I see such a deep connection between our interior lives and the way physical movement creates space—not just physically, but emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. Movement has been the foundation of my healing journey, and while my body may look different than it did a few years ago, it’s just a small reflection of the deep transformation I’ve experienced. When we move with intention, with presence, we start to feel what it’s like to really live in ourselves. To fully occupy who we are. 

That’s why I wanted to sit down with Berit Ahlgren, the founder of Sunna. She’s created something that’s more than a movement class. It’s a kind of invitation. A gentle but powerful reminder that healing doesn’t have to be performative, and that we can return to ourselves at any time. I wanted to ask her how it all came to be, what keeps her going, and what she’s dreaming about next.

Twin Cities locals, check out Sunna at 514 2nd Street SE in Minneapolis! New clients can claim a BOGO offer: Purchase your first class for a discounted price of $20 and get the second class free.

Kate: I’ve had a long, complicated relationship with my body and, depending on the day, we’re either in sync, totally disconnected, or bouncing between the two. I’m learning to relax into noticing how my body is feeling rather than judging it. Sunna has been a place where this has felt possible, if not a welcome state of mind. Was there a turning point for you when movement shifted from something you “should do” to something that actually felt good?

Berit: This is such a beautiful, poignant question—thank you for asking. I grew up in dance and made a life and career out of it. Since opening Sunna, my involvement with dance has massively slowed, but will never cease to exist. Dance has brought me joy, freedom, playfulness, and presence, as well as a powerful way to process sadness and pain. But “exercise” has always felt like a “should”—to negate what I ate and drank, to strive to look a certain way, to do what I read, heard, or saw was the right, trendy, or healthy thing every woman should be doing. I’ve had to learn to reframe my daily activity as something that helps me feel like me, an important part of how I developed who I am over four decades, a part of my day that leaves me feeling complete.

I’ve learned to see movement, dance, or otherwise, as a means to find gratitude in my strength and acknowledge a privilege not everyone has. Knowing that movement brings endorphins and keeps my body healthy is a mindset I’ve adapted as I look in the mirror and witness a naturally aging body. But mentally, there is still something there that feels shame or guilt when I don’t prioritize a portion of my day to move my body. I’m still sorting this out and admit that there are layers of expectation that are likely unhealthy.

Like you, I’m learning to listen more to physical feeling and not mental expectation, and perhaps because this has been a newfound understanding for me, it has shown up as a guiding force for Sunna as well. I encourage students to note their energetic, physical, and emotional selves to make a smart decision about what kind of class to partake in on any given day—feel what they really need, not just what expectations tell them. Within classes, too, I constantly remind people to tune into their feelings. What I’m offering as an instructor is a suggestion, but their agency to intensify or pare down the level of the class based on their feelings is a skill and strength to practice—one that doesn’t always come naturally in how our culture has guided us to associate with our bodies.

Kate: Where did the idea for Sunna come from? And what were you hoping to create that didn’t already exist?

Berit: I had been teaching Pilates and yoga across the Twin Cities at different studios and clubs for nearly 20 years, zipping across town, feeling exhausted and underpaid. Teaching was always parallel to my dance career as supportive income, but I started to recognize that prioritizing my dance career as an aging, single woman without a dual household income was a very insecure place! My love for teaching people about their moving bodies, my curiosity to connect with other humans, my sense that I could make more positive, direct change to a wider range of people than my dance career was impacting (sadly enough) led me to make a pivot and open a studio that would be unique to the community.

I wanted to create a boutique wellness space that didn’t specialize in just one modality, such as Pilates or yoga, and that wasn’t limited to movement-based classes. (I intentionally didn’t put “studio” in Sunna’s name because I wanted the space also to hold community events such as talk series, makers’ markets, and artist salons.) My dream was a space that not only offered high-intensity but also low-intensity classes so students could experience the benefit of a well-rounded physical practice that supported the nervous system as well as the cardiovascular and muscular systems. I titled our group class formats “wellness” classes rather than “fitness” because our aim would be just that—wellness over fitness. Wellness is personally holistic and encompasses mind, body, and spirit, whereas fitness is measured in generalized standards and exterior expectations.

