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[0:00] Unknown speaker: For the first few months, Ruth was literally the only instructor. There was nobody else teaching there. After that, the core six, the original six instructors, the ones who are still there today, they all came from West Hollywood. You had Lori Cole, who was an actress, big diva energy. Then you had Sue, who was a fitness instructor, but she was also a full-time United Airlines flight attendant. I'm not kidding. She would fly cross-country, working the flight. Then she would get to New York and teach a spin class and then fly back and work that flight and fly back to Los Angeles and teach that class. Then you had Stacey Griffith, who was the big one. She's open about this. She overcame drug addiction, meth, cocaine.

Then all of a sudden, she's like Ellen DeGeneres on a spin bike. She became this huge sensation. These housewives throwing their panties at her. This one housewife left her husband for her. It was all over Page Six. This is the Cult of Body and Soul, Episode 2, A Star Is Born.

[1:16] Unknown speaker: We were previously introduced to Aaron and Glynnis in Episode 1, Made in LA. They were among the original riders at SoulCycle's first studio on 72nd Street, Manhattan's Upper West Side. At the time, I lived on 86th Street and I would walk to 72nd. That trip down Columbus Avenue, no matter if it was hot or cold, would be so exciting. I got to get there. I got to move my bike. I got to get to my bike. As time went on, you'd start to walk and you'd start to see people. You'd be like, hey, you're going to the 830. All of a sudden, this community started to form, even on the street. All of a sudden, it would be like these people walking together. You turn that corner off Columbus on 72nd and it would start to be this.

You'd see the crowd outside. You'd be like, oh, this one's here. That one's here. The cab started to pull up. The drivers started to pull up. People started getting out of their cars. You walked into this weird office building. It was May 2006. I feel like maybe they had been open a month, a couple of weeks. It was right next to Juice Generation, but it was unmarked. You went through these glass doors and right ahead of you was this stainless steel elevator. You were like, what? Where am I? This is one of SoulCycle's very first employees. Louise was working as a waitress at Alice's Teacup, a restaurant located just one block over from the studio. Louise had a 10-year career at SoulCycle. She assisted Julie Rice and Elizabeth Cutler, the founders, in the very beginning.

She worked the front desk and eventually became an instructor. Now it feels like you're in somebody's space, but if you take a hard left, there was a door. Then it was dimly lit. You go down this really long, narrow hallway. There's this magical, amazing place. There was a desk. I said, hi, I'm looking to help you if you're looking for help. Julie and Elizabeth were both there. Unbeknownst to me at the time what this was or what anything meant, they were like, yeah, when can you start? I was like, I have to actually go back and finish my shift. They were like, just come back. I asked her to characterize the three founders. Julie, in my experience of her, was very straightforward, sometimes kind of curt, sometimes loving and nurturing, but in a strict bad cop kind of way, if need be.

Elizabeth was very crunchy granola, very like, oh my gosh, you're here. Let's hug. I was like, wait, what do you need me to do? I'm trying to be helpful. No, let's just talk for a second. How are you? It was just such yin and yang. I guess that's why they work so well together. I felt like, Julie, I could never be fast enough. And for Elizabeth, I needed her to be faster. And what was Ruth like? She was an instructor. She was like on a pedestal. And it was weird.

[4:13] Unknown speaker: In the very beginning, you would actually sign up for class using MindBodyOnline. MindBodyOnline is a generic site where you can sign up for all sorts of classes. Yoga, Pilates, gyms, and SoulCycle was just lumped in with the hundreds across New York City. The SoulCycle website was extremely primitive with barely the logo and the address. Again, this is spring of 2006. Lululemon wasn't open yet and we're still a year away from the very first iPhone release in June of 2007. And an app for signups? Well, that wouldn't be built until 2015. For me personally, my biggest lesson at SoulCycle is that's where I learned how to run a business. I worked in so many different departments. I ran a studio.

I started from the bottom, started from the bottom. Now I'm here. I worked at front desk. I was a manager. I worked in the corporate office. I worked in multiple different roles in the corporate office. I was there for almost eight years. And when I left there, I literally knew how to run a business. It did feel like a lot of times we were playing business in the beginning. I feel like I got an MBA. This is Miles. He and Louise work together at Alice's Teacup, cobbling together restaurant jobs to support themselves in New York City.

