These Babes are Raising the Barre

Garage Barre™ creators Lacey Garrett, 38, and Kirby Dudley, 26, set out a year ago to create a fitness community in Murfreesboro unlike any other. Typically, a barre class will consist of postures that are inspired by ballet moves and other forms of fitness such as yoga and Pilates. The barre itself is used to keep your balance as you incorporate traditional ballet moves and isometric strengthening. Yoga mats and light hand weights are also incorporated to help build arm and core strength.

They wanted to combat all the reasons why women wouldn’t join a typical barre class; things like cost, building a strong community of women, squashing the stereotypes that you needed to wear expensive leggings or already have a background in dance and fitness to participate.

Lacey comes from a dancer background and even taught a dance cardio class before forming Garage Barre™ with Kirby, who had worked out and been active in sports her entire life. They went to get certified and trained as barre fitness instructors, transformed Lacey’s garage into a barre studio that fit five customers, and after just six weeks of promoting via Facebook they soon outgrew their studio and moved to The Warehouse off Middle Tennessee Boulevard.

They’ve started a community of strong women, the Garage Barre Babes™, who help build each other up. “Community over competition” was one of the first phrases they used for their marketing and it held true inside the studio and outside. They didn’t want women to look at someone else in the class that was doing better and feel like they had to compete to keep up. And shockingly, this also went outside of the studio as they encouraged women to “find their tribe and go to other barre studios that they felt more comfortable in”.

We have seen an influx of entrepreneurs with the millennial generation. Kirby, the millennial of the duo, stated that she thinks the “boom of the internet and everything online makes it so much easier to do your own business. You don’t have to have a brick and mortar store anymore.” Even though they do have a physical building for their business, they talked about doing everything online and building up from there with livestreaming. Everything is so user friendly and there are so many articles out there that will teach you the tools you need to get started that anyone with a passion and a drive can bring their ideas for a business to life.

Lacey mentioned that “our parents were really big into the ‘you can do whatever you want’ and ‘you’re special’. . . And that was all that was coming out of their mouths into our ears,” which could be one of the reasons millennials think they can do anything. Most of us came from baby boomers who had less opportunities and with the vast advancements in technology they saw the potential their kids could have if they applied themselves.

Lacey says “My parents always made it look like I had an asset being a woman and so I’ve just had blinders on and gone for doing what I want to do and be the best I can be.” Being in the barre business Kirby mentioned that they “don’t really get any push back for being women entrepreneurs” because their demographic is women.

These “babes” have a drive and a passion for barre, fitness, and community among

women. You can see their schedule and pricing at garagebarre.com

*Photos courtesy of Garage Barre