You Can Work Out at the Met Museum with Choreographer Monica Bill Barnes

January 17, 2017

Ever wish your workout were a little less elliptical-y and a little more…engaged with world-class works of art? No? OK—but now that we’ve mentioned it, you do, right?

Of course you do. And that’s the appeal of “The Museum Workout,” a new work conceived and choreographed by the fabulous Monica Bill Barnes & Company that’s part exercise, part dance performance and part arts appreciation. Basically, it’s a very out-of-the-box guided tour of the Metropolitan Museum of Art—a tour that leaves its audience-members-slash-participants both sweaty and inspired.

Not a bad-looking gym!

For a few weeks this month and next, Barnes and dance partner Anna Bass will lead groups of art/dance/movement enthusiasts through the Met in the early morning hours, before the museum is open to the public. Accompanied by a mix of music and narration as DJed by writer/illustrator Maira Kalman, they’ll literally get people doing squats in front of John Singer Sargent’s iconic Madame X, or stretches near a strangely fascinating dance costume from Papua New Guinea.

It’s a work of art, about works of art, made by the very people who are experiencing it—and it’s a nice little workout, to boot. How nifty is that?

NYC-area peeps can experience “The Museum Workout” for $35 (which is, let’s be real, not that much more than your average spin class). Find more info here.


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