[5:38] Unknown speaker: They were like, go outside with these flyers, hand out these free passes, get butts in the door. Like, so I would go to this balloon shop in the 80s on Amsterdam, and I would get balloons and sort of Dick Van Dyke, Mary Poppins, Burt style with like one man band, like tie balloons to like my ankles and wrists and walk around like street corners and hand them out to people and say, like, come for a free class at SoulCycle. And they'd be like, what is that? So then I would have to explain it. But I got to take free classes. And I was excited. Or I'd walk in Central Park and try to like stop runners or other people on bikes and be like, come inside. And they were like, I don't want to do that. I want to ride outside.

But you do it enough and people come in and then it's magic. And so then they come back. I was kind of transitioning out of my acting career. I was a part of the Broadway community. And when I wasn't doing shows, I was managing a restaurant on the Upper West Side called Alice's Teacup. And as most soul people know, the original SoulCycle was on 72nd Street between Amsterdam and Columbus. And Alice's Teacup was on 73rd Street between Amsterdam and Columbus. Some of the original instructors were regulars at Alice's Teacup because of the proximity. So they would encourage the staff to come on over and ride. After all, they were neighboring businesses. I think they had like a little plaque on the wall that said like SoulCycle.

But it looked like you were walking into like a dentist's office. It was like a regular like, you know, when you're in New York City, when you go into a building, you walk down 50 feet and then you make a sharp left and then you make another sharp right. I'm like, where the fuck is this place? Then all of a sudden you go through a door and you're in this like makeshift cycling studio. And I was like, where and how is this happening? And then so you walk in and there's a desk and there's like a little space and then there's like these glass doors. And then behind the glass doors is the class. The lobby was so tiny that people were shoulder to shoulder going in and out of class. There was one bathroom, a few lockers and no shower.

They decorated the entry with grapefruit scented candles, which would become the brand's signature scent. They sold one piece of merch, a T-shirt with a yellow wheel that said SoulCycle. So like it was loud when the class was going on, like you can't talk or do anything. You can't hear anything. There was no like soundproofing. It clearly is not a space made for working out and especially loud workouts like SoulCycle. Miles would go on to not only work for SoulCycle HQ, but witnessed the company's expansion firsthand as he managed studio openings across the country.

[8:14] Unknown speaker: SoulCycle has opened in New York City, the very first studio fitness of its kind. And Julie's here trying to like sell to these women who are going like, I can get all of this at a gym. Why am I coming to this back alley, stinky, small little studio?

[8:45] Janet Fitzgerald: So these women did not have an easy time of it, trying to sell people on it. And she began to email me and try to recruit me. And her and Elizabeth would fly into Los Angeles and take class. And we go to Earth Cafe down the street and have breakfast. And they would try to talk me into coming. And every time I'd say no, it would take two years, cutting Ruth Zuckerman and a bit of success to seduce Janet. The first few months were slow. Some classes had just a few people. The sound system broke nearly every day and they received regular noise complaints. So they sometimes had to lower the music to just a whisper. But that core group of instructors, including Lori Cole and Stacey Griffith, were stars with a dedicated following.

[9:39] Unknown speaker: Suddenly, some press. The Daily Candy email newsletter reviewed a SoulCycle class, which we talked about in episode one. This drew a ton of BlackBerry addicted plugged in 30 somethings. To keep the momentum, Julie and Elizabeth realized their next move would be to open a summer outpost in the Hamptons. Ruth was definitely hesitant about expanding so soon, but Julie and Elizabeth knew better. So after the first year in Manhattan, they opened the now iconic Bridge Hampton Studio, located in an old barn.

