Here in Philadelphia (and in lots of other cities), there are a variety of ballet workout classes, from Pure Barre classes, to classes mixing ballet and pilates to Ballet Xtreme (the class that’s offered at Philadelphia Dance Fitness, where I have a membership). Lately, it seems ballet is becoming a way to become fit through both ballet classes as well as ballet workout classes (especially the Ballet Beautiful series).

While I wasn’t the biggest fan of Ballet Xtreme (rapid ballet movements and jumps done to hip hop and pop music), it was definitely a workout. But when I find I really need to work on perfecting my technique, the class focuses on doing rapid movements, focusing more on the movement and not technique. I definitely want to try it out in the near future (once I spend a while working on technique–which I am in 3 to 4 classes a week) and after I work on strengthening my ankles (all the jumping in the Xtreme class just killed them–so I ended up skipping most of them).

I do, however, want to try out a Pure Barre workout (because they focus on barre work and are supposed to be gentle on your joints, as they contain no jumping), but at $23 a class, I can’t really afford them right now on my current schedule. So, I plan on just doing more workouts from my Ballet Beautiful book (I’ve only done one so far–woops) and attending ballet as usual.

Have you ever tried out a ballet workout  class? Would you recommend them for beginners?