We Are Barre & soul
A fitness culture with grace & grit
The way we work out at Barre & Soul isn’t like anything you’ve ever done before. Sure, you might’ve taken a barre class or done a yoga pose now and again. But here, our sessions are more than just workouts; they’re a platform for channeling your spiritual energy, harnessing your courage and strength, and stepping into your truest strongest self.
You’ll get more than a good sweat–you’ll gain a powerful community.
Get strong and flexible while finding self-empowerment with a support group rallied behind you, lifting you up, and celebrating your strength and courage. With the help of our incredible trainers and your new #barreandsoulmates, you’ll strengthen your body and mind!
Diversity & Inclusion
We empower every human spirit.
Ingrained in the Barre & Soul culture, we embrace and encourage differences in age, color, gender identity or expression, national origin, ethnicity, family or marital status, language, ability, political affiliation, race, religion, sexual orientation, veteran status and other characteristics that make our studio communities unique.
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Black Lives Matter is an important movement we support. We also hold space for potentially uncomfortable conversations that help us understand and appreciate our differences and find the courage to create more equitable spaces.
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Women’s empowerment is kinda our thing. Barre & Soul founder, Andrea Isabelle Lucas, journeyed from a teen single mom, former stripper, and domestic violence survivor to creator of Barre & Soul studios and Barre & Soul Academy, the premier online barre certification. She’s a keynote speaker, coach, and Women’s Studies graduate. A proud and unapologetic feminist, Andrea is dedicated to helping you build strength, passion, and the ability to Own it All.
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We respect, acknowledge and support LGBTQ+ identities and are committed to continued learning and allyship. You’ll see our pronouns listed next to instructor names. We invite you to share yours back. We understand how offensive or harmful it can be to assume someone’s pronouns. If you want to read more about pronouns, peep our article here
The Science of Barre
Barre is transforming bodies in an all-new way & it’s thanks to two little words:
One Inch
One inch is all it takes to completely change the way you look and feel in your body – no heavy weights, heavy barbells, or heavy grunting necessary.
When you come to a barre class, you’ll be moving your body through “pulsing,” which means isolating a muscle group through a series of micro-movements of just one inch. This is called eccentric training. We keep the energy costs low, while keeping the force/exertion high, leading to muscles that respond dramatically differently than traditional weight lifting methods, because you aren’t moving the muscle as a whole; you’re isolating individual slow twitch muscle fibers.
The more you focus on a micro-movement, the more you recruit your muscle fibers, leading to revolutionary changes, fast. Ultimately, the muscle is loaded negatively thus lengthening it under resistance. And that’s what we call gravity-assisted lengthening.
You also benefit from holding a posture by continuously engaging the muscle in a different way. With each pulse, you get a mini-recovery, so you can hang even longer and get an even better workout. This is one reason there’s less damage than traditional strength training methods, and why barre also results in faster muscle recovery. Through those slow twitch mini-movements, we’re able to strengthen and lengthen muscles without straining tendons or ligaments. As a bonus? This type of training has been shown to increase the secretion of muscle-building hormones, like HGH and testosterone, compared to conventional methods.
Why work harder when you can work smarter? For decades, devotees have flocked to barre, obsessed with the changes that were clearly taking place on their physique. Now there’s proof that it wasn’t mere serendipity, but science.
Ready to re-engineer your body?
Where It All Began
The Lotte Berk Method
Barre was created by German ballerina Lotte Berk, who fled from Nazi Germany to the UK in the 1940s. There she developed barre to help dancers and women tone, strengthen, and improve their flexibility. Her classes were a safe space where women could strengthen themselves inside and out.
Barre & Soul proudly continues Lotte Berk’s legacy with our classes based on her methods. Our leadership team has trained directly with Lotte’s daughter, Esther Fairfax, making us one of the few studios globally offering “Pure Lotte” classes, taught as precisely as Lotte did, and certified by Esther herself.
About Our Founder
Andrea Isabelle Lucas is revolutionizing how we feel about our bodies & minds.
Andrea is wildly devoted to helping people stand up for themselves and take radical responsibility for their happiness, and her passion is palpable in every class. From the unique environment designed to encourage self-expression, to the hand-selected knowledgeable and deeply welcoming staff, to the thriving and active community of #barreandsoulmates—coming to class is about so much more than getting exercise. It’s an exercise, yes, but in learning how to trust yourself—and, dare we say it: loving yourself.
Andrea fell in love with barre in 2006, when she began taking classes while pregnant with her second child. She not only had a new obsession, but an entirely new physique. It was one of the first times she learned how to trust herself, body and soul. Fast forward a handful of years, she started training in the tradition based on the exclusive Lotte Berk Method and dedicating her life to barre. She even completed the widely-respected 200-Hour PranaVayu Yoga Training with founder David Magone, to further deepen her knowledge.
Today, Andrea’s become a prominent thought leader in this branch of the fitness world, where she serves as testimony to what we can do when we stop putting ourselves in the backseat. Not only is she in the best shape of her life, both physically and mentally, but the Barre & Soul collection of boutique studios continues to grow mightily—and she grows right along with it. Which is, of course, a philosophy that underscores everything she does: As long as you keep showing up, you ARE doing enough.
Through her inclusive & welcoming barre & yoga studios, Andrea is teaching others how to own it all.
#1 New Release in Feminist Theory. Change Your Future. Claim Your Potential. Own It All.
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