Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Madonna opens her fitness club Hard Candy in Toronto

TORONTO - Madonna REALLY got into the groove in Toronto on Tuesday night.

The 55-year-old pop star turned up in high heels, fishnet stockings — with a bandaged left ankle visible, a black corsetted suit and a push-up bra to attend the grand opening of the downtown outlet of her fitness club chain, Hard Candy, which opened for workouts last October.

She was sexily dressed to impress but the fitness-inclined singer was also scheduled to help lead a master class with about 50 or so members from the club, named after her 2008 album of the same name, both locally and from around the world who had to “audition” to be part of the event.

The Material Girl was joined by the Hard Candy Fitness performance team including her personal trainer Nicole Winhoffer, 29, of New York City, who developed her signature Addicted to Sweat routine that she does with Madonna.

“It is intimidating, it is easy peasy, it is everything, so if you could think of every descriptive word it is all that in a bubble,” Winhoffer said of working out with Madge six times a week in two-hour sessions for the last five years.

“I have to inspire her, keep her mind engaged. She’s done every single workout ever known to man so I’m constantly creating new things. ...Her body’s amazing, and she still has the most even body tone, her shape is amazing, her waist, her arms, it’s incredible. She’s made it part of her life. She’s just so consistent that it never changes.”

Winhoffer, a trained professional dancer, met Madonna when she was on the Sticky and Sweet Tour in 2008-09, and performed with her again on the 2012 MDNA trek.

There was a red carpet at the Toronto fitness club at 382 Yonge St. — the only Hard Candy in North America and the biggest in the three-year-old chain at 42,000 square feet — with reporters and camera people huddled around the reception area awaiting Madonna’s arrival, which was about 85 minutes after the scheduled time.

“I asked her (why open in Toronto first in North America), and she said, ‘I love Toronto. It’s so culturally diverse,’ ” said Winhoffer. “Everytime she tours here the audience is just amazing. She loves how involved they are with the arts, writing, music and dance.”

Hard Candy Fitness has also recently opened clubs in Berlin and Rome, joining existing locations in Sydney, Santiago, Mexico City, Moscow and St. Petersburg, Russia.

The Material Girl has been in the news lately for her role at the Grammys in late January where she took part in the live mass wedding of same-sex, mixed-race couples, wearing a grill on her teeth, carrying a cane (after hurting her ankle over the holidays in Switzerland) and singing her 1986 hit Open Your Heart alongside Macklemore and Ryan Lewis with Mary Lambert singing Same Love.

She also appeared on Miley Cyrus MTV Unplugged in late January singing a clunky mashup of Don’t Tell Me/We Can’t Stop alongside the 21-year-old, whose North American Bangerz tour launches Friday in Vancouver.
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