[baobab]

Since I haven't seen any other replies yet, I'll throw my 2 cents in based on my own experience.

Salsa is lots of fun and tends to be more popular with the single crowd (at least that was the case when I was taking classes in Toronto) – so there were lots of social opportunities to practice without having a regular partner. There's lots of styling moves you can learn to do without a partner, but I also found that learning to dance with a partner provided me with a "instinctual" feel for how to perform turns and other kinds of moves with a pole without learning them in a pole context. I haven't done ballroom dancing, but I've heard that body positioning is relatively more "rigid" in some ballroom styles than Latin.

My personal soft spot is for bellydance, which doesn't require a partner and is likely not available at the Fred Astaire studio. I'm not sure what the bellydance community is like in Hamilton, but there are tons of options in Toronto, I know there's a community in the KW area, and a lot of DVDs are available to learn from as well.

[baobab]

I love the idea for this challenge so much, that this is my first post after lurking for about a month here 🙂

In no particular order:

1. I love that people often guess that my age is at least 10 years younger than I am.

2. I love my legs

3. I love my butt

 

1. I'm proud that I'm learning so quickly. (Having previous dance experience and upper body strength from hauling around a +30lb kid helps).

2. I'm proud that I'm 40 and yet probably fitter than I have ever been before.

3. I love that my interest to improve my pole skills has the side effect of motivating me to work out regularly, including taking up swimming lessons!

4. I'm proud that I have an awesome husband who supports me in everything I do, and I'm happy to be part of a community where people show so much support for each other.

5. I love that I can bring both my musical and dance background to pole dance.