[10:19] Unknown speaker: The significance of the Bridge Hampton Studio, a.k.a. the barn, cannot be overstated. The Hamptons is where the one percent of New Yorkers socialize, beach, shop and live between Memorial Day and Labor Day each summer. With real estate in the Hamptons, they were no longer just a local Upper West Side neighborhood cycling studio. Now they could showcase the workout and the star instructors to Tribeca, the Upper East Side, Westchester and even the international crowd that the Hamptons drew. Kelly Ripa became their first celebrity superfan, regularly talking about SoulCycle on television every morning. She described her first ride with the publication Style of Sport. Here she's gushing about her favorite instructor, Stacey Griffith.

[11:09] Kelly Ripa: My girlfriend took me to a charity spin. They had just opened the barn and halfway through the class, Stacey came over to me and she said, you can sit down because I couldn't, I couldn't conceptualize what was happening.

[11:23] Janet Fitzgerald: I had taken spin classes before, never really liked them, never really thought anything about them. They seemed kind of disorganized, and this was organized. And I was trying to keep up, but I really didn't know what I was doing. My legs were flying all over the place, and she was like, sit down, turn on the resistance, and she really paid attention to my first ride. And I thought, oh, this is for me, because this is a group atmosphere, but you get one-on-one attention, because Stacey really does look at you. She looks at everybody and makes adjustments. If they're not doing something right, she will adjust them.

[11:58] Janet Fitzgerald: One could argue that this first summer in the Hamptons is the moment SoulCycle evolved into a lifestyle brand. Suddenly, all of these people were exposed to this secret club on 72nd Street. Once Labor Day hit and it was back to school, 72nd Street was bursting at the seams. Rolled out classes, wait lists, escalades wrapped around the block. The demand was there for not only additional studios, but instructors. 72nd Street was lined with black SUVs of these ladies getting out to check into their class and then get back in their little, it was wild. You walked around the corner, and it was just lines of these cars. And classes were full, and now there was a wait list, and now there was a fight over who was on bike six. And it was less about the fitness of it and more about the overall experience of it.

[12:55] Janet Fitzgerald: And yeah, I feel like it seemingly happened overnight that the phones would be going off the hook. I'm running late, I'm stuck in traffic across the park, don't give my bike away. But in the beginning, that wasn't the way it was. It was the real housewives of SoulCycle, you know, and they fed into that. I remember going to a class at like 11.30 in the morning one day when I was off from work, and I'm like, my God, it's packed. You know, there's a lot of women, they drop their kids off, and then they go to spin. And a lot of times I feel like the time of day mattered more than who was teaching. Like they had to take the 8.30 because they needed to get to work. Then it morphed into, no, I have to be with the person who's going to heal my spirit. It was less about the fitness of it and more about the overall experience of it.

[14:01] Janet Fitzgerald: This was also when Julie and Elizabeth realized that they were stronger and more strategic without Ruth's involvement on the business side. They knew they couldn't lose her following, so they made her an offer she couldn't refuse. Believe it or not, Ruth stayed on as an instructor for two more years before she left to co-found SoulCycle's main competitor, Flywheel. I was never ever directed by Ruth to do anything. Like to me, she was a silent partner and co-founder and instructor. And Julie and Elizabeth did like phones, press, checking in, customer service, back-end financial type stuff.

[14:24] Jess Rothschild: But did you understand that she was an owner?

[14:27] Janet Fitzgerald: Yeah, maybe no. What was she to do, go back to Reebok and make $40 a class when every single person who was taking her classes there are now at SoulCycle? Ruth Zuckerman is certainly a success. She went on to co-found the second biggest cycling studio in New York City with Flywheel. But no one was going to dethrone SoulCycle. Cutting Ruth as a business partner allowed Julie and Elizabeth to focus on two emerging priorities. One, finding the best instructors to meet demand. And two, finally seduce Janet Fitzgerald into joining them.

[15:13] Janet Fitzgerald: When I got here, Julie and Elizabeth signed me up to take Ruth's class. I had no idea at the time that they were on the rocks or anything was going south. I just knew that the girls were in business together. Remember, Janet was Julie's muse back in L.A. at Body and Soul. Julie had told me that Ruth's idea of staffing was that they should just really come to the United States to find the biggest and the best instructors and bring them to New York City. Because she didn't really feel, this is hearsay, but according to Julie, Ruth didn't feel like she could train someone just to be a great instructor, that you need to go out and find the greatest. That's part of it.

