NYCB Workout

Ballet can work magic on the mind and body as it imparts leanness and flexibility to muscles and limbs. Making this available on a broad basis to everyone was the goal when Peter Martins, New York City Ballet’s Ballet Master in Chief, set out to create the original New York City Ballet Workout.

The first step was assembling the right team to develop the idea into a practical exercise regimen. A pilot program was begun under the direction of former NYCB Principal Dancers Peter Frame and Melinda Roy as well as Company physiotherapist Marika Molnar and was supervised by Martins himself.

Initially the team looked at every aspect of the dancers’ approach to training, from basic barre work to physiotherapy. Also taken into account was the fact that many Company dancers use additional forms of training beyond their daily class, ranging from weight-training to water exercises. Drawing on their experience of what dancers do to make them superb athletes and working together with Ann Marie Miller, former fitness-training manager for New York Sports Club, the team was able to ensure all the exercises they were devising would be suitable for anyone to accomplish.

The exercises combine stretching with strengthening and aim to improve body tone giving participants greater flexibility, cardiovascular stamina and better posture. In particular, the New York City Ballet Workout makes people think about how they use their bodies. Strength and flexibility is gained through the use of natural resistance with specific gains in the muscle tone of legs, hips and abdominals.

Individuals perform the New York City Ballet Workout for many reasons, including the calming effect of classical music, to attain greater flexibility, for enhanced grace and posture - but they discover much more. The challenging combination of stretching and strengthening exercises keeps them coming back, and as they discover the rewards of their efforts in their improved body tone, they experience the satisfaction of learning to execute basic ballet technique with the appearance of ease.

The program has been adopted by the New York City Public School system as a physical education alternative in high schools. First available in book format, New York City Ballet Workout (Morrow) was published in 1997. New York City Ballet Workout was released in 2001, in both DVD and video formats, as a co-production of Palm Pictures and New York City Ballet.

Inspired and encouraged by public demand, New York City Ballet has designed New York City Ballet Workout 2, a program that extends the complexity and challenge of the exercises presented in the original New York City Ballet Workout. Filming of NYCB Workout 2 was completed in 2002. NYCB dancers featured in this newest version include Aesha Ash, Deanna McBrearty, Craig Hall, and Seth Orza. NYCB Workout 2 was released in 2003 in DVD and video formats.

This project is a collaboration between New York City Ballet and Palm Pictures.