Ever wonder about the origin of Core Fusion? Wonder no more! Core Fusion founders Fred and Lis have graciously agreed to guest-post today, answering all your questions! Take it away, guys!
The Origin of Barre/Core Classes
When we (Elisabeth and Fred) started teaching back in the early 80’s at the Lotte Berk Method, most of our students and a large percentage of our Core Fusion teachers nationwide, were little babies (or not even born yet)! That fact always blows us away because sometimes it feels like time is standing still for us in this unique slice of the fitness industry called: Barre Classes.
What are they? Where did they come from? Why are they all of a sudden so cutting edge and popular?
Let us explore these questions for you and help you to understand this fascinating journey that started back in the 60’s with a woman named Lotte Berk (ironically Elisabeth and Lotte were born in neighboring towns in Germany). Lotte was a modern dancer who injured herself while dancing and had to do focused rehabilitation in order to heal her injuries. From her background as a modern dancer and her new knowledge from physical therapy, she started a studio business in London called “Rehabilitative Exercise” on Manchester Street.
In 1969, our former mentor, Lydia Bach, traveling from the U.S.A., took her first class with Lotte and it changed her life. She stayed in London for one year, studied with Lotte and in 1971 came back to New York City and opened the Lotte Berk Method on 67th and Madison where Elisabeth and Fred lived and worked for 22 years.
In 1980, Elisabeth, fresh out of a formal ballet teacher training school, joined the Lotte Berk team (when the studio was for women only) when rose colored carpets, chintz sofas in the lounges, black leotards and fishnet stockings were the look of the day and the classes were very feminine in nature. The exercises were pure Lotte and very challenging – a unique culture was beginning to form on the Upper East Side of NYC. Fred joined the Lotte Berk team in 1984 as the first male ever to be allowed into this sanctuary and we created the first men’s program. Fred’s background as a physical education teacher and personal trainer made his transition easy – he was intrigued to teach something that actually changed the shape of the body!
From 1984 till 2002, Lydia was absentee owner who traveled the world and checked in with us every summer in our Bridgehampton Butter Lane Barn (where we would put our heads together to redirect the program for the following year). We evolved the class by making it more gender neutral. Over those years we added a weight section, incorporated all of the rehabilitative stretches to accompany the strengthening work, and grew the business to a point at which students had to reserve months in advance to get into a class. We saw revenues and attendance numbers triple in 10 years.
During this time, a student in her 6th year of study with us approached us with the idea of opening a franchise of the LBM in Greenwich Ct. Lydia made a deal with Burr Leonard and sometime in the late 80s, the LBM of Greenwich opened its doors as the first extension of the method outside of the New York region. Burr and her husband Carl expanded to 4 studios in the Greenwich area and 10 years later, their license expired and they chose to rename their business The Bar Method. Today, Carl and Burr are successfully opening Bar Methods across the country and we couldn’t be more proud of their accomplishments.
We always had a vision to share this amazing technique with as many students as possible worldwide. Our vision was different from Lydia’s so we parted ways in 2002 and opened Exhale Spa on 76th and Madison, calling our class Core Fusion. This new class took all the key positions from LBM and blended them with Pilates and Yoga principles and sports conditioning to create an experience that has been wildly successful in the classroom as well as with 9 DVD’s, 18 properties, 97 teachers and over 44,000 students a month nationwide.
Other class styles have evolved from a group of our former teachers including Debbie Frank Studio, Inner Strength by Jamie Greer, The Body by Shawn McCormack, Physique 57, Nalini Method, Pure Bar, Fluidity, Bar Physique, and a whole bunch of local named brands that take the concept of what we taught in the 80’s and 90’s and have changed things up a bit to call it their own.
Who would have thought back in the day when we WERE the Lotte Berk Method for close to 22 years, teaching 36 classes a week, 6 days a week for over 15 years, that so many of our former teachers and students would create their own version of the LBM and be very successful in this industry doing exercises which today seem cutting edge but for us, has been our history? The genius behind these exercises is that you are using your body weight, primarily, as your resistance. You are using a barre that is fixed on a wall to do leg work, glute work and what we call floor bar work to isolate the core and challenge the body with not only strength, but flexibility. Seeing women in their 60’s and 70’s who have been taking our classes for 20 years who still look like they are in their 40’s or 50’s is amazing! Some of them are now taking class with their daughters, with whom they were pregnant back in the Lotte days! But for us, the best part is seeing men and teenage boys flocking to classes as they now see what we learned over 20 years ago – these exercises promote youthfulness, longevity, long lean functional muscles, and an inner calm and relaxed energy.
We look forward to sharing some of these incredible exercises through our YogaVibes online classes, so that you might incorporate them into your class or personal workout.
From our barre and core to yours,
Fred DeVito and Elisabeth Halfpapp