[16:04] Janet Fitzgerald: We had a very different concept in how to create an instructor, and I benefited from that. So when she went to Flywheel and I said, I can train anyone. Matter of fact, I'd rather train some creative little magical unicorn at the front desk than I would ever take some sloppy leftovers in the fitness industry that they've taught everything. You know what I mean? I don't want that person because they don't know how to break it down and be raw and real and present because they're still teaching from whatever method they've been teaching all these years, and it's dry and boring. So it takes a long time for me to undo an old dog and very little time for me to create a new hot puppy.

[16:47] Janet Fitzgerald: Janet's concept of who would make great SoulCycle instructors was exactly in line with Julie and Elizabeth's thinking. After all, they always said, we're not in the fitness business. We're in the hospitality and talent business. Finally, Julie said, I'm going to bring you to New York. I'm going to put you up for a couple weeks, you and your girlfriend. I'll fly you out here. I'll pay you whatever you need to make, and let's just try that, and then I'll make you a final offer. If you don't take it, I'll leave you alone. And I was like, honey, we're going for Christmas to New York City because I had no intention. By the way, Julie was an agent. She doesn't take no for an answer and she gets everything she wants, period. That's all.

[17:28] Janet Fitzgerald: And so Janet goes to New York to teach for a couple of weeks and absolutely hates it. Tracy, my girlfriend, and I came to New York. We were greeted in the street and she gave me keys to an apartment and a bottle of Stag's Leap red wine. And I was like, this is great. This is a good start. And I don't recall now where that apartment was, but I do know it was a walk up. Very disturbing for this Los Angeles person. I don't know if it was a three or four flight walk up. Okay. I'm not even used to walking. We don't walk in Los Angeles. You get in your car, you circle 20 times before you decide to leave because there's not a closer parking place and there's no laundry. So I'm like lugging my sweaty shit down the street to the local laundromat. My feet hurt. It's raining. I'm freezing. I'm also fat. I'm just telling you the truth.

[18:33] Janet Fitzgerald: Studios were now open on the Upper West Side, Tribeca and the Upper East Side. They had Janet running ragged, teaching at all three studios upwards of 12 times a week. And she was not falling in love with New York City. She was done and pleaded with Julie to just set her free back to L.A. And she goes, okay, how about we do this? How about I just I pay you what I agreed to pay you. I'll back you off to about six a week. And I know that you train people. Would you mind working with some instructors? So I met with a small group of instructors, which is where I met Claire Veronica Walsh, this new budding instructor that they were trying to promote. And she was she was full of fire. I mean, like it was wild just to be in the same room with her.

[19:20] Janet Fitzgerald: Claire Veronica Walsh was part of a test group of potential new instructors. She really had no idea how to teach a class, let alone curate a musical experience for writers. But she was an ingenue. I think Claire was about 16 when she first started writing. And she fell in love big time hard and said to Julian Elizabeth, I need to teach. And they were like, you are a kid. No way. And she would take her little laptop and sit outside the door and like take notes on the playlists of Ruth, Stacy, Lori. She would just sit there and write down the songs of the playlists in the order, listen to them. And she would then, you know, come back with her mom to ride and then chat up everybody and everyone. And then Julie finally said, OK, work the desk like I can't fight you forever. You're going to be here all the time anyway. You might as well be useful.

[20:19] Janet Fitzgerald: One day, an instructor had to cancel last minute. So Claire jumped at the chance to substitute the class soon. Janet was mentoring her. I think she was about 18 and she wasn't getting good feedback. And I was like, OK, let me see what you got here. What's the what's this playlist? And she goes, well, I have like 20 songs. And I'm like, why would you have 20 songs? She goes, well, I have 10, but I have a backup in case something doesn't work. I'm like, first of all, don't ever do that. OK, I need you to sit at home, light a candle, pray, meditate, put this set list together. And that is what you'll be using. And if it's not working, then you're not doing something right. OK, so let me see it again. Look for the playlist. I could take that out, move this here, move this here, move that here. Go teach that.

