BRISTOL – A new fitness and wellness space at 173 School St. celebrated its grand opening weekend on Friday with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.
“I am excited for this opportunity for the community and people to get out and enjoy a moment of mindfulness and relaxation,” said School Street Studios owner Hilary Stoudt. “It’s been a really tough two and a half years. I think people don’t understand what they need until they get it, so I hope they’re willing to step out of their comfort zone and try something new.”
School Street Studio offers a variety of classes and workout times focused on Yoga, Zumba, meditation, barbell exercises and more. Free classes will be offered over the weekend from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., both Saturday and Sunday, for those interested in trying out what the business has to offer.
Barre exercises make use of a ballet barre and incorporate movements derived from ballet. Zumba is a fitness program that uses Latin-inspired dance. Yoga is a spiritual and wellness discipline that uses controlled breathing practices, body postures, and meditation to improve health and mindfulness.
“The goal of the studio is to be accessible to all generations and the schedule will grow as well,” Stoudt said. “We really want to focus on anything to get the community moving and healthy.”
Stoudt noted that the space could potentially be used for musical activities, Reiki, children’s dance and more.
“It’s multiple studios in one place,” Stoudt said.
The owner said she was inspired to open School Street Studios because every time she walked out of a yoga class she felt better.
“If that can be brought into the community, that’s always a good thing,” Stoudt said. “I started doing yoga when I was 21 years old. Since then it has become a part of my life. That feeling of calm and clarity and I think gratitude is really the most important thing. When people can feel grateful that they found a moment to slow down and reflect, that to me is wellness.
The building in which School Street Studio rests will be a “centerpiece” of the state’s upcoming Routes 72 and 69 realignment project, as well as a new streetscape, Bristol Mayor Jeff Caggiano said. He pointed out that urban landscape designers had been partially aesthetically inspired by the architecture of the building.
“Not only will there be a traffic calming effect, but the whole purpose of these streetscapes, where we have a lot of great new businesses growing here, is that people can walk to those businesses,” he continued.
For more information, visit the School Street Studios Facebook page.
(function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(d.getElementById(id)){return;}js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=”https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js#xfbml=1&appId=210861005636155″;fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}(document,’script’,’facebook-jssdk’)); .
