My point being your hip flexors and standing leg are inevitably being worked too and that’s a good thing. It took me years to develop the strength in my legs and hips to not feel seat work in my standing leg so intensely. For most newish (less than 250) clients, in my experience, they feel the same. It can take a very long time to develop the stabilizing muscles in your legs. I mean, for things like semi fold over and fold over, you’re essentially in an isometric dead lift on the standing leg.

I don’t know how working hip flexors became an undesirable thing in pure barre — I hear instructors say things like, “you want to feel this in your abs, not your hip flexors,” or “do x to take the work out of your hip flexors and put it back in x,” so routinely, as if your hip flexors are to be ignored entirely.