Have you always dreamed of becoming a ballerina, but the only leap you’ve ever tried was for a Toronto taxi driver in rush hour? YOGAthletix, a mind and body fitness studio in Leslieville, specializes in ballet barre exercises that are guaranteed to let you live out that dream, give you Karen Kane’s lean dancer’s body, and the posture of a New York runway model.
Studio owner Guylaine Juilen and her business partner Jamie (a former dancer for the Toronto Raptors), designed and trademarked Barre Fit, a unique sequence of ballet and fitness moves that’s become a popular class at their lofty 3,000-square-foot Queen Street East studio. The women say Toronto’s east enders love doing demi-piles and grands battements to top 40 music just as much as they love their quiet balancing poses and seated stretches in the different styles of yoga they offer.
