SoulCycle in Dedham introduces sign language spin classes

When Heather Rose started her American Sign Language SoulCycle class, she worried she wouldn’t get enough students.

The first night, she welcomed three deaf riders; a rider who was hard of hearing plus his girlfriend; and two ASL students to the SoulCycle studio in Dedham. The class also drew people who don’t sign but wanted a more accessible experience, including some with loved ones who sign.

“It was just like all these people showed up and they would find me after and someone’s like, ‘My sister’s deaf, my brother’s autistic, and he uses sign language.’ It was just people connected to sign language, and I did not think that people would show up,” said Rose, an ASL interpreting student and SoulCycle instructor.

Rose and another instructor, Lo McMann, started hosting ASL cycling classes last month. McMann leads the class from the podium, while Rose signs in the sidebar area.

Rose sees the success of the class as a sign that SoulCycle — a New York City-based fitness chain with around 100 locations nationwide —could grow and attract new riders simply by making its classes more accessible for people with disabilities. Already, Rose envisions a future where SoulCycle trains instructors across the country to provide more accessible classes, attracting more riders with disabilities to their studios.

“Maybe I’m dreaming, but I think it would be super-cool if in every market, SoulCycle said, ‘Hey, we’ll pay for an instructor to take ASL 1 and 2,’” Rose said.

Rose, 26, originally of Milton, started learning sign language while attending boarding school in Minnesota. The State Academy for the Deaf was next door.

An avid hockey player, Rose went to Northeastern University and played on the women’s team. She continued to take ASL courses at Northeastern University, but some of the coursework for an interpreter certification conflicted with her hockey schedule. She majored in political science and minored in sign language, planning to work in law.

In the three years since graduating, Rose has pivoted from her career plans: she disliked her job as a paralegal, so she returned to school for her interpreter certification. Rose also walked away from hockey and eventually filled the void with 45-minute cycling classes.

“As you ride more, you build the strength and it’s like a craft. You just get better and better at it," Rose said. "That was very similar to me as hockey. I would go and I would shoot 100 pucks a day … I think it’s the fact that it is you and the bike."

Signing a class involves communicating the pace, the energy behind a song and the position a rider should take during a song as it progresses. Whether in speech or in ASL, striking that balance could make the difference between getting a rider to feel the burn of the arduous “hill” climb and letting a rider get hurt from leaning too far or running too fast.

“In sign language, I’d say it could feel like 12 inches of snow,” Rose said of the “hill” climb. “Lo’s not saying that on the mic, but I have to enter that piece of information."

A deaf rider took an interest in Rose's SoulCycle classes, but she often missed her 5:15 p.m. class due to traffic. McMann suggested the rider take her class a little later. While McMann led that class from her bike on the podium, Rose stood on the side and signed.

“It was kinda by a happy accident,” McMann said. “That student really loves riding. Heather and I were like, 'What are we going to do? How are we going to make it so she can continue riding?'”

After talks with their supervisors, Rose and McMann settled on a biweekly class at 6:30 p.m. Wednesdays. The second class was nearly packed, just as the first was.

“I’m just excited to see where this goes,” Rose said.

She said she also hopes other Boston-area fitness studios take the opportunity to make their classes more accessible, from offering multilingual options to adding a little more light in a yoga class.

"Access doesn’t have to be this big change," Rose said. "It’s little changes."