SF’s The Collective Studios: Where dance, fitness, and friendship move as one

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — Walking into The Collective Studios in San Francisco doesn’t feel like stepping into a typical fitness or dance studio. There’s no intimidating hush, no sense that you’re being silently judged for not knowing a plié from a plank. Instead, there’s music, movement, and a feeling of welcome. “We love everyone who comes in the door,” says co-founder Carrie Kaufman. “We want to create a fun and different and unique experience for everybody, because ballet or any kind of new dance or even exercise can be really intimidating.”

Founded by Kaufman and fellow dancer Jaime Diaz, The Collective Studios is a hybrid fitness and dance studio that offers ballet, jazz, contemporary, and salsa dance classes, with group fitness, pilates, yoga, and personal training. “We welcome anybody and everybody, any fitness level, any dance level, from zero experience to professional,” Kaufman says.

Both founders come from professional dance backgrounds, and that experience shapes the studio’s philosophy. “Dance we really feel is for everybody,” Kaufman says, noting that combining fitness and dance creates “a healthier, more fun way to move in lots of different ways.”

MORE: The Gate Keeper: How one woman is transforming San Francisco, 1 ornate security gate at a time

Diaz’s path to co-founding The Collective spans continents and careers. Born in Bogota, Colombia to a family of professional ballet dancers, Diaz trained at the National Ballet of Cuba since he was 13, and later spent 10 years with the Boston Ballet. Along the way, injuries pushed him toward strength training, personal training, and physical therapy, knowledge that he now brings directly to his clients.

That relationship, he says, is deeply personal. “The people that I train, they’re like friends to me,” Diaz says. “It’s really easy to do my job because everybody’s like my friend.”

That sense of connection is especially evident in the personal training program. Client Fred Steck credits Diaz with helping him avoid knee replacement surgery. “I haven’t had my knee replaced, and I don’t have pain in my knee,” Steck says. Along the way, he and Diaz have become close friends. “That speaks a lot to the feeling of camaraderie… and the fact that they have a sincere interest in your health and wellbeing,” Steck attests.

At its core, The Collective Studios is about progress without pressure, and as the studio looks ahead, Kaufman hopes to welcome even more newcomers. “We want everyone to dance and exercise and leave here feeling really, really good.”

Learn more about The Collective Studios here.