Jess Rothschild

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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.

And so Janet goes to New York to teach for a couple of weeks and absolutely hates it.

I'm just telling you the truth. 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.,

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 riders. But she was an ingenue.

One day, an instructor had to cancel last minute, so Claire jumped at the chance to substitute the class. Soon, Janet was mentoring her.

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.

They would eventually allow Janet to produce Moulin Rouge, but under very unexpected circumstances. Still, Janet wasn't convinced. But as she said earlier, Julie Rice doesn't take no for an answer.

Janet realized the only thing that could make her stay in New York was to continue mentoring young instructors like Claire Veronica Walsh and a salary of $200,000, more than any instructor would ever dream of making in L.A. Why did Julie throw that money at her? Because she wanted to be able to take her favorite instructor anytime she wanted.

With this promise began a very rough version of the instructor training program, which Janet was essentially making up as she went along.

It's like making a short film. Janet taught them how to make the class more of a conversation using rhythm riding and yoga style guidance throughout the entire ride. She also showed them how to cue transitions without excessive counting like a stereotypical instructor.

Finally, Janet 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, Janet can critique the class and it's a nice give back to the community. Lord knows how, but Janet starts turning out legit superstars.

No one at any gym in Manhattan is delivering what SoulCycle is. Word of mouth began to surge.

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. The poster child of SoulCycle as performance art was the quiet, wickedly smart Danny Coppell.

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.

Danny Coppola was a star, but the women on the Upper East Side and Tribeca just didn't get it.

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.

As soon as Union Square opened on 18th Street, Julie plucked Danny out of Westchester and into downtown New York City, where he belongs.

I mean, shit was crazy. It was crazy. Danny and Claire Veronica Walsh were the epitome of the exciting young creativity that Janet was fostering at Soul.

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.

I asked her to characterize the three founders.

piano plays softly

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.

The event combined burlesque, live musicians, singers, dancers, all within the middle of a spin class set to Moulin Rouge.

Even Chelsea Clinton was at this event and raved about it to the press.

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.

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.

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 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.

Stevie would have a greater impact on my life more than any other instructor.

And what was Ruth like?

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.

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.

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.

This is Miles. He and Louise work together at Alice's Tea Cup, cobbling together restaurant jobs to support themselves in New York City.

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.

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.

Miles would go on to not only work for SoulCycle HQ, but witness the company's expansion firsthand as he managed studio openings across the country.

Master Instructor, Janet Fitzgerald.

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. 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.

The significance of the Bridgehampton studio, aka the barn, cannot be overstated. The Hamptons is where the 1% 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.

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. Sold out classes, wait lists, escalades wrapped around the block.

This is The Cult of Body and Soul, episode two, A Star is Born. We were previously introduced to Aaron and Glynnis in episode one, Made in LA. They were among the original riders at SoulCycle's first studio on 72nd Street, Manhattan's Upper West Side.

The demand was there for not only additional studios, but instructors.

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.

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.

We're on a bike in the dark. You're going nowhere, but we went everywhere. We went everywhere.

They finally attempted to document the training program because they were hiring a lot of new instructors.

Chris's performing career had ended, and he was now running a dance company. This was his first class.

Once you complete the training program and perform several community rides, you are officially placed on the schedule. Getting people to place a $35 bet on an unknown entity is an impossible proposition, so the company would get creative by having them substitute extremely popular instructors' classes with the hope that people wouldn't cancel. They usually would.

Chris was offered to debut his class on one of the most popular days of the year.

Noon on Monday is an expression that yields both panic and delight by folks. It's the time when classes for the week open for bookings. Servers would crash, the site would freeze, people would freak out because the website could not handle the volume of traffic.

Dancers tend to be perfectionists, so he could not handle being bad at this one thing.

When you walk through the doors of SoulCycle, you are immediately greeted by the front desk staff. Funny.

Front desk staff and studio managers interviewed for this project have chosen to remain anonymous. We were obsessed.

In late October 2012, Hurricane Sandy struck the East Coast. Over the course of 48 hours, wind, rain and water left hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers without power and limited access to food, drinking water and health care.

all apartments and office buildings below 14th Street were left without electricity and power. The downtown epicenter of Tribeca was scrambling to reroute their classes uptown.