[21:14] Janet Fitzgerald: She calls me and says someone just gave me like the lottery numbers. What the heck did you do? And I'm like, I got you, girl. The lottery numbers are basically the keys to unlocking a successful playlist. It's all based on curating a 45 minute ride based on the beats per minute of each song. This was one foundation of an extensive training program that was developed over time. We're going to explore the training program in detail next episode. Janet also found a soulmate in Claire. Maybe she was a reflection of her younger self. Claire and I fall in love with each other, meaning like sisterly love, not actually like girlfriend love, but just like she feels like my mini me, like I've never met a small me before. It was wild.

[22:05] Janet Fitzgerald: She says, I've always wanted to move to Los Angeles. She goes, can I come? And I said, yeah, you just come to Los Angeles with me. I'll get you a job. So I have a couple meetings with Stacy Griffith, Julie, Elizabeth, whatever. And they're trying to talk me into staying. And I'm like, listen, I got all kinds of things I want to do. One is I'm going to get a warehouse in Culver City and I'm going to get a church choir on Sundays. And I want to produce Moulin Rouge on a bike. And I'm going to have aerial artists coming from the ceiling. And I'm painting this picture and they're looking at me like I'm insane. Julie goes, I'll let you do it here. They would eventually allow Janet to produce Moulin Rouge, but under very unexpected circumstances.

[23:17] Janet Fitzgerald: Any instructor would ever dream of making an LA. Why did Julie throw that money at her?

[23:23] Janet Fitzgerald: Because she wanted to be able to take her favorite instructor anytime she wanted.

[23:28] Janet Fitzgerald: And would you believe she said yes? And she made that happen. I think she just threw me that money because she wanted to take my class and like it was part of the deal. And I said, because I need to be able to work with people like Claire. I need the next level of this. I need to be able to train people to do what I do and to help people be able to deliver this.

[23:51] Janet Fitzgerald: With this promise began a very rough version of the instructor training program, which I was essentially making up as I went along. So we have auditions and Julie and I are in the room with the clipboards. And Julie doesn't ask me anything about curriculum, what we plan on doing, you know, anything. And I just start hanging out with these kids. We go out to dinner. We go to yoga. They come to my house. We sit on the floor for hours at a time talking about how to spiritually prepare to put these many pieces of artwork together, these little experiences. It's like making a short film.

[24:46] Janet Fitzgerald: I taught them how to make the class more of a conversation using rhythm writing and yoga style guidance throughout the entire ride. I also showed them how to cue transitions without excessive counting like a stereotypical instructor. At the time, they never even asked me when they would be done. I swear to you, I think we're sitting on the floor talking for about six months. Finally, I brought the idea of a community ride to Julie. A community ride would serve two purposes. One, to see if these kids can actually teach a class and second, to offer a free class to anyone who signs up. Therefore, I can critique the class and it's a nice give back to the community.

[25:31] Janet Fitzgerald: Lord knows how, but I started turning out legit superstars. No one at any gym in Manhattan is delivering what SoulCycle is. Word of mouth began to surge. Like, I'll never forget this one time, Danny Coppell, who was basically a magician on a bike. I mean, you've never seen anything like this guy teach. It was dinner and a show. It was lights and water. You'd look up at one point, and you didn't even see Danny get off the bike. All of a sudden, he's crawling like a cat along the handlebars of the second row. You know what I mean? It was unbelievable.

[26:10] Janet Fitzgerald: Julie used to say, I don't take his class because I'll be up for several weeks trying to figure out how he did it. Now, there's a lot of different layers of what happened at SoulCycle. In the early days, instructors would get on the bike and stay there. The music was pretty much rock and roll that would appeal to the Upper West Side crowd or top 40. As they hired younger, more theatrically inclined performers, they started to improvise. They got on and off the bike a lot. They had more eclectic taste in music. Now, there's choreography, lights. A certain alchemy began to happen in the room. It became performance art.

