Bright lights, still night.
Colours dance, they standout and create an eye-catching pop of colour amongst the darkness during these cooler months. The City Lights range draws inspiration from the hustle and bustle of the city through to the stillness of the night, drawing rich colour in and out of focus to create the illusion of movement. This coincides with the idea and inspiration of the garment function for this capsule.
Ballet and Barre seemed to be the perfect choice for this range to create movement and expose the garments in their true form. Volume, motion and lightweight pieces are the key characteristics of this collection. They create a dramatic look as you run, jump or flex, allowing ease of movement as you exercise. The garments move with you.
Key pieces to view are:
City Lights 7/8 Leggings and High Neck Performance Crop
The Barre Series photoshoot was created to show the fluidity of movement and the true form of the garments. Our barre expert for the day, Brooke McAuley, is a ballet dancer from Melbourne and has seen a rise in ballet-inspired fitness over the past few years with studios popping up left, right and centre.
Her flexibility, strength and elegance is the envy of us all - she just makes barre look so easy!
The Life Athletic caught up with Brooke to discuss what her fitness regime is as a ballet dancer, and her favourite pieces to wear whilst training.
Q. How do you keep Ballet fit?
BM. My base way of keeping ballet fit is a 1-2 hour of ballet class everyday. A typical ballet class will start standing at the barre with slow plies and gradually moving into the bigger movements like leg extensions, back bending and balances. All of this barre work is preparing you for moving into the centre, where combinations are often more challenging and obviously there is no barre to rely on for balance! Although ballet class is great for breaking a sweat, muscle strength/tone and an overall body workout, it's not always enough of a cardio challenge. I try to do some extra outside ballet work such as 30 minutes of running or interval training on the bike.
Q. How often do you train?
BM. Usually 5-6 times a week. Sometimes more sometimes less depending on when I'm performing at the time.
Q. Do you find you need to keep working at your flexibility or after a certain point and training your body is used to it? More technique and skills?
BM. For me personally, no. I was lucky to be born with naturally very loose joints, so when I was young, and actively trying to become flexible I saw results very quickly. I suppose by the time I hit the teenage years I had already stretched my limbs to the max that they just stayed that way without trying? Like when the elastic in clothing gets so old that you stretch it and it just stays stretched (haha). However in saying that, dancing every day naturally does stretch you and keeps your body mobile. I'd love to know if my flexibility hangs around once I stop dancing...
Q. What do you usually wear to practice in?
BM. It's funny, back in my ballet school training days it was just a simple leotard and tights, nothing else. These days my studio attire is a lot more relaxed...and nowhere near as groomed! I'll always have a leotard on, however I love getting sweaty so I'll layer up in T-shirts, my Jaggad Puffa Vest (which warms up my back for bending) baggy sweat pants or my Jaggad City Lights 7/8 Leggings with a ballet skirt wrapped on top. Maybe Jaggad should bring out a leotard range! Please?
Q. What is your favourite piece from the Jaggad City Lights Range?
BM. Pieces* High necked draped tank and A-line spray jacket are my faves! I like to use 'visualisation' when I'm dancing. For example, when I'm doing a pirouette (spinning) I vision a spinning top. When I wear the Jaggad drape tank and spray jacket, they flare out when I pirouette, just like my visualisation, and I can physically feel it catching the wind momentum. They feel amazing to dance in, and look pretty amazing too!
Photography by Andrea Woodman
Talent: Brooke McAuley
Studio: Xtend Barre Bayside
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