the road to fluidity

how founder michelle austin created the fluidity barre

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Lotte Berk was a Jewish German Ballerina that fled Nazi Germany in 1935 to London. She injured her back and worked with an Orthopedic Surgeon and a Wall Mounted Ballet Barre to design the Original Barre Workout in 1959.

Lotte Berk

Creator of the Original Barre Workout

Michelle & Lotte

Training With Lotte

Michelle Austin trained with Lotte Berk in London and taught at the Lotte Berk Studio on Madison Avenue, New York City.

The Fluidity Prototype

Out of Dad's Basement

Michelle asked her father, a PHD in Physics, to design the first and only free standing ballet barre that not only mimics a wall mounted ballet barre that supports 360 degrees of movement, but is also height adjustable.

The Fluidity Barre received a patent. Since then, Michelle has worked with MIT engineers and has been granted several more patents as she continues to be at the forefront of barre technology.

Misaligned Pelvis

Posterior Pelvic Tilt

Lotte Berk is famous for teaching Barre with a “tuck”. This trained people into a posterior tilt which  unfortunately caused misalignment and injury. Too many Barre Studios still do this.

Aligned Posture

Neutral Pelvis

Michelle Austin uses the Fluidity Barre to train users in all directions, concentrating on acquiring a Neutral Pelvis. This trains for both true function and beauty.

Alumni Fellow

Recognition from the Science Community

Michelle was decorated with the highest award of achievement at the youngest age ever given from Penn State University for her work in Kinesiology, the science of human muscular movements.

best in class endorsement

Fluidity provides the optimal method for not only pelvic floor muscle training, but also to incorporate the pelvic floor muscles functionally into optimal movement patterns. Fluidity training maximizes the woman's ability to modulate intraabdominal pressure by the precise training of co-contraction of the pelvic floor with the abdominal, spine, and diaphragm muscles for inner core muscle strength.

-Dr Cindy Neville, PT, DPT, WCS
Mayo Clinic

Over 500,000 Users

Helping People Look & Feel Their Best

Fluidity has sold over 500,000 Barres and Michelle has received thousands of thank you letters from people with multiple dysfunctions ranging from incontinence, prolapses, balance issues, bad backs, hips, shoulders, and knees.

The Fluidity Barre and movement facilitated their recovery while making them beautiful in the process.

"Fluidity is the gold standard of corrective movement."

– DR. PETER GORMAN