[26:49] Janet Fitzgerald: The poster child of SoulCycle as performance art was the quiet, wickedly smart Danny Kopel. The whole training, Danny never said a word to me. He just sat there with his little feathered hair. He never really said a word. His music choices were very odd, like Bjork and things like that. I'm like, okay, Danny, we're going to need some music that someone knows at some point. I'm standing there watching Danny teach his first community ride. I'm like, boy, how's this going to go down? All of a sudden, right around the third song, he gets off his bike. They Don't Really Care About Us by Michael Jackson. He starts to stomp, stomp, stomp. People are screaming now. He does a high kick and a Michael Jackson spin. The whole room blows up. And I text Julie, a star is born.

[27:54] Janet Fitzgerald: Danny Kopel was a star, but the women on the Upper East Side and Tribeca just didn't get it. He got the worst feedback from every studio. The worst feedback. He's homoerotic. Don't relate to his music. It's too much for us. We don't like it. We don't relate to it. We don't like the look of it. Like everything you can imagine. She pulls me into the office. What are you going to do with this? And I'm like, no, no, you have to trust me. This is a star, Julie. You have to trust me. I swear to you, do not get rid of this kid.

[28:25] Janet Fitzgerald: And then, by the way, this is back in the day that I'm their only mother. There is no training department. It's just me. It's just me. So I've got everybody on my cell phone and they're texting me constantly. Can I jog to this? Should I climb to this? What can I open to this? You know, like I'm their mother. And so I get called in the office and she goes, I'm going to send this young man to Scarsdale. And I go, oh, Julie, don't do it. Please don't do it. Don't don't do it. You know, that's like death.

[28:50] Janet Fitzgerald: Scarsdale is a wealthy suburb about an hour north of Manhattan, which also happens to be Julie Rice's hometown. So she certainly knew what would appeal to that crowd. So I said, I'm sending him to Scarsdale and we'll see what happens. Well, I'll tell you what happened. Those women in Scarsdale had never seen anything quite like that. And he blew up to be a giant star. People are laying down the big bucks to get into this class and he is a superstar in Scarsdale.

[29:31] Janet Fitzgerald: Now, here's where Julie is fucking brilliant. And the heart of the company was programming because she was an agent. She knew what color the hair should be, how to change the outfit, what they should wear, where they taught, what time they taught, who was taking that class. And she was a pro at it was like it was brilliant watching her. As soon as Union Square opened on 18th Street, Julie plucked Danny out of Westchester and into downtown New York City, where he belongs.

[29:58] Janet Fitzgerald: She plucks Danny out of Scarsdale and puts him in the opening of Union Square. And I mean to tell you, within three months of that studio opening, people were in the hallway trying to touch him like they were reaching for the Beatles. And he's like running from back there into the studio. I mean, like it's insanity. And he blows up into this just like this giant thing that none of us really even understood.

[30:27] Janet Fitzgerald: Danny had his boyfriend at the time riding the boyfriend bike front row. And Danny, I'm telling you, was a magician. You never saw him do anything with his hands. Lights would go on and off, but you never saw him flick the switch, you know. And oftentimes he was so strong, these giant thighs like dancer thighs that he couldn't even use his arms. He would just be like arms out to the side, like flying to the side. And he's like running out of the saddle in the air with the lights changing at the same time. Choreography, one leg out floating around like, you know, whatever.

[31:00] Janet Fitzgerald: So he flips the switch somehow. None of us saw it. Somehow has his water bottle. Remember, we used to have the smart water with the lids. So he has this smart water in between his thighs, which we never saw. And he comes up for the run, squeezes his inner thighs together, and it shoots all over the boyfriend's face. Just like comes all over his face. The room is screaming, losing their minds. I mean, shit was crazy. It was crazy.

[31:29] Janet Fitzgerald: Danny and Claire Veronica Walsh were the epitome of the exciting young creativity that I was fostering at Soul. So you've got all these divas that started the industry, and then you've got these new budding divas, right? We're giving them the keys to the kingdom because we've taught them this method. And now SoulCycle is blowing up. And you can't get into these classes and people are losing their minds.

