![\"Chloe](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/4d3e73e9-af00-4a81-a691-9b754a6b1d0a.jpg\")
<\/p>\nBarre Social Club, which opened in Churchtown, south Dublin, this week, is owned by Chloe and Justin Middleton.<\/p>\n
Barre, which combines elements of ballet, pilates and yoga, using a ballet barre structure for support, has seen a surge in popularity in the last few years.<\/p>\n
Ms Middleton, who is originally from Cape Town, South Africa, has lived with her husband in Dublin since 2019, and discovered her beloved barre classes were not available here.<\/p>\n
\u200a\u201dWhen I was living in Cape Town, I used to do barre every single day and there were beautiful studios all around Cape Town,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just a thing that was so part and parcel of my life.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I moved to Dublin in 2019, I went onto the Mindbody app and searched for a barre class. There was like one class offered at a studio in town.<\/p>\n
\u201cI couldn\u2019t believe it was something that was so unheard of,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
After noticing a gap in the market, Ms Middleton and her husband decided to go full steam ahead on the barre-only studio.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Chloe and Justin outside their new business in Churchtown<\/p>\n
\u201c\u200aThis year I just said to my husband, \u2018listen, I think we should start this\u2019,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t need to be at a certain fitness level. You\u2019ll get stronger and be able to do more things.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt gives a little bit of a different vibe to a pilates or yoga class. It\u2019s more fun because there\u2019s cool, upbeat music playing.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re standing in your space holding the bar and taking those small movements from pilates and ballet to create this amazing form of exercise.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u200aI really want to bring it to Ireland and make it more of a thing, so people can see it\u2019s not just yoga, it\u2019s not just pilates.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Middleton also believes the perception of barre and reformer pilates being solely for women is shifting.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt really is a holistic practice that is inclusive of so many people. It\u2019s not just for women either,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are rugby players now even doing reformer pilates. I do think there is a change where men see the benefits. It\u2019s not just about picking up super heavy weights or running.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Middleton says barre is a beginner friendly fitness class with no prior ballet experience needed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve gotten messages that are like \u2018oh my gosh, like do I have to do ballet before in my previous life?\u2019 And no, not at all,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Ms Middleton has said finding staff for her niche fitness industry has been difficult because of a lack of instructors in Dublin.<\/p>\n
However, she hopes to provide barre training down the line.<\/p>\n
\u200a\u201dGetting a bar instructor is difficult at this point in Dublin. Just finding them, reaching out to them, going to their classes,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I do feel there is so much space for growth and to really introduce something new to the market.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Barre Social Club, which opened in Churchtown, south Dublin, this week, is owned by Chloe and Justin Middleton.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7384,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[64,63,538,137],"class_list":["post-7383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fitness","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fitness","tag-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}