Kate: There are endless fitness and wellness brands out there, but Sunna feels more like a practice. The energy of the classes feels like community, even if you’re not socializing with the person next to you. What do you think people are really coming to Sunna for, even if they don’t know it yet?

Berit: We have excellent, seasoned instructors who are encouraged to teach within their own passions, not within a prescribed brand. The warm interaction, care, and intentionality at Sunna is our common denominator, but the variety of formats, teaching personalities, and styles naturally provides that sense of community. For those who have tried different practices and teachers at Sunna, I think there’s a sense of acceptance when you know there is no cookie-cutter teacher or student in our community. Perhaps that authenticity is something folks are coming for, whether they have their finger on it or not?

I’ve worked in environments that glorify muscle mass, weight loss, sweat, and competition. There’s so much of that masculine energy in our general culture, I absolutely didn’t want to build something with more of those values we’re already saturated with. Sunna is feminine—we have live plants everywhere, flower arrangements at our front desk, and a lovely candle burning at all times. I care about scent, lighting, cleanliness, natural plants, and the flow of the space.

Sunna is the goddess of the sun in Norse mythology, and the sun gives us life. The sun goes through cycles, but always comes back. It illuminates what’s around us. The sun is shared and doesn’t belong to just one person. The sun is the center of our universe and radiates out. One’s core self can be strengthened through the formats we offer at Sunna, which aim to embrace each individual’s truest self. Our solar plexus is the area around our navel, which once connected us to our mother, and ties us back through a feminine line. The third chakra, located at our solar plexus, is yellow like the rays of the sun, and from the pelvis, the center of our body, we have gut feelings, a drive for life, that which propels us forward on our path.

Kate: Why do you think movement has this weird ability to crack us open emotionally, sometimes when we’re not expecting it at all? I’ll admit I’ve cried during one of your yoga classes!

Berit: I find the body endlessly fascinating, far more intelligent than we’ve even discovered with science or made universally understood. We hold so many memories in our body beyond our brain cells, and brilliantly find protective ways of holding these memories (particularly trauma) in physical ways, like in our shoulders, hips, spine, and abdomen. It’s a defence mechanism of our limbic brain we must honor, even if we’d prefer otherwise.

When we are guided to move in ways that are outside of our regular movement patterns—such as a yoga class or a somatic dance class—there is a strong likelihood that we crack open a physical holding pattern we didn’t even realize was there, and a huge flood of emotions might seemingly come out of nowhere! It’s so healthy, oftentimes a bit scary, and totally not talked about as any kind of physical or mental education. Bessel van der Kolk’s book The Body Keeps the Score is an excellent resource for anyone curious about this physical-emotional response. I have worked with talk therapists on and off most of my life, but I think my biggest catharsis moments have always been through movement. Tears while I’m teaching are always welcome—I get it and support it.

Kate: Sunna feels unpolished in the best possible sense. There’s no pressure to perform. Was that intentional from the start, or did it emerge as you built it?

Berit: I’m so glad you think so! I imagine that was intentional from the start, whether I labeled it or not. I strive for perfection all the time, but at the end of the day, I’m that person with the “organized” piles on my desk, I eat while I drive, my dogs sleep in bed with me, I don’t always wash my fruit and veggies, I leave my house with wet hair, the list goes on. Accepting those unpolished aspects of myself, as much as I may have tried to change them in the past, has allowed me to see Sunna in the same way.

The clunkiness of moving barres and reformers, the small space and unique ways to store things, the lack of a formal changing room, and the bathroom downstairs… I just had to be OK with these personality traits of Sunna. But I do stress to my staff that the floors need to always be clean, the mirrors should be spotless, the complimentary towels rolled a certain way, a candle must always be lit… the beauty and care of the space can be there even if there are not enough coat hooks for students in the dead of winter. Some things you just have to let go of, and I’m happy to keep it real while still attempting to be excellent.

Kate: How do you personally stay connected to play and presence in movement? I imagine it is challenging, especially when it’s also your job.

