Fitness
Thanksgiving Day Parade every year,
even when it snowed or rained, and my
parents would save up money to take
me to the Christmas Spectacular every
year too. It was difficult for them to pay
for all of my dance classes and shoes
and costumes, so my mom used to
always joke that I’d better become a
Rockette one day. And sure enough…,”
DeAngelo says with a laugh.
FOLLOWING THEIR DREAMS
KICKIN’ IT Lambros and DeAngelo
want The Sports Barre to be a safe
haven for women to workout, feel
supported and, most of all, have fun.
48
MARCH 2016 (201) GOLD COAST
Though Lambros, a Rockette from
2003 to 2012, and DeAngelo, a Rockette
from 2001 to 2008, both loved their
careers as performers, becoming, and
being, a Rockette was no easy task. The
audition process is a full two days of
long lines, dance routines, cuts and
callbacks to, ultimately, become one of
80 women in two casts of 40 to perform
up to six shows a day, six days a week
at Radio City Music Hall. In 2004,
Lambros and DeAngelo began dancing
in the same cast, sharing a dressing
room and forging a friendship that
would last well beyond their years as
performers.
With the Rockette contract lasting
four months per year, Lambros used her
off-seasons getting certified in different
realms of fitness and running her own
group and private training classes
throughout Manhattan. “I loved the
way fitness made me feel and I wanted
to bring that caliber of workout across
the Hudson,” Lambros recalls. “I felt
like Jersey City had a void in the marketplace for a boutique fitness studio.”
DeAngelo, who had been selling real
estate and living in Jersey City since
2006, spent a year in Chicago for her
husband’s job, and returned in 2013
unsure of her next professional move.
“Jacey was teaching some dance-based
classes at the time, so I went to take
one and I just loved it,” she says. “I felt
like I wanted to be doing this every day
of my life.”
The two women decided to go into
business together, quitting their other
jobs and working on a plan to bring
their vision to life on the Gold Coast. In
February of 2015, they opened the doors
to a creative and exciting new way to
sweat it out.