MEET OUR FOUNDER & OWNERS
Allison Jennings Poston | Founder
Allison trained on scholarship at the North Carolina School of the Arts where she studied classical ballet and modern dance. Additionally, she studied in Boston, New York City, Seattle, and Europe. Having received the Nordan Fine Arts Award from Texas Christian University’s dance department, she returned to Texas to attend TCU. Fast forward a decade later, she discovered ‘barre’, classes, and quickly fell in love with the results. She traveled to NYC to find classes and study different methods to be able to create her own practice at her home in Texas. Soon the long, lean muscles she had when she was a dancer started taking shape, but in an efficient frame of time for a mother of two children. Wanting to share her own version of barre to friends, she invited a group to share her ‘Smart Barre Technique’. After all, exercising is much more fun with other women! With encouragement from friends and family, just one year later, she opened up her own studio. Since then, she has granted Smart Barre licenses to three incredibly Smart women where they have expanded the method and lifestyle all over Fort Worth and San Antonio, she completed her Pilates Certification through the Pilates Sports Center in Los Angeles, California, and has continued to grow, learn and share this body-changing technique with women of all ages.
Natalie McElroy | Studio Owner, Camp Bowie & Master Trainer
Natalie grew up in the small town of California, Missouri, and her pursuit of ballet gave her opportunity to perform and study dance all over the world. Natalie moved to Fort Worth in 2006 to attend the Department of Ballet and Modern Dance at Texas Christian University. She graduated with a BFA in 2010. Upon graduation, Natalie became certified in Pilates through the Physical Mind Institute of New York City. In August of 2011 Natalie joined the Smart Barre team at Camp Bowie. Having served as the Director of Training for Smart Barre studios, then Studio Manager, Natalie transitioned to be the proud owner, along with her husband, Trent, of Smart Barre Camp Bowie in January of 2018. Later that fall, they welcomed their first daughter! Natalie is grateful to raise her daughter around such strong, encouraging women in the Smart Barre community. The principles Smart Barre embody of life-balance, promoting healthy minds and bodies, and building a positive community for women, is truly her way of living, and why it is her second home.