Berit: It’s challenging. Thank you for pointing that out. I had a moment recently where I didn’t recognize myself, which was frightening and brought a deep sadness with this sense of loss. I’m still playing the “pre-Sunna” and “post-Sunna” comparison game, thinking about the freedoms, spontaneity, and playfulness I had before so much responsibility and expectation were in my lap 24/7. I do find a lot of joy in movement and rarely feel teaching is “work” because of my connection to creativity and playfulness when instructing. But the moments to put work aside and be playful and present in my personal life are rare these days. I expect that will change eventually, and I’m making some active shifts in my position as well as self-imposed expectations to bring this back to better balance.

Kate: What do you hope someone feels after their first Sunna class?

Berit: Welcomed. Warm. Inspired. Connected (to themselves and others). Beautiful. Nourished. Nurtured. Seen. Appreciated. 

Kate: How would you describe your vision for Sunna now, compared to what you imagined when it was just an idea?

Berit: Honestly? I think they’re the same, and I’m almost nervous to say that and jinx it. When I considered what formats we would offer at Sunna, it was just as valuable, if not more, to consider who would be bringing their energy and passion to the space. Without having to look at resumes or certificates, I had gut feelings about who would and wouldn’t be a good fit to build a nourishing environment for students. I first imagined Sunna to be a curated collection of class offerings that supported mental and physical wellness, and that has stayed true from concept to reality, a backbone to our mission. Our tagline—Movement for Mind + Body—stresses that importance.

Bringing mind and body into better alignment with one another was something I knew Sunna would offer the community, and I think we are doing that. Even our most physically challenging classes are taught with emphasis on rest, stillness, and quiet when possible. I intend to keep this at the heart of what we do in a generous, non-prescribed, authentic kind of way.

Kate: What’s been the hardest part of building this thing? Has anything really surprised you—either in a good way or a “why am I doing this” way?

Berit: Oh gosh, so many things! I could answer personally or professionally, let’s see…  

Learning to listen and let go—and then adapt and adjust. For someone with historically strong control issues (up and through today, tbh), this is, of course, a challenge! I anticipated a stronger yoga program, but we just haven’t had the numbers to keep more yoga classes on the schedule. I also anticipated Gyrokinesis and Gyrotonic to be more enticing for students, and it just hasn’t taken off. I’m too stubborn to let these formats go—I believe too strongly in them as part of the Sunna fabric, and will continue to adjust and adapt how and where they fall in our schedule until catching.

I’ve also been pleasantly surprised at how generous and supportive Sunna’s staff has been in supporting my vision. I come at all things with a lack of confidence and catastrophic thinking, so to have had such ease and little to no pushback from those I admire, respect, and want to keep on staff, come hell or high water, has been surprising, humbling, and strengthening. I’m learning to trust myself as a leader.

Kate: What are you dreaming about next? Whether it’s the big picture or just a small detail you’re excited about—what’s lighting you up about the future of Sunna?

Berit: Sunna is amazing. I’m constantly blown away by how she landed and organically grew a generous, thoughtful community of diverse, interesting individuals. As for the studio… she still has space to grow in our four walls. We will be adding more reformers, more Pilates-based classes, Pilates teacher training courses, and ongoing unique collaborative workshops and special events. And much further down the road… yes, maybe there’s a second location in another part of town!

As for me, I love to be learning, growing, and training. Whether it’s for a performance, a marathon, a semester-long course, or a teaching certification, you name it! Right now, I am partaking in a business course. There’s a lot I just did on the fly with plenty of experience from working in the field, but by no means did I know what a KPI was or how to track revenue or read a profit and loss report! I’m learning lots but also recognizing there’s a reason I never learned this stuff in the first place—it’s not at all dreamy! Spreadsheets do not turn me on, surprise, surprise. I much prefer the naivete of winging it, creative problem solving on the fly, being pleasantly surprised over predictably assured. I want to put my head more fully back into the creative, curatorial elements of designing Sunna’s offerings and events. AND YET, I of course want to finish what I’ve started, learn new skills, continue to grow personally, and devote anything and everything I can to keep Sunna improving and ensuring that she’s not going anywhere. I’m all over the place, Kate, haha—wish me luck!

Kate Arends

Kate is the founder of Wit & Delight. She is currently learning how to play tennis and is forever testing the boundaries of her creative muscle. Follow her on Instagram at @witanddelight_.