The Barre

Natalie is a native of the north east. Born in South Shields, she lived most of her young life in the area until she moved away to attend vocational performing arts school, Northern Ballet School.

After sustaining an injury whilst still in full time training she often had to exchange her usual rigorous physical regime for injury rehab and non-impact exercise. It was at this time, when Natalie was first introduced to Pilates and the Lotte Berk Method, both non-impact exercise methods which maintain a level of strength akin to that of a professional dancer.

Because of this method Natalie was able to graduate with the rest of her class in top physical form, she was sold! Having already obtained professional dance teacher certificates, Natalie decided to add certified Pilates instructor to her list of qualifications. Natalie went on to work in the world of professional dance and in 1998 traveled to the USA, little did she know that this would be her home for the next 10 years.

Natalie worked as a dancer and choreographers assistant, covering the east coast to the west coast, working in New York, Las Vegas and eventually settling in Los Angeles where she began teaching full time in the city's most prestigious Pilates studios. After spending time building a loyal client base, she opened her own successful studio in the heart of LA. Natalie maintained strong ties in the dance world, with many choreographers and dancers making up her clientele. It was through this contact that Natalie saw the opportunity to branch out from the pure holistic form of Pilates and merge it with her love of dance, creating something a little more upbeat that would create a flexible, strong, lithe "dancers body" for all of her clients.

By combining, updating and modifying the most effective moves in her entire repertoire, and drawing on all of her experience, she found the magic formula…

The Barre Workout was born. The reaction was exceptional. The results were remarkable!

Gemma trained as a contemporary dancer and has a HND Dance and Ba Hons studying both at Dance city and The Northern School of Contemporary Dance.

Since graduating in 2005, she has has worked as a dancer in Virtual Motion Dance Company, project based performances and various commercial dance contracts.

Currently a lecturer at Newcastle College on a Foundation Degree Contemporary Dance course she delivers a range of practical and academic based skills.

With a background of various dance techniques such as Contemporary, Ballet and Jazz, and after sustaining several injuries, The Barre Workout has helped to re-train and rebuild Gemma's strength in a new dynamic way.

Jill completed an HND in contemporary dance performance at DanceCity and continued a vocational training at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in Leeds, where she built upon her creative and technical skills within contemporary, ballet and choreography.

Currently a Lecturer at Newcastle College Performance Academy, Jill delivers a range of practical and theoretical based subjects to 16-19 year old students within contemporary and ballet techniques and anatomy.

In collaboration with North-East based dancers she continues to pursue her choreographic interests by exploring and experimenting with movement and its qualities and has created and developed short works performed at various dance platforms within the region.

Finding a balance between teaching and maintaining fitness levels can be challenging, so The Barre Workout has helped Jill to increase overall body strength and flexibility with its short, but intense sessions!!…

Born and raised in Lancaster, Clare had a love of dance from an early age. At 11 years she went to train professionally at the Hammond Ballet School, Chester and then went on to complete her training at the Northern Ballet School, Manchester where she met, grew up and graduated with Natalie.

Clare moved into a very successful performing career, travelling the world with Princess Cruise Lines and spending over a year in Japan at Tokyo Disneyland.

Leaving Asia behind, Clare took time out back in old Blighty to dance on the West End stage in Fame the Musical.

After the years of dancing started to take it’s toll, Clare decided the next move would be to find something that kept her in ‘dancer’ shape but worked out some of the inevitable injuries collected along the way.

Cue The Barre!

Since Clare has trained in the technique she is already feeling the benefits and is very excited to be instructing as part of The Barre family.

Andrea grew up in Poole, Dorset, leaving home at 16 years old to study performing arts at Laine Theatre Arts in Epsom, Surrey, majoring in dance and drama. Upon graduating, she toured extensively as a dancer, working in Japan, France and Italy and spending a year cruising the Mediterranean.

Andrea then touched down in London for a brief spell, making her West End debut at the London Palladium as a Tiller Girl. Before long, Andrea was then off to sea once more, circumnavigating the globe on a world cruise. An engagement with Carnival Cruise Lines took her to America, where she spent the next five years cruising the Caribbean and West Coast of America and Mexico as Dance Captain, performing in and managing the onboard production shows.

Switching her sea legs for terra firma, Andrea settled in Los Angles (the terra is not exactly firma in LA but you get the picture) which was to be her home for the next ten years. Hanging up her dancing shoes, Andrea stepped out of the spotlight and moved behind the scenes, working in production as an Extras Casting Assistant on feature length movies. During this time, Andrea was happily reunited with her dance pal Natalie Catlah, and began training in Pilates at Nat’s LA studio.

Andrea finally decided to move closer to her roots and family, via Newcastle, and is thrilled to re-join Natalie and become an instructor at The Barre.