Jey Wyder teaches an emerging form of low-impact, high-intensity training that could be the offspring of Joseph Pilates and the Sugar Plum Fairy.

Leading a class last Monday at new Dunbar studio as the first master instructor in Canada for the Dailey Method, she's compelling participants to tighten and turn.

"This is your audition for the Nutcracker," she says.

Yeah, right.

But after a few minutes at the barre--the ubiquitous ballet apparatus running along each wall of the small carpeted studio--it's clear this exercise was developed with efficiency in mind. There are no pliés or jumps, no first or second position. But if strength and grace are the markers of a prima ballerina, the students are aching to keep her in good company.

Conceived a decade ago in San Francisco by Jill Dailey McIntosh, a Pilates instructor, kinesiologist and mother of three, the Method aims to get women (and the few men who do it) fitter, stronger and leaner through one hour of exercise a day.

We've heard that claim before, but Wyder promises clients: "This will be the most focused hour of your day."

Karen Wyder, sister to Jey, opened the first Dailey Method in Canada this August. Out of their 2,000 square-foot studio near Dunbar Village on 41st Avenue, they started with 30 classes and soon added eight more. In January, they'll put 10 more classes on the timetable and will more than double their teaching staff by introducing five new instructors.

Cecily Greenfeld is among the roster of new instructors. At eight months pregnant, Greenfeld says she can continue practising the Dailey Method although it's been at least a month since she put her inverted yoga postures and downward dog on hold.

The studio offers childcare and as Greenfeld says, a bulging belly can be accommodated at the barre and through the floor work.

To leverage more length from our limbs and build endurance throughout practice, the barre is a necessary tool and not a crutch or an escape hatch from hard work. By targeting and toning the muscles in the legs and stretching the back while maintaining the body-conscious posture of a refining school teacher, the Method pushes your body to the point of exhaustion--even when still.

Converts to the Dailey Method say they have seen dramatic results, including one professional dancer formerly with Ballet B.C.

"I thought I was at my fittest," said Marianne Grobbelaar, now an instructor at the Dunbar studio after two decades on stage in Vancouver and in South Africa with the Cape Town City Ballet.

Lean and strong as she already was, Grobbelaar says her body has changed for the better. "We were all really surprised with the results."

The most significant change may be what she feels.

"I've been injured my whole ballet career," she said. Grobbelaar, 33, took eight pain killers a day to endure nine hours of rehearsal and dull the throbbing in her joints after years of abuse needed to meet the exacting standards of the stage. "As a dancer, you can't have a bad day."

The extremes of ballet meant she was flexible and strong and could hold her body in impossible positions, "but I couldn't walk or stand properly."

Now she gushes about the Dailey Method, which the ballerina takes alongside triathletes, grandmas and working mothers.

mstewart@vancourier.com

Twitter: @MHStewart

THE DAILEY METHOD

- Sweat: little cardio, but expect to moisten your brow

- Stretch: arms and back in particular

- Strength: this is what it's all about, torturous and blissful

- Smile: you'll like the results

- Spirit: little to no spiritual depth

- Simplicity: concentration, constant awareness required