Pure Barre West Village

We liked the relatively new Pure Barre West Village studio on a corner full of trendy shops and found the workout harder than we expected! Teacher Marissa was friendly and good at explaining each exercise, but didn’t provide much hands-on critique.

RUNDOWN

WORKOUT

Every Pure Barre class, regardless of studio, follows the same formula: standing warm-up punctuated by planks, then moving into arms with weights. This is followed by thighs, then seat, then two separate ab sections: one at/under the barre and then a section on mats on the floor.

At this class, the band we were asked to set up was the type that velcroes onto the barre and has two separate loops for one to put feet or hands in. Classes using these bands are generally no joke, and this one was no exception. We shook a lot more than we sweat, a sure sign that the toning-focused exercises were hitting their mark. Marissa’s warm-up and arms section were nothing to write home about, but we immediately felt our legs shake when we set up in chair pose holding onto the unstable strap instead of the barre itself, and kept shaking as we moved into a water ski position and then into seat. Seat section was mostly on the floor with us lying on our sides, grabbing onto the Velcro straps for support and lifting the weight of our legs individually in a position that was similar to clam shells we’ve done before, but that got a lot harder once we extended our legs all the way. The abs section was focused on oblique crunches, which we also appreciated, and we ended class as usual with glute bridges.

The class was early on a workday evening and not overly crowded, with a group of women mostly in their 30s and 40s who all seemed quite familiar with Pure Barre choreography! The studio is in a neighborhood with a lot of shopping/foot traffic and the space has a lot of nice windows, so this is a good spot both to people watch and to be watched.    

INSTRUCTOR

Marissa gets extra points for explaining complicated instructions with the strap and negative points for not offering hands-on critique. I didn’t get the sense that she was very connected to the class since she mentioned nobody by name and wasn’t pointing out examples of who was doing each exercise well, but I did appreciate that she mostly followed along or did all of the exercises herself. If you don’t mind an instructor who leads by example and doesn’t pay a lot of attention to the people in the class, you’ll like Marissa.

SPACE

This location is a little far from the subway, but we really liked the whole layout of the Pure Barre West Village studio and the super friendly staff who greeted us by name on the way in and out of the studio. We learned from them that each Pure Barre is individually owned – and it’s clear that this studios owners have done the most they can with their space. It’s a large storefront on a corner block which lends a lot of space to its boutique. Changing rooms are large and stocked with non-shower essentials, including Evian face spray and dry shampoo. The studio space is also well organized, with props like mats, balls, and weights all being tucked away in a galley area. This allows the triangular studio space to be maximized and to fit at least 15 people in any given class.