body-positive approach, her classes are upbeat and challenging, with plenty of options to modify or advance the exercises, whether you are new to barre or attend regularly. She loves motivating others to reach their potential, and we guarantee she will empower you to explore movements you didn't know you were capable of, with lots of smiles and laughter along the way! Bella has been sharing her high-energy, uplifting barre classes in Aotearoa for over 6 years and is excited to share her practice with the Disco Barre community.
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Alyssa Muller, a Los Angeles native, grew up training a variety of styles of dance and graduated from UC Irvine with a degree in Dance and Sociology. She stayed in LA to pursue her dance career after college, starting with Insomniac Events and then moving to Denver, Colorado to dance with Zikr Dance Ensemble. Upon returning to LA she began dancing with Pacific Ballet Dance Theatre. Alyssa’s classes are informed by her practice in ballet, modern dance, pilates, and yoga. She started teaching barre at Pop Physique before moving on to teach at Body Dada and Hot 8 Yoga, combining heat, humidity, and classic barre exercises with the strength and flexibility of yoga.
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This empowering women's fitness class is designed to Sculpt & Shape your body with a full-body workout with an emphasis on upper body strength.
Laura's background as a bikini bodybuilding champion, a dancer and capoeirista brings to you a class with a mix of strength training, cardio and core work with some flavour and fun. The class is carefully designed to help you build a strong, toned physique. Her passion for helping women reach their fitness goals make her classes both challenging and inspiring.
Whether you're a beginner or an experienced fitness enthusiast, Sculpt & Shape offers a supportive and motivating environment where you can push your limits and achieve results.Come and experience the energy and empowerment of Scuplt & Shape and take the next steps towards becoming the strongest, healthiest version of yourself
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This is a beginners ballet class that teachers traditional techniques. Set to a soundtrack of popular ballet tracks, it also focuses on improving form and balance whilst building flexibility and core strength.
Simona is a classically trained professional ballerina and contemporary dancer and now actor, who trained at Teatro Dell'Opera di Roma school in Rome and then the Royal Ballet School in London, has danced in everything from Swan Lake to The Nutcracker.
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This class needs to be part of your weekly fitness regime and is ideal for barre addicts who want to learn the stretching techniques of professional dancers. It really is the perfect finish to a week of barre. Classically trained professional ballerina and contemporary dancer and now actor, Simona Martini, who trained at Teatro Dell'Opera di Roma school in Rome and then the Royal Ballet School in London, has danced in everything from Swan Lake to The Nutcracker, but is now so passionate about the benefits of these exercises, that it’s become her favourite class to teach. Expect stretching at the barre, foam rolling for myofascial release and to increase range of movement and each class will finish with splits practice. This is no gentle stretch class. You will be amazed at how quickly your flexibility improves after even one session.
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A mat pilates session with focus on establishing good postural alignment and to challenge your endurance and balance.
Starting slower with core work and building up to dynamic transitions toning every muscle in your body. You will shake and you will sweat. Using weights, balls and active stretched you will leave feeling invigorated.
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Mia is a pilates teacher and long time lover of disco barre. As well as a pilates teacher she is an audio-visual Creative Producer, producing podcasts and documentaries as well as a trained Psychosexual and Relationship therapist. A huge music lover, she is a founding member of the music collective Stamp the Wax and DJs under the name Zipporah, enjoying a residency on Voices radio and former residencies on Worldwide FM and Balamii.
She's been blessed to play on dance floors and make films around the world.She's always been obsessed with Pilates as it’s supported her own journey with her body, helping her become a strong and self-loving person. However, she's also addicted to the spicy burn of barre, has created a new Pilates class that gives all the core strength and postural poise, but combined with the power, endurance and sexiness of barre, introducing Pilates Burn. The spiciest sequences soundtracked to my favourite selects, from global bass, Amapiano, Afro-bass, garage, 90s bangers, deep house and all those hot trax that make you wanna move. Mia cannot wait to see you in class soon!