Elizabeth Cutler
speaker
62 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard May 2025
last heard May 2025
Elizabeth Cutler’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
From its inception, SoulCycle was the hottest, fastest-growing fitness studio in New York City, catering to the rich, obsessive, famous, and fame-adjacent.
We'll explore how this cultural phenomenon captured the zeitgeist in a way nothing has before or since.
My name is Jessie Rothschild. I'm a writer and producer living in Manhattan. In 2023, I created a docuseries centered on the history, mystique, and lore of Fire Island, home of the oldest queer communities in the United States. Over the last 20 years, I have found connection and meaning in two places, on Fire Island and in the New York City fitness community, specifically at SoulCycle.
And while I've spent much of my adult life dedicated to fitness, my time at SoulCycle transcended far beyond that of boxing, yoga, or boot camp. I've spent years obsessed with soul, analyzing every single aspect of the phenomenon with friends. My first class was in 2011 and I went about four times a week until 2019. People I met at SoulCycle spoke at my wedding.
They were also there for me when that relationship suddenly ended. We took destination spin rides in the Hamptons, Miami, and LA. Destination spin is basically an excuse to travel and then revolve your day around an instructor's schedule.
I've had instructors to my home for Thanksgiving, and I was so intrigued by the secretive nature of the training program that I almost applied to be an instructor myself. Today, I find myself looking back, yearning for this time in my life. Like, what were the ingredients that made it so unique and special?
Throughout this series, you'll hear from instructors, studio managers, and other riders like me. We'll even talk to folks who worked on the corporate level. While all instructors are named, other employees have chosen to remain anonymous.
To fully understand the story of SoulCycle, we need to go to Los Angeles in the 90s.
This is Janet Fitzgerald. Many fitness contemporaries cite Janet Fitzgerald as one of the original spiritual fitness instructors. Janet took the intention setting typically associated with yoga and applied it to high-intensity spin classes. Through her voice and specific music curation, she is able to take riders to a place of reflection and meditation.
Janet is playfully naughty and has commanding energy. Think Madonna in Truth or Dare. She was the director of instructor training at SoulCycle for a decade, producing over 200 instructors. And she still teaches at Soul six times a week. Soon after landing in Palm Springs, Janet began dating a drummer in a Christian rock band. She believed his straight edge lifestyle would wear off on her.
And it worked for a while.
The idea of a 12-step program didn't speak to Janet at this time, so she did it her own way.
For Janet, overcoming the desire for drugs appeared to open up a whole new chapter of health and also a starter marriage.
Yearning to reconnect with her true calling for dance, Janet quickly got a job teaching aerobics. But while Janet was stuck in the Palm Springs desert, there was a mecca of studio fitness exploding just two hours west in Los Angeles.
Around this time, a new form of cardio was emerging, using a stationary bike, combining basic cycling, motivational coaching, and breath awareness. The result was a workout called spinning, originally developed by Johnny Goldberg, a.k.a. Johnny G, a South African cyclist.
Andrea Lewent is another fitness pioneer from Los Angeles. She was one of the first spin instructors to cultivate a hardcore following. Covered in tattoos, Andrea attracted lots of athletes and rock stars who would use the bike to rehabilitate their bodies after injuries.
Johnny G was a professional athlete and cyclist, having completed the Race Across America, the longest, most grueling cycling race in the world. Johnny G designed and built the very first spin bike by hand. He also trademarked the word spinning. Therefore, all future studios, including SoulCycle, could not use the word spinning to describe their services.
They had to advertise it as, quote, indoor cycling. Indoor cycling, aka spinning, is low-impact, high-intensity cardio using a stationary bike. Up until the early 2000s, you would actually ride in your sneakers, just hoping your foot didn't slide out or lose any toenails. This evolved into the modern use of spin shoes, specifically designed to clip into the bike.
Instructors are the star of the show, but you control the resistance knob based on their cues. You can simulate a climb, run, jog, or sprint in and out of the saddle as you pour on the resistance. Think of running through piles of sand.
another compelling aspect is its correlation to a dance class in any boutique spin class today there's a level of respect paid to the instructor you don't come late or leave early you follow the routine and you applaud at the end of class just as you would in a dance studio the walls are mirrored with the instructor on top of a podium demonstrating each of the moves
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