My quest for a strong, durable, lightweight yet inexpensive ballet barre brought me to this unique and excellent solution.  I looked on line and found several excellent ballet barres, perfect for what I needed, but with two problems - COST and WEIGHT!  So I set about seeing if I could make a reliable, lightweight ballet barre at a reasonable cost.  

The solution was to use strong, lightweight plastic pipe.  Plastic pipe makes an excellent barre for personal use.  I'm not claiming that it's as strong as wood or steel, but it gets the job done remarkably well and at a great savings in terms of cost and weight.  This bar isn't feather light, but at 14 pounds it's very easy to move.  In the pictures, you see my daughter easily carrying it with one hand.  It's also plenty strong, even for an adult.  Any ballerina can use this barre and expect it to last a lifetime.

I went to the dance studio where my girls take lessons and measured the barres they have there.  I came up with what I think is the perfect size barre for a single person to practice on.  Although there is no "standard" height for ballet barres, I have tested this barre on many, many dancers, ages 5 to adult, and the size seems ideal.  The double crossbar design makes it usable for a very wide range of ages.  The double crossbar also makes it more stable and much stronger than a single crossbar design.  For solo practice it is PERFECT! 

In doing research I found out something very interesting, barres are supposed to be made to help perfect balance.  The barres that hang on studio walls are not ideal because the kids can use them as a "crutch" and never develop proper balance.  A lightweight barre is preferred (as long as it's strong enough) because it doesn't allow you to "hang or pull" on the barre and forces you to practice proper balance.  This barre is not a gymnastics barre, it's designed exclusively for ballet practice and stretching.

I ship the barre unassembled.  Enclosed will be everything you need to accomplish the assembly yourself and save you a good bit of money in the process.  All you have to do is glue the joints together.  I will give you very clear and easy instructions for doing so.  It takes 10-15 minutes to put together and it's fun.

My oldest daughter (the one in the pictures) is 13 years old, 5'3".  She has danced in the Great Russian Nutcracker each Christmas for several years.  She is a very serious and talented dancer.  She absolutely loves this barre.  It's lightweight enough that she can carry it easily from room to room or even take it outside and practice.

The pipe comes white, but can be painted with any paint made to paint plastic.  Personally, I wouldn't paint it - but if your little ballerina would like her barre pastel pink, simply go to Wallyworld and buy a can of spray paint made for plastic and you can have it painted in very short order.  The surface prep needed is minimal - just wipe with a tack cloth or wipe with alcohol or paint thinner and a clean, lint free rag and you are ready to start painting.  I will say though that I am surprised at how much the kids love the sort of industrial look of this barre.  It's different and eye catching.

Most ballet barres you find sell for well over $100 dollars.  I am not in any way implying that their barres are not good.  To some they might be worth the extra money.  If you need a more expensive "commercial grade" barre please buy one of theirs.  But if you would like a simple, practical, strong, stable, light weight, low cost, low maintenance barre then this is the one for you.   This barre won't rust.  It won't have any problem if it gets wet.  You will never get a splinter.  It's never too hot or cold to the touch like metal barres.  You can even leave it outside, it's PLUMBING PIPE - although I can't guarantee that it won't yellow slightly in direct sunlight.

Everything you need is included, including the proper glue, all the fittings, precision cut pipe lengths, and detailed instructions.

I make these up in my little shop in my back yard - right in the good old USA, and speaking of the USA, I do not ship outside the continental USA.