Barre …From Afar

Barre

FROM AFAR

WRITTEN BY MEGIN POTTER PHOTOS BY ALICE COREY PHOTOGRAPHY

You can’t control what happens in life, but you can control how you respond to it.

“Fitness is important overall to your mental and physical health. With all the anxiety of this situation right now, doing everything you can (within your control) to be as healthy as you can be, is really key,” said Naomi Nicholson, owner of Staccato Barre & Bodyworks in Saratoga Springs. BRING IT ON The day after Nicholson learned that fitness studios across the state would need to shutdown to prevent the spread of COVID-19, she was making the Staccato Barre classes available online. “At the time, my concern was to keep everything going. What I didn’t realize was how many people would tell me, as time went on, ‘Thank you! This is giving us sanity, structure to our day, a reason to get out of bed in the morning. People are really, really craving that right now,” said Nicholson. Live Zoom classes, taught by four of the studio’s instructors (including Nicholson) are now available eight times a week, Monday through Saturday. If you can’t make the live class, digital recordings are available. FIND YOUR STRONG Fitness has always been a big part of Naomi Nicholson’s life, but dance never was. Working as an office manager during the day, she taught high-intensity fitness classes, like kick-boxing, as part of Saratoga Springs City School District’s Continuing Education program. Then, in the summer of 2017, she saw an ad for Staccato Barre classes.

“It said, ‘Get the best tush in‘toga’. I thought, ‘That sounds fantastic! Who doesn’t want that?’ So, I went to a class and I loved it! I loved the instructors and the feel of the space. I just felt very much at home there,” she said. Even after twenty years as a fitness instructor, the dynamic and invigorating barre workouts gave her a more sculpted, leaner figure and better posture. It complimented her other activities so well that within a year, she had completed the 100-hour instructor certification course. Then, when the opportunity to buy the studio arose last May, Nicholson jumped at it. She never could’ve guessed what her first year as a business owner would bring.

Staccato Barre online classes are more than an instructor and a camera. Students can sign out sanitized exercise kits, with essentials including resistance bands and Pilates balls, to use at home. Workouts are modified so students can easily use whatever they have at home for balance - a chair, the back of the couch, a countertop. Individualized instruction cues ensure that all students, regardless of age, fitness level or with special health restrictions, maintain proper body placement and alignment.

“Now, it doesn’t matter where you live, you can come to class,” said Nicholson. Every Wednesday, after class it’s time for “Coffee Barre,” where students are invited to stay on the call longer to ask questions and just chat with one another.

“It’s been an awesome way to stay connected. We’ve even gotten closer, ironically, while being apart.”

Staccato Barre online classes will continue even after the studio reopens. New students are welcome, and your first class is just $10. For more information, go to StaccatoBarre.com S S