Cécile Dumetrier: A Beautiful Star Now Gone
During the pandemic, I am reposting previous blogs if they have more relevance now than when I first posted them. This current blog is originally from June 24, 2016. I am, sadly, reposting it today. Beloved friend and exercise master Cécile Dumetrier passed away yesterday – September 11, 2020 – in Bucharest, Romania.
What I wrote in 2016:
Cécile Dumetrier: Exercise Master Extraordinaire
Just because you’re traveling or are living abroad, you still have to exercise. And it helps if you find an exercise studio you really like. I found one I love.
If you’re looking for a great exercise studio in Bucharest, I highly recommend Attitude Concept. Cécile Dumetrier runs it. She is beautiful, talented, tons of fun – and tough. That’s the best.
Cécile striking a pose
Cécile creates such an inviting atmosphere that I actually look forward to going to her studio. Three, four, and sometimes even five times a week. Every time it’s something different: mingi mari ‘big balls’, mingi mici ‘small balls’, farfurii ‘plates’, bâte ‘sticks’, and yoga. But it’s all Cécile. Her background is ballet, and she brings the precision and rigor of classical dance to her classroom.
We do all sorts of exercises with the bâte.
So, sticks …
… and more sticks.
Oh, and I should mention that Cécile has abs of steel.
One of Cécile’s crazy difficult ab exercises
When I’m in Orlando, Florida I go the downtown Y easily five times a week. I switch between body pump (weight lifting) and yoga.
So, I get to Cécile’s two weeks ago – and about a half-an-hour into the session, she asks me how I’m holding up. I blurt, “Am uitat cum e greu.” (I forgot how difficult this is.)
And I had thought I was in shape! Nope. Suddenly I was using muscles I hadn’t used since last being at Cécile’s.
She charges a reasonable 200 lei ($50) for 12 sessions. They are always worth it. Fetele mari, the so-called big girls, of which I am one, come at 6:00. The little ballerinas are at 5:00. I referred a friend’s six-year-old daughter to Cécile, and she loves it as much as I do!
The address is Strada Icoanei 65, Sector 2.
Here’s the building …
… and the charming biserica across the street from Attitude Concept:
Cécile Dumetrier: We Love You
Now it’s 2020. So I cut off the other half of the original blog that didn’t pertain to Cécile. Instead I’ll post more images from one of her June 2016 classes
She was elegant, joyful, and very much loved by Fetele lui Cécile ‘Cécile’s Girls.’ What a beauty, inside and out.
We love you, Cécile, and we already miss you.
See also: All My Romania Blogs
Categorised in: Adventure, Blog, Europe, Romania, Thoughts
This post was written by Julie Tetel Andresen
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