[31:49] Janet Fitzgerald: So instructors are getting off the bike, taking off their shirts, shooting everybody with water. Every class is like going to some wild concert. The stronger the writers got, the stronger we all got. It was like feeding each other. And a lot of the instructors partied hard. I mean, partied hard. So the young ones would stay out all night doing God knows what, a lot of drugs, and then coming in, popping an Adderall, just trying to keep it together. And then getting on the bike, spinning a million miles an hour. And it was a little bit out of control.

[32:33] Janet Fitzgerald: Part of it was the charm, to be honest with you, to see Claire walking in smelling like cigarettes with her pantyhose, big gas hole in the side. She's got a fur coat on. And God knows where she's been all night. And she just walks in and throws her fur coat down and just fucking nails class. She's a superstar.

[32:52] Janet Fitzgerald: On December 27th, 2011, the New York Post headlined, quote, Tragic Death of Spin Queen. SoulCycle staffers and clients were grieving yesterday over the loss of Claire Veronica Walsh, 22. Walsh, who had a legion of dedicated followers, was slated to teach a class over the weekend, but didn't show. The cause of her untimely death is unknown.

[33:28] Janet Fitzgerald: It was the most devastating thing that's ever happened to me in my life. I went to Utah for Christmas by myself to hike and go to a spa. And Julie texted me and said, Claire just taught the best class of her life.

[33:45] Janet Fitzgerald: So Claire passed away on Christmas Day, 2011. So I had just started at the company. I just met her. I remember being in the studio with her one night when I was like closing it down and just like learning about her and talk to her. She was so chill, so, so sweet, young, kind of like had like a tortured vibe. And before that class, Claire had texted me and said, Hey, do you think I can open with Lana Del Rey, born to die? Or is that?

[35:11] Unknown speaker: So I called her and I said, "Hey, listen, I know you've been messing up and I don't want you to worry about it. Nobody's going to fire you. We just want to make sure you're okay. Okay. I'll take care of you. I'm going to protect you. I just need to know you're okay." No answer back. Eventually they asked me, "Where's her apartment? Where is she staying?" So they found out where her apartment was and Dani Coppel and Lori Cole went with the police and they found her dead in her apartment. Total, utter shock. She was burning the candle at both ends. She had this unrealistic image of perfection in her head that, you know, probably most women battle with. She was just so fucking beautiful. I don't think maybe she was consuming enough calories for the amount of classes she was teaching.

At the time, I think she was teaching upwards of 14 classes a week. Even someone who's like an Olympic athlete has doctors around them and coaches. This is like a kid, essentially. Work hard, play hard. I don't want to insinuate that there was anything nefarious happening, but there are rumors about that. When I found out about it, her sister called me. That's how I found out about it. I had a nervous breakdown in Utah and barely got home. I really had felt like part of me died. She was like, it was like me. She was like, I don't know how to describe it. It was beyond sister. It was beyond lover. We were each other's everything after a lot of healing, because none of us even thought we would even be able to teach again.

I mean, devastated. The details were so upsetting. I'll never forget it. I was in Florida, and Jackie texted me. She said, "I'm so pissed off." It was Christmas Day. She was like, "I'm sitting here, and Claire didn't show up for class." I was like, "That's not like Claire." My husband said, "Something's wrong." Then my phone rang in the middle of the night, and somebody called me to tell me what had happened. It's a mystery to many of really what happened. I don't know if the story ever was put out there in a way that the full truth came out, or really what happened.

[37:44] Unknown speaker: Six months later, it was once again summer in the Hamptons. Julie made good on her promise to allow Janet to combine spinning with performance art, all set to Moulin Rouge! This would be a fundraiser to honor Claire's memory. I said, "It's time to do Moulin Rouge, and we'll do it as a charity event, and we'll raise money for the charity." I said, "I'm going to do it as a charity to do Moulin Rouge, and we'll do it as a charity event, and we'll raise money for the Lower East Side Girls Club, because her mom wanted that. She wanted to help girls with eating disorders, because Claire suffered with bulimia and body image." I had all the instructors come to my house, and we all watched Moulin Rouge! together, which was one of mine and Claire's favorite movies.

