Dailey Method Captures Community Feel in Bucktown

As a former dancer looking to open a studio in Bucktown, Tami Conway and her husband, Brett, fell in love with The Dailey Method. And since opening the Bucktown studio four years ago, they’ve expanded to the North Shore and a Lincoln Park location earlier this year.  

If you aren’t familiar with the growing Dailey Method, it combines ballet barre work, core conditioning, yoga and orthopedic exercises. The bar method it uses was developed by Lotte Berk, and Jill Dailey created this spinoff.

“Being a dancer, I was really familiar with the ballet bar,” Tami Conway said. “And the workout is low impact, high density, so it’s perfect.”

She danced at the University of Missouri and later performed with the Chicago Bulls’ dance team. Fitness runs in the family, as Brett is a former NFL kicker. The Bucktown couple lives just down Damen from their first Dailey Method, one of 10 in Illinois, and they said the community feel was something that drew them to the business.

“The sense of community here was great,” Brett Conway said. “Some studios are very relaxed, very zen. Here it’s all about community. I had a corporate job and would come here and clean the floors. It felt it was more rewarding cleaning the floors here than what I was doing at my other job. We were having fun.”

That’s evident in the kids running around (there’s a room for them to play while parents have a class) and the students who stick around 20 minutes after classes just to chat. The Conways try to get as involved in the community as they can, partnering with other local businesses and hosting or participating in community events. Places like Grass Fed and Red Hen Bread often cater events.

They’ve brought in local boutiques for trunk shows at The Dailey Method in Bucktown, where other businesses can show off their products and clients can receive a discount. One client started a new organization, so the Conways wanted to help her network and put together a networking event for all clients. They created a notebook full of information about the clients, but it also serves as a book of testimonials, as Tami looked back through it fondly.

Besides the physical benefits of The Dailey Method, Tami recognizes the positive mental and emotional impact it can have, and that includes the personal, community atmosphere there. There was one student with breast cancer who “came here to find sanctuary and find strength within,” Tami said.

The support doesn’t just stop at the front door, either. The Dailey Method will be participating in Fab Fest, a day of health and wellness activities to benefit the non-profit Bright Pink, which seeks to fight breast and ovarian cancer.