I had such a fun morning today doing an Instagram Live barre and brunch event with my friend Maddie! We were happy to be able to do something to bring people together virtually for a positive, healthy way to start the day. It brought such a smile to my face to see so many of my friends joining, as well as connecting with new people who also share a passion for dance, fitness, or healthy baking! Thank you to everyone who tuned in, and I hope this helped bring some joy to your day! As Elle Woods says, “Exercise gives you endorphins, and endorphins make people happy!”
Scroll down for a recording of the class, so you can do this workout as well!
My friend Maddie is an incredible dancer who is training at Juilliard (read more about her here), and she started our event with a 30-minute ballet barre class. Then, I taught a 30-minute bodyweight workout, and we finished up by baking these healthy banana oat muffins! We chose this recipe because it uses common ingredients that we hoped most people would have on hand, so viewers wouldn’t have to go out to the store!
If you want to have your own barre and brunch morning (or afternoon, or evening - brunch can be enjoyed at any time of day in my opinion!), you can follow along with my workout video and then make the recipe yourself!
I wanted to share my workout video here so that you can take my class whenever you like! I did a run-through of the class on my own yesterday to practice timing and the flow of the movement, so I recorded that and am sharing it here. Even though it's just 25 minutes, it'll certainly get you sweating - it was definitely very challenging for me to talk to give instructions while also demonstrating the moves! I say 30 minutes in the video even though this video is 25 minutes, because that is the full time that it took in Instagram Live since we did more stretching at the end. You can certainly take longer with any of the moves if you want to keep going with the workout!
I do not own the rights to the music. Songs used: Perfect day (Hoku), Crazy in Love (Beyonce), Watermelon Sugar (Harry Styles), …Baby One More Time (Britney Spears), Water Me (Lizzo), Voulez-Vous (cast of Mamma Mia! the Movie), Dancing Queen (Daecolm).
For more at-home fitness, check out my post here for videos and resources. To see more of Maddie and my adventures, click here for a workout that Maddie and I created last year in New York that you just need a set of stairs for - perfect for those of you quarantining in apartment buildings - and this post of our fun day when she visited me in Boston!
Update: I have since learned and thought a lot about using "namaste" to end a class, which is what was initially practiced in classes and taught in teacher training at the studio where I first got into barre and yoga. Namaste is a term with a beautiful meaning, and it is not necessarily wrong to say at the end of a class when you recognize and honor the meaning, but it is important to think about this and avoid appropriating or misusing it. An excellent and informative quick read on this topic can be found here written by Susanna Barkataki, a yoga unity and diversity activist (her page has lots of great content to check out overall!). I now prefer to use other phrases instead with similar meaning to acknowledge the collective practice and honor the energy and efforts of everyone in class. Susanna also has a link to 60+ alternatives to "namaste" to end a class, which are great to check out and consider using!