The event combined burlesque, live musicians, singers, dancers, all within the middle of a spin class set to Moulin Rouge! It was so beautiful, all of us rehearsing together, and like dancing together, singing together, and people riding bikes. It was wild, and we raised a lot of money, and it kind of all helped us heal a little piece of that grieving that we had for Claire. Even Chelsea Clinton was at this event and raved about it to the press. We were very close, and you spend holidays with these people. You teach turkey burns on Thanksgiving Day instead of traveling home to your family, and then you eat together because you're not at home. You do that for however many Thanksgivings and Christmases and birthdays. You're super close to these people. When we're out eating, playing, you don't think people are going to not be here anymore, and it's just kind of earth-shattering when they're not.

[39:40] Unknown speaker: By 2011, SoulCycle had expanded to the Upper East Side, Tribeca, Union Square, and the Hamptons. It was time for an Upper West Side studio with actual soundproofing. The community celebrated this milestone with a Wreck the Studio party, where they could gather for one last ride and pay homage. I was invited to the breakdown of 72nd Street. They had their last ride. There were drinks. Everybody was writing on the walls and marker and all the original crazies. Not crazies. I say that in love. All the Upper West Side crazies who are obsessed with SoulCycle from the beginning, they were all there. It was kind of like a goodbye party to the studio. I do think they were breaking the wall down, but I can't remember because it was literally so overwhelming.

So we got all dolled up, and we all had our SoulCycle gear on. It was just a vibe. It was like the end of an era, and there was this crazy new chapter, and everyone was there taking photos. They were opening just five blocks north, but for many, the end of the 72nd Street hole in the wall was profound. SoulCycle no longer belonged to just them. After the 72nd Street teardown of an ending party, I officially started at the 77th Street studio, which was the official big girl SoulCycle, box within a box, mantra wall, all that stuff. It was what you see SoulCycle as today. They were all masters at branding. When they closed down 72nd Street, it was so sad to me on so many levels. Again, they were opening 77th Street the next morning, and we were all going the next morning.

It signified the end of an era. Even though the one bathroom that, again, never worked, and the smell of the rubber, and the cobwebs, it was dusty. It was pretty gross. There was something so brilliant about it, and it's where it all started. Again, I look back on those original t-shirts, and I'm like, my God, it started from this one silly camouflage yellow t-shirt. It's the only product they had. A whole group of us went out for dinner that night. We all signed the walls. I can see Claire. She was promoted that night. I remember Janet promoted her. It was sad. It was really sad. Then the next morning, we went to 77th Street.

[42:55] Unknown speaker: I took my first SoulCycle class in 2011. A good friend of mine lived next door to the Upper East Side Studio, and I happened to be working in the neighborhood. I actually spun many times before, and hated it, at my local gym in Queens. My friend was over it after a few months, but I kept going. I don't even know what the pull was. I was just a kid. I don't even know what the pull was. I certainly hadn't met any new friends, and I definitely didn't have a spiritual bond to an instructor. I do remember being impressed with myself when I could finally clip in without asking for help, and I also remember being able to sustain a run out of the saddle. I guess I was getting good. I used to look at the SoulCycle website and stare at the schedule to kill time.

A few weeks prior, I noticed a new instructor photo. Her name is Stevie. The energy coming through this black and white photo was instinctively different. She looked different, and she felt different to me, especially from the vanilla instructors I had been taking on the Upper East Side. I told my girlfriend I needed to go into the city to take this 5 p.m. class. The class was in NoHo, a new studio in the up-and-coming neighborhood right next to the East Village. I remember walking into the NoHo studio for the first time, and I remember getting a glimpse of Stevie before class. She had long dreadlocked hair, tattooed arm sleeves, and wore knee socks over her leggings. The beats were heavy, dirty, dark, and you could stomp on the music.

[44:46] Unknown speaker: Stevie would have a greater impact on my life more than any other instructor.

[44:55] ♪ Musical number: "One of Us" — performed by BETTY ♪

[45:12] Unknown speaker: Cult of Body and Soul is created, executive produced, and narrated by Jess Rothschild. Sound design by Caitlin White. Theme song and original music composed by Elizabeth Ziff. One of Us by the band Betty. For even more culty soul content, definitely follow me on Instagram at jessxnyc.