Ballet Hop! started in 2016 after hearing too many women say they were too old, too heavy or too out of practice to take up ballet, and the Saint-Laurent studio near Laurier metro is where it began. The method was developed with ballet teachers and kinesiologists, so classes combine barre technique with cardio and stretching, and the range is deliberately wide: a beginner workout that assumes nothing, HIIT, contemporary and jazz, pointe, floor barre, chair ballet for seniors and people in rehab, and a class you take with a baby strapped to your chest. Kids' classes start at age one and skip the competition and the tight buns.

It runs as a family operation, with the founder's sister behind the Les Impertinentes café, and the company channels part of its work into the Fondation Bas de Laine, which helps women leaving violent homes rebuild financially.