Interview with Royal Danish Ballet Soloist

Femke Mølbach Slot – on the Launch of Her New Exercise Program ’Core Elegance’

It is a somewhat cold morning. The warmth of the first days of spring seems to have hidden, although Femke Slot’s eyes still glimmer with heat from the cheers and the applause of a fulfilling career across some of the most renowned international stages – Milan’s La Scala, Paris’s Palais Garnier, Tokyo’s Bunka Kaikan, London’s Royal Theatre, and not in the least, Copenhagen’s Royal Danish Ballet, the city that saw her take her very first turns.

Having retired close to three years ago, Femke has not for one second lost that youthful reverie. She embodies the synthesis of a life dedicated to ballet – the engine and purpose of her existence, a complex and most beautiful art form that defines her almost as much personally as it does professionally. A former dance prodigy of exhaustive dedication, she now adds fierce entrepreneur to her long list of merits, as she experiences the meanders of fabricating your own dreams and extols the values of movement and exercise through the magical guidance of ballet.

Core Elegance is the newest studio in Copenhagen that brings to the forefront the art and allure of ballet combined with the vigorous intensity of a workout to create “a complete fusion of body, mind and soul”. A person who’s been active most of her life, she purposefully designed this program to be as effective and beneficial for everyday life, a discipline meant “to shape and tend to your body from the inside out”, is how Femke’s description begins as we all sat down to discuss her newest business endeavour.

Before, she showed the world how a body could inspire perpetual beauty; today, under many eager watchful eyes, she becomes a teacher for the rule-bending generation of ballet-inspired workout. With an almost overflowing creative energy and an iron will to match, Femke Mølbach Slot managed to ensure that her artistry and innovative thinking gave shape to a new expressive language of holistic exercise.

To start off, tell us a little bit about your background and how that eventually led to the conception of Core Elegance. What is your overall vision for Core Elegance, and how do you think your experience and dedication (and passion) for ballet has formed you into who you are today?

I have lived at the Royal Theatre on Kongens Nytorv, Copenhagen, for nearly my entire life. Whether onstage or off, I was constantly surrounded by ballet, movement and classical music. After retiring as a professional ballet dancer at age 40, the idea of sharing my knowledge and awareness of the body with the world outside of theatre – even with people who have never danced before – suddenly came alive. My man as well as many others strongly encouraged me as they also realized this form of training didn’t exist yet. Those desires were also reinforced by my own vision of what the training studio would be like – A luxurious and calm space where you would be guided through a class with training secrets and experiences from a life in ballet. A place with focus on a strong core, elegance and flexibility. A training that will give you posture, toning, movement and the walk like that of a ballet dancer.

Ballet is a very formal style of dance, requiring highly choreographed movements and precise legwork. How would you describe your program to someone who finds the above intimidating? How much is borrowed from this esteemed sport, and how much is actually just a mindset?

Although the training is based on and inspired by how we, ballet dancers, train, this is not a dance or ballet class. Everybody will be able to join us. We want to offer people the experience of beautiful posture and the poetry of movement. That takes special training of many muscle groups, but especially those of the abs, back and legs. That said, we do bring the twists, sparkle, and not least the music from the ballet world into our training. Besides making it a more pleasurable way to train and unwind, some of the exercises aim at coordinating your entire body. You might even feel how some exercises will make you move like a real ballet dancer!

As you said, Core Elegance is all about helping people achieve their goals in terms of health, strength, confidence and balance. Can you explain some of the actual techniques you’ll be implementing in the program, and how are they different from what’s already out there?

Normal training is about repetition of isolated movements often focusing on very few muscles in a static pace. Core Elegance is an exercise program done to classical piano music where the exercises are as much poetic flow as they are raw body training. The coordination, the music and the way we train will not only strengthen your body, but also sooth your mind and help freshen up.

We applaud that Core Elegance targets not only people who simply wish to be in better shape, but also those recovering from a debilitating injury, and post-pregnancy mamas. Was it difficult to shape a holistic exercise program that would be nurturing and challenging for them at the same time?

It is important to us that our training addresses both your body and mind. This is why we shape our classes according to the group of people we are teaching. We incorporate ballet terms in our training as we think people will appreciate their charm, but also to make it feel more like an experience than a typical training – of course, without making it too complicated.

Many people acknowledge that working out is only half the battle without proper nutrition and a healthy lifestyle, but most have a hard time landing on a correct routine. In your opinion, what is the sweet spot ratio between your signature strengthening exercises and general diet?

I have always believed that you should be able to eat a bit of everything and not deprive yourself of any food. In a perfect world I would eat until 80-90 percent full, but as someone who really loves food, that can sometimes be challenging. In the past, I had the fortune of training and dancing at least 8 hours a day. However, since my retirement from the ballet company, I naturally don’t train or dance as much and of course my body reacted to this change. But that’s okay, since I still have the same approach to it all: eat until 80-90 percent full, eat sensibly without abstaining yourself from anything, and move and exercise as much as your body and time allows.

For the people interested but unable to physically attend your program – what are the 3 main things they can do to incorporate your philosophy and tools in order to achieve their own Core Elegance?

One should stretch often. Get the blood flowing and try to become less stiff. Be mindful of your core. Straighten your back and engage your stomach muscles, almost like zipping up a pair of tight jeans. Relax your shoulders so that your neck can be free and graceful. For people who might be nervous about their ability to train with us, we will soon also have a ‘Mindful Elegance’ class. This is a session where we take it real slow and work on posture and flexibility, all in a tempo and level that suits the entire group.

On a final note, what do you dream of these days and what is important for you?

My dream for Core Elegance is to create a refined and effective training in a space and atmosphere of wellbeing, mindfulness and poise. It’s important to me that our classes are as much about training your body, as it does your soul, so that you’ll feel balanced, strong, elegant, and light on your feet. I hope Core Elegance will inspire and help you take better care of yourself, understanding that the older we get, the more protective of our whole being we have to be. Staying strong, healthy and aware of our bodies is a gift we can give to our families.

Acumé Magazine

Published June 2021