ITEM PHOTO BY OWEN O’ROURKE
Teacher and studio manager Leigh Welch, back, and Amanda Sheehan do full-body workouts at Pure Barre at MarketStreet Lynnfield.
BY GAYLA CAWLEY
LYNNFIELD —Leigh Welch gave up a career as an attorney to get back to her dance roots as a manager and instructor at Pure Barre, helping clients transform their bodies through a fast-moving workout with a ballet barre.
“I love Pure Barre so much,” Welch said. “I was willing to let go of what I was doing.”
Welch was an attorney for almost three years and a client at a Pure Barre location in Newton when she saw a posting for a manager position at Pure Barre in Lynnfield, at 530 MarketStreet. As a client and believer of the Pure Barre workout, she decided to take her passion to the next level and apply for the job.
Welch became studio manager of the Lynnfield Pure Barre in December 2013 when construction on the store started, and was there for its grand opening Jan. 30, 2014.
According to the franchise’s website, Pure Barre uses the ballet barre to perform small, isometric movements set to music. The total-body workout lifts and tones different body parts and burns fat in a short amount of time. Welch said the hour-long workout incorporates pilates, yoga and circuit training.
“I found it to be the only type of workout that I liked,” Welch said. “It moves really fast and truly works.”
Working with Pure Barre has been a return to her roots, says Welch, as she has a dance background. She performed different types of dance, including ballet, jazz, contemporary and tap for 26 years and taught mainly contemporary dance for seven years.
Welch also makes sure to give back to the community, with monthly fundraisers through her studio. In August, her studio raised over $12,000 for the Northeast Animal Shelter in Salem and donated over 500 towels. She said the initial goal was $5,000. Every August, Pure Barre studios compete with each other to raise funds for a certain charity.
“To date, that’s the biggest success I’ve had here,” Welch said of the fundraiser.
This month, Welch and her staff are collecting pajamas for the Community Giving Tree. Last month, she put together a food drive for Haven for Hunger in Peabody. Other charity work has been for the Boston Children’s Hospital.
“We’re here,” Welch said. We’re successful. We should be giving back.”
Welch said there are six teachers at her studio, with 43 classes taught each week. She teaches about four of those classes each week.
Amanda Sheehan, a teacher at the studio since it opened, said she teaches about seven classes a week. Sheehan also started out as a Pure Barre client in Burlington.
So far, all of the classes follow the same structure, although the content of the class changes day to day. A new Pure Barre Platform class will be introduced in early 2016, which Welch said is a straight cardio class and utilizes a step platform.
Although pure barre is a hard workout, Welch said nobody should be afraid to try it. She said it typically takes five to eight classes to get used to what is done in class and grasp the technique.
“If you can hold onto a barre, you can do Pure Barre,” Welch said.
Gayla Cawley can be reached at [email protected]