People who love spinning are often competitive, discerning, and successful, or at least have access to money. They also have very high standards. Perhaps why clients in Tribeca and the Upper East Side felt so entitled is because they were willing to throw money at the problem.

For those willing to pay double the price of class, you would have access to the, quote, concierge department called SuperSoul, which booked your classes up to six weeks in advance. Plus, you got priority status on waitlists and invitations to exclusive events.

Stevie can analyze the psychology of what your SoulCycle bike says about you.

Unlike Chris, Halle Becker was already a sought-after personality, having taught yoga in Manhattan, at festivals, and retreats around the world. I go, what do they want me to do?

The energy of each studio took on the vibration of the instructors and regulars. NoHo and the West Village felt chic and light and sounded like a mix of hip-hop and house music. The Upper East Side, West Side, and Tribeca were chaotically entitled and sounded like Hall & Oates meets Top 40. Williamsburg was the forgotten stepchild.

And as for the Hamptons, well, that's another proposition altogether, which we'll get into next episode.

For me, Stevie is an eccentric, mystical creature who was always a bit unknowable. But she saw me. She understood and validated my intense craving for movement and adventure. She had the letters for more and less tattooed on her left and right fingers. To this day, I can visualize that writing on her hands as a way to self-regulate.

She also introduced me to some of my closest friends you'll hear in this episode.

Sumi and Amit are among the deep community I found through Stevie. While Amit first went to Seoul with friends, it was actually Sumi's therapist who suggested she try it. Sumi had been struggling with compulsion and OCD related to body issues, and her therapist was an original 72nd Street rider.

While Hallie was fast tracked, Chris had to will himself into performing the art of SoulCycle. He, of course, was eventually asked if he would like to audition. And so the auditions begin.

I always thought meditation was this sexy thing other people were able to do. But physically locking my phone away, walking into another room and letting somebody take the wheel of my thoughts became a moving meditation.

John Stein is also in our Stevie Click. He's literally the top rider at Seoul with over 6,000 classes taken.

Stevie was at the height of her powers on Monday nights at 8.30 p.m. Yeah, 8.30 at night. She was handed the shittiest time slot possible, and she transformed it into church. Stevie called it family night because it was the one class where you knew you would see the entire cast of characters.

We would then have dinner together as a family at the iconic NoHo Eatery Five Points on Great Jones Street.

I always wondered if some of the incredible energy of the NoHo studio was within the walls. See, that location on 4th between Broadway and Lafayette was the former home of the legendary Tower Records store for 20 years. Just like Soul, Tower Records was another starting place for many creative spirits who needed a job.

Sumi and I used to say it was the best happy hour in the city.

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. Two Cherries by the band Betty.

This is Stevie Santangelo. She was a master instructor at SoulCycle for eight years from 2012 to 2020. Stevie was my gateway to a lot of SoulCycle lore. It was through Stevie that I first learned the name Janet Fitzgerald. See, Stevie worked for Janet at Body and Soul back in LA. I introduced myself after a few weeks and she asked me to dinner after class, just the two of us.

For even more culty soul content, definitely follow me on Instagram at jessxnyc.

I quickly got her backstory that she had moved to New York for SoulCycle after 20 years in Los Angeles. She actually wasn't a fitness instructor at all, but a professional chef with a passion for spin. For her 40th birthday, they offered her a job at Body and Soul, which would alter the trajectory of her entire career.

Stevie witnessed how SoulCycle West Hollywood put all of the boutique spin studios out of business. So it wasn't a surprise that Janet was in L.A. with Julie Rice scouting for talent.

Because auditions can happen over several weeks, people had to wait to find out if they were accepted into the training program.

The training program was now somewhat codified. It took place between 8 and 12 weeks, three days a week. It was a mix of lectures, drills, and you were expected to ride frequently.

Unlike fellow studios like Barry's Boot Camp or boxing gyms, SoulCycle does not require their instructors to be certified in personal training or group fitness. So you could have an entire career at SoulCycle and still not be qualified to take on personal training clients or teach at a competing studio.

So the degree to which your Soul Instructor knows about human anatomy, physiology, and exercise science is pretty unclear.

This is The Cult of Body and Soul, episode three, noon on Monday. In this episode, we're taking a peek behind the curtain of instructor auditions and the elusive training program. Plus, the cult of personality the brand thrives on and the chaos it can breed.

Drew was with the company for eight years, starting at the front desk and later an instructor.