UPPER EAST SIDE — Want a body like a Victoria's Secret angel?
Professional ballerina Mary Helen Bowers — who's trained Victoria's Secret angels like Gigi Hadid, Miranda Kerr and Lily Aldridge, and Natalie Portman for a role in "Black Swan" — is opening a ballet-inspired fitness studio called Ballet Beautiful in two floors of a townhouse at 19 E. 75th Street, between Fifth and Madison avenues.
"I train a lot of celebrities, including a lot of women who work for Victoria's Secret as Angels," Bowers said. "For that person who is a Victoria's Secret Angel and their body is out there on display in front of millions and millions of people, Ballet Beautiful is good because the work out makes the body so toned and strong and still really allows you to be feminine. It burns fat in all the right places."
The studio offers small group classes using dance techniques to move, stretch and tone muscles through repetition, mat work and light cardio — all done to classical piano music, according to Bowers.
Results can be seen in two weeks if the workout is done for at least three hours a week, she said.
"It’s a work out for anyone," Bowers said. "It's so transformative. It burns like crazy because we go deep into all those muscles."
Like the other instructors at Ballet Beautiful, Bowers was classically trained. She attended the School of American Ballet and danced with the New York City Ballet and the NYCB at Lincoln Center.
Bowers started her company with online training tutorials back in 2008, when she began working with Portman on "Black Swan." In 2011, she opened her first brick-and-mortar studio in SoHo.
Since then she has had a ton of requests from clients who live in Upper Manhattan who couldn't make it to SoHo on a daily basis, she said.
The new townhouse space offers large windows and room for a retail section, where clients can pick up Ballet Beautiful activewear, including tutus, leotards and ballet slippers.
The studio soft launched in December with private and semi-private classes but once it officially opens at the end of this month, classes will be held from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and rates can be discussed via email at training@balletbeautiful.com.
