Barre 2 Barre Beginnings on Hongkong Street
Confessions of a Barre Studio Owner
Barre 2 Barre has come a long way since our exciting beginning in 2016. It has been a labor of love, passion, and dedication, creating our lovely studio on HongKong Street, building a team and client base from scratch, creating a warm, inviting atmosphere, and delivering a top quality exercise experience. As the co-founder of Barre 2 Barre Singapore and in light of our upcoming move to a new location, I would like to share about my rewarding learning experiences prior to and during running this business.
My personal barre journey began in Los Angeles where I grew up. A friend invited me to join her at my first barre class in 2008. At the time, the barre movement was booming in LA, and I too quickly became a fan. When I subsequently moved to Hong Kong in 2011, it took me a while to find the right barre practice I was missing and searching for. Before long, I met the co-founders of Barre 2 Barre in Hong Kong, Karen Lim and Mylene Mackay.
I learned that Barre 2 Barre offers the BarreAmped method, a syllabus from the US created by fitness celebrity, Suzanne Bowen. This barre method was the most similar to the one I was exposed to in the West Coast – funnily enough, I discovered Suzanne Bowen actually taught the founders of the barre studio I used to attend in California!
I quickly became obsessed with developing my practice, gaining a lot of mind and body strength through attending class with Karen and Mylene. In 2014, I decided to take the week-long BarreAmped teacher training course. I hadn’t yet considered actually joining the apprenticeship program or teaching; I was just so excited that my training certificate would get me discounts on Lululemon, Sweaty Betty, and Lorna Jane AND discounts on class packages at Barre 2 Barre! The more barre classes I took, however, the more interested I became in the apprenticeship program, and soon committed to it.
Meanwhile, I was accepted to INSEAD’s MBA program in Singapore and decided to move. Before starting my MBA, I organized two pop-up Barre 2 Barre events in Singapore in the summer of 2015, both of which were fully booked and extremely successful. While getting further involved with barre was tempting, I was in no position to run a barre studio while attending a condensed 10-month MBA program.
Instead, I took entrepreneur classes which helped me practically plan and map out what opening a barre studio in Singapore would look like. At the same time, Mylene coincidentally happened to move to Singapore for a short period, so we decided to partner together to open Barre 2 Barre Singapore on Hongkong Street. We thought the street name was perfect given that Barre 2 Barre originated from Hong Kong!
The intention behind bringing the BarreAmped method to our clients was to offer a safe and effective barre workout for women and men of all ages, shapes, and fitness backgrounds. I believed in the method from first-hand experience, since I had once fractured and broke my ankle (the tibia and fibula) and managed to keep in shape by attending BarreAmped classes three times a week. It was the safest way for me to rebuild strength and heal before I could start running again. When I’m ninety years old, I know I will still be practicing BarreAmped.
Building a team from scratch in a new country with a young barre market was difficult. Mylene and I trained Ahilya as our first teacher, given that we were connected through a family friend, that she had attended UCLA, was a dancer, and religiously attended barre classes in Los Angeles too. With Mylene, Ahilya, and myself ready to start teaching, we turned our attention to creating the studio environment we wished to.
My idea was to replicate the same feel and community that Barre 2 Barre provided me during my four and a half years in Hong Kong. I wanted to create a special business and environment for myself in Singapore, a place where I would potentially live long-term and raise a family.
I wanted the studio to feel like a “home away from home” for myself and my clients, so a little feel of California and Hong Kong influenced my studio design. Our yoga mats are from Venice Beach and our yoga mat sprays are the same comforting, evocative, secret essential oil blend from Hong Kong. I believed the scent and quality of the products we used would also be a huge contributor to the atmosphere and aesthetic of the studio, which is when my partnership with Ashley & Co bloomed. I found it very important to provide a welcoming environment to people who might find Singapore intimidating or may be shy. Barre 2 Barre was meant to welcome all people, no matter their shape, size, nationality, age, or sex in a homey environment with a nice scent - we opened our doors to you, unless of course you’re late!
I can address our strict late policy here: I’ve been locked out of Karen’s class in Hong Kong, locked out of accounting class at INSEAD, and learned in business school how 15 minutes early is “on time” and being “on time” is late. Additionally, I’ve had a client pull a muscle without adequate warm up time during our first year of opening, and it is always distracting to our teachers and other clients when latecomers join class. All of this led us to implement our Swiss train policy - or should I say Japanese train policy - to avoid further injuries and create an environment where we respect time.
Our studio at Hongkong Street has been filled with so much love and support, and it has been an honor to meet numerous clients who have been touched by barre to the point that it has become a significant part of their lives. Some clients have gone on to get their teaching certification to teach at Barre 2 Barre or other studios worldwide, while others have taken their certification for their own self awareness in practicing barre with good form and alignment. We are also proud to have introduced barre to men, which T Magazine covered in an article, describing how male athletes like kickboxers find strength and flexibility through attending BarreAmped classes! We have been so fortunate to partner with our lovely neighbors like Punch for Barre & Brunch, Vasco for Barre to Bar, and Box Office for Barre + Boxing among numerous others! HongKong Street has been a really cozy and vibrant home to us, but, as with life, all good things must come to an end for even better things to be welcomed into our lives.
Our new home on Pickering Street will be closer to the Central Business District, will feature parking space underneath the Great Eastern building, is right next to the Hong Lim Complex bus stop, and is close to the Telok Ayer, Chinatown and Clarke Quay MRT exit. There will be more peace and quiet in the studio since we are not facing the street directly, we’ll enjoy a cleaner surrounding area, and clients will get even better attention to detail from our teachers, as we will max at twelve students per class. In addition, we will be getting a second unit right next door to be able to host two classes simultaneously without compromising on quality and the attention to detail, form, and alignment our teachers provide.
Managing a growing staff over the past three years hasn’t always been easy – I’ve hired, fired, engaged in serious talks, and generally learned a lot about communication, clarity of expectations, fairness, and managing people. Though sometimes taxing, the experience has been well worth it and I’ve learned a lot about others and myself. Despite any challenges or obstacles that have come our way, we are so proud of the community we have created and fostered over the past three years, and continue to be dedicated to the growth and success of our team and clients.
From starting with four hundred customers in our first month open, then growing to two thousand by the following year, we now have seven thousand customers in our database. We have grown from three BarreAmped certified teachers when we first opened to seven teachers and two more in training under our apprenticeship program. We also just began offering regular meditation classes at our studio. We have partnered with Oompf! Fitness on 130 East Coast Road to provide Barre 2 Barre classes to clients on the East.
In regard to our Teacher Training program, we began with three in-house courses before opening to the public in Hong Kong, Koh Samui, Taiwan, Jakarta, and soon our upcoming week long teacher training and retreat in Bali! We plan to continue offering BarreAmped training and apprenticeship programs for barre teachers all over the world, and we can’t wait to share our knowledge and passion for barre with everyone in Singapore and Asia.
Thank you to everyone who has stepped into our doors at 42A Hongkong Street. We will forever cherish those memories and hope to create more together. We cannot wait to welcome you to our new studio on Nankin Row, 3 Pickering Street #03-01 and continue to build mental and physical strength at the barre together!
