Inside The Community barre3 Built

DOBBS FERRY, N.Y.—When I signed up for my first barre3 class this July in Dobbs Ferry, New York, I expected my body to feel it the next day. 

What I didn’t expect? Well, let me get to that. 

As an Austin Fit Magazine intern from New Jersey writing about the fitness industry, I’ve spent a lot of time in different studios. I usually stick to hot yoga, Pilates, and lifting weights. Barre3 had never entered my mind. 

Then I tried it. 

The class—barre 3’s Signature 60-minute workout—combined strength, cardio and mindfulness with an instructor offering modifications every step of the way. We moved through exercises using a barre (a stationary handrail typically used by ballet dancers), resistance bands, a Pilates ball and weights. It was challenging—that part I got right at least.

A few hours later, my instructor texted me to check in and reassure me that the soreness was completely normal. 

It was a small gesture, but it made me realize the studio was offering more than a place to exercise.

Barre3 Stories of Belonging

After speaking with the people behind barre3’s Austin studios, I realized that feeling wasn’t by chance. 

And that sense of community, it turns out, is the whole point. Tara Miller-Heavner and Kimberly Miller-Goldberg are sisters who co-own three barre3 studios in Austin. Jill Warren opened the first barre3 studio on the East Coast and still owns her studio in Washington, D.C., though she now lives in Austin. 

All three women describe the same idea—albeit in different ways. To each, barre3 is meant to be a third place for its members: a space somewhere beyond home and work where people feel like they truly belong.

That community starts with how the classes are built. Every exercise can be scaled up or down, so a brand-new client or a long-time member who has taken classes for 15 years can be in the same room and walk away feeling challenged.

Classes regularly include clients of all ages—members in their late teens to retirees and women in their 80s. Studios welcome women searching for fitness through pregnancy, and even some recovering from surgery. 

Behind every class is an instructor who has gone through months of training and hands-on coaching. Their objective is to read a room full of different bodies and meet each person exactly where they are that day. It’s partly why a studio can hold a college student and a grandmother in the same hour without either one feeling out of place.

After speaking with Miller-Heavner, Miller-Goldberg and Warren, it was the studio’s stories that stuck with me most.

One client, Miller-Heavner said, continued taking class until she was 37 weeks pregnant, modifying movements along the way. Her adjustments were never viewed as limitations. In Warren’s D.C. studio, a grandmother, mother, and daughter attended classes together for years. 

“At the end of the day, barre3 isn’t about the perfect rep or the heaviest weight,” Miller-Heavner said. 

“It’s about walking into a room where people know your name, celebrate your wins, and show up for you on the hard days too,” Miller-Goldberg added. “That’s what keeps people coming back. It’s not just a workout. It’s family.” 

A Growing Family Tree For barre3

Barre3’s national network of studios are tied together by a loose and informal network. Many owners start out as clients or instructors before opening studios of their own.

Miller-Heavner’s and Miller-Goldberg’s studios have grown the same way, with several of their former clients going on to open locations nearby. Warren described something similar happening on the East Coast: Her early studio became the starting point for a small web of ownership that stretched from Washington, D.C. to New Jersey, New York, and beyond. It’s less a corporate franchise structure, all three admit, rather than a growing family tree. 

How Culture Shapes Value For barre3

Even the way barre3 has evolved has reflected that same value. 

Practices have been added, removed, and sometimes brought back as research on body mechanics has shifted. The studios have moved from being built around a ballet barre to treating it as just one tool among many. 

The workouts now weave in more functional movements alongside the small, precise pulses barre is known for—these workouts train the body for everyday life and not just for the hour spent in class. 

What I’ve learned is that barre3 is about community. And that there’s no right way to move.

The best exercise is the one that makes you feel like you belong. And that’s the part I keep coming back to. 

I walked into barre3 expecting a workout, and I got one.

What I didn’t expect was a place where people of every age and ability could move together and feel supported. The community is what stays with you.