Chaos in the Hamptons: Tracy Anderson devotees gripe about $5,500 mats, $90 classes, and power struggles among ‘queen bees’
- Tracy Anderson devotees are frustrated over rising prices and power struggles in the Hamptons.
- It costs $5,500 to book a preferred mat for the summer — on top of the $900 monthly membership.
- Drama recently arose when a client got the schedule changed — and others started a petition to reverse it.
Clients of Tracy Anderson’s upscale fitness studio in the Hamptons are up in (toned) arms, complaining about skyrocketing prices and favoritism.
A Tracy Anderson membership is a status symbol for Hamptonites, similar to owning a waterfront home in Southampton or being invited to billionaire Michael Rubin’s annual White Party. However, while the high-intensity dance cardio class has long been a favorite of the 1%, some devotees claim the two Hamptons locations have devolved into a chaotic, overpriced mess.
At its Sag Harbor and Water Mill studios, TA charges up to $90 for a 55-minute drop-in class — nearly double the price of a Hamptons SoulCycle or Barry’s Bootcamp class. Clients must be members (which costs $900 per month) and pay a $5,500 mat fee to reserve a mat for the summer out East (which essentially allows people to save their favorite spot in a class).
Then there’s “Vitality Week,” a week-long series of wellness activities and workout classes led by the chain’s name. Anderson’s four-day retreat costs just under $6,000, which is eight times the price of a similar summer Hamptons retreat hosted by her fellow celebrity trainer Anna Kaiser.
“It’s a little bit ridiculous,” said Dani Levi, a makeup artist and TA member who attends classes in the Hamptons.
Because of the costs, only the wealthiest individuals can attend TA. This has paved the way for some titanic power struggles. “They’re queen bees in Tribeca from September to May, but when they mix, the dynamics shift,” said one former trainer who worked in the Hamptons recently. “That’s the point of it all: power and ‘I have money’ and ‘Do you know who I am?'” ‘Do you have any idea where I live?'”
“You can’t just work out; you can’t just enjoy it,” explained another former Hamptons trainer. “There’s always going to be drama.”
(Some people who spoke with Insider requested anonymity for professional reasons or to avoid becoming a social outcast for criticizing Anderson’s business. Anderson declined multiple requests for comment.)
This summer, major drama was staged at TA’s Water Mill studio. One morning slot was set aside for a MyMode class, which would make use of the $4,000 equipment set Anderson debuted last year. (A custom wooden staff, a box, and weights are included in the set.) However, a wealthy client who had paid to reserve a mat for the summer requested that it be changed to a regular dance class, and the studio agreed. According to multiple sources, the woman’s classmates were outraged and started a petition to change the class back to MyMode.
According to one nonmember who attends Hamptons classes, much of the tension in the Hamptons stems from longtime members (many of whom are Anderson’s friends) who feel entitled to have everything catered to them and younger nonmembers who do drop-in classes.
“If you go to class by mistake and end up on a mat that isn’t your mat, you might get yelled at,” she explained. “It’s in the Hamptons.”
The chaos has irritated many of Anderson’s followers. Several people mentioned that TA’s longtime Hamptons studio manager left just before the summer season, and a current Hamptons trainer stated that the manager had not been replaced. This studio manager had a pulse on which women would actually show up for their reserved spots in previous years, according to the Hamptons classgoer. “Members can be booked all of the time, but half of those ladies don’t even show up,” she explained.
Nonmembers have had a particularly difficult time enrolling in classes this summer, according to reports. Members have first dibs on class registration: they can sign up a week in advance, whereas nonmembers can’t book until two days before the class. One drop-in Hamptons class attendee said she tried for weeks to get into classes but couldn’t get off the waiting list. She finally got in after emailing a specific TA employee, a loophole her friend told her about.
According to a former trainer and a current trainer, many TA trainers who work at NYC studios avoid teaching in the Hamptons during the summer months. Hampton trainers are typically paid less, are cut off from their lives, and the schedule can be more intense and the clients more entitled, according to the two people. Instead, trainers from TA’s California and Madrid offices are flown in.
Katia Pryce, the founder of DanceBody in New York City, began her career as a TA trainer more than ten years ago. According to Pryce, drama in the Hamptons is nothing new. “Everyone’s mad at each other,” Pryce explained. “It’s just all mean-girl vibes all the time.”
Despite outlandish prices and drama, Anderson’s diehard fans remain loyal
Anderson first gained notoriety as a celebrity trainer in 2006, when she signed Gwyneth Paltrow and Madonna as clients. In 2009, she opened her first fitness studio in New York City’s Tribeca neighborhood, and she now has locations in Manhattan, the Hamptons, Los Angeles, and Madrid, as well as a $90-a-month streaming platform. She sells TA-branded clothing, workout gear, and even the custom flooring used in her studios.
Anderson has earned a reputation for being ruthless in the midst of her success. Former TA trainers have been accused of stealing her “method” — a dance-based workout in a 95-degree room with 75% humidity — and bad-mouthing them to employees, clients, and the press. Anderson sued one of her former trainers, Megan Roup, the founder of the Sculpt Society, last year, accusing her of copyright infringement and breach of contract. The allegations were denied by Roup, and the lawsuit is still pending.
Despite Anderson’s reputation, her fans are ardent. A-listers including Gwyneth Paltrow and Robert Downey Jr. have had TA trainers visit their Hamptons homes for private sessions. Elisa Arcaya, one woman, described TA classes as her “daily mass” and said they helped her cope after her son was in a coma after a golf-cart accident. Another participant, Arianna Siegel, stated that TA attendees “become literally addicted to it.”
However, being a regular TA in the Hamptons will cost you. Every spring, TA sends out the summer prices via email, causing a frenzy of angry text messages, according to Levi, a Hamptons resident.
The mat fee is in addition to their $900 monthly membership. The cost to reserve a mat for the summer in 2018 was $3,000; this year, the cost is $5,500. “It’s jaw-droppingly insane,” said the former trainer who used the “queen bees” analogy. This year’s Hamptons Vitality Weeks — one in July and one this month — cost $5,995 (or $1,200 virtually), which is more than triple the price of the event in 2012, when it was known as “Hamptons Detox Week.”
But Anderson’s fans are undeterred. Irene Nederlof flew from Amsterdam for Vitality Week as a birthday present to herself, raising funds by auctioning off a couple of bottles of vintage wine. “It’s not cheap, but it depends on what you value in life,” she explained.
Claudia Saez-Fromm, a real estate agent in New York City, said she’d been to Vitality Week several times, most recently in July. She has friends flying in from London and Miami for the occasion. “It connects us,” she explained. “That’s why we like the method: it connects all of these like-minded, entrepreneurial women.”
Even though some Hamptonites complain about TA in group chats, they are hesitant to do so in public. “I think no one wants to appear that they don’t have the money,” Levi said. “With very large homes in the Hamptons and multiple children in private school, I believe the Tracy Anderson bill is the last thing on their list.”
