Cindy Sites opened Greenwich Barre Studio in September 2019. This was several years after opening her first fitness studio, Go Figure Barre Studio, in 2001, also in Greenwich. Expanding to 13 studios across the country over the next 14 years made Cindy the renowned expert she is today.
“I was on a roll!” She says of the studio-building momentum. “It was a great experience and I was able to meet so many wonderful clients, train dozens of instructors and become pretty proficient in building-out barre studios.”
In 2015, Cindy and her husband felt it was time to make a lifestyle change, so they moved to Palm Beach, FL (where she had two barre studios). “I thought that I was retiring…hanging up my tights,” she says. “No sooner did we get settled in Florida when our daughter moved to Connecticut to start a family. My husband and I looked at each other and said, ‘What are we doing here?! We want to be with our grandbabies!’”
So, they reversed course—back to Greenwich. All was perfect, Cindy said, except for one thing. “I desperately missed studio ownership,” she said. More specifically, she missed sharing “this wonderful method of exercise” with other women. And that is how Greenwich Barre Studio was born.
This time around, she wanted to make sure she was doing what she loved most—teaching the method (not managing people like she was largely responsible for at Go Figure). “I said if I do it again, there will only be one studio—but it will be a jewel box of a studio,” she stated. It’s no surprise today that what you see when you enter Greenwich Barre Studio is exactly that—a beautiful, serene space where people come to experience the true essence of barre-based exercise.
Cindy, known as “The Grandmother of Barre*”, has dedicated more than three decades to helping women, particularly those in their 40s, 50s and 60s, achieve the best shape of their life. It has even been claimed that Cindy is “proof” that the “purest form of barre is the secret to a forever fabulous physique,” to which Cindy candidly responds, “Yes. I can say that with honesty and confidence having experienced the method first-hand for 32 years. I have witnessed hundreds of women achieve strength, stamina, agility and great posture by consistently practicing this method.”
As for the physical results of the “fabulous physique” ? It’s almost a side-effect of the method, Cindy says. Barre is a form of exercise notorious for building beautiful, long, lean muscle. Traditional elements of a classical ballet barre workout along with principles of Pilates and Yoga, offer a challenging workout that creates a long, lean “dancer” look. As Cindy puts it, “One day you suddenly notice—wow, my figure looks great!”
Barre is also a fountain of youth, according to Cindy, going so far as to say her method helps create “an ageless body.” How is this achieved for her clients? “If you were to look at a dancer’s body from the neck down, it would be difficult to determine the age of that person,” Cindy says. “That is exactly what this method does. Everything we do in the studio is intended to either strengthen or lengthen muscles. We are either contracting muscles in a very specific and targeted way, or stretching out specific muscle groups.” This, she says, creates a winning combination of toned, agile, defined bodies.
In addition to the physical benefits that Greenwich Barre Studio provides, it would be remiss to skip over perhaps the less obvious results, which include increased confidence, improved mental health and an awareness of posture. At the studio, Cindy and her team have what they call “a healthy obsession with posture.” “Clients hear me say it multiple times throughout class,” Cindy remarks. “What is the very first thing you notice about a person? The color of their eyes? The designer handbag they are carrying? Nope. The first thing you notice about a person is their posture—how they carry themselves. There’s a reason why “slouch” has such a bad connotation. People with good posture exude confidence.” Ladies walk out of the studio feeling taller and have an awareness of how they carry themselves.
Case in point? When you couple the physical appearance of “shoulders down and back, chin parallel to the floor and eyes looking toward the horizon” with a strong body– that is confidence! You’ll have to take Cindy’s class to find out for yourself.
WEBSITE: greenwichbarrestudio.com
INSTAGRAM: @greenwichbarrestudio