I'd live in a forest.

Pole Fit at Mariposa Dance Company kicked off this week. On Saturday, Corinna (the studio owner) and I assembled all the X-Stages. We have six for the studio with 45mm chrome poles, plus my personal brass pole (I call him Paul). We have a rack that all the stages sit into when they're not being used so that we don't have to set them up from scratch before and take them apart after classes. We got all the stages onto the rack so that we could test-run setting them all up and figure out the easiest and fastest way to get everything ready for class. It only took us about five minutes to get all the stages spread around the room, which was faster than we expected. We were a little concerned about set-up time before class because of how many poles there are to set up and the weight of each X-Stage. We managed to develop a system though, so between the two of us, we can get everything ready within about 10 minutes, including checking each pole to make sure they're all secure. It was definitely neat to see them all in the studio... like a forest of poles.

Tuesday was our first night of classes, beginning at 7:30. We had three classes in a row. Being my first time teaching, I was nervous, but things seemed to go off without a hitch and all the ladies enjoyed their classes. We had a fun night, laughing, working out and doing some basic pole moves. For week one, I introduced some conditioning exercises that we'll be working on for the next two months, as well as the simplest skills and spins for beginners. Over the next few weeks of the course, we'll be building our repertoire of spins as well as starting some combinations and choreography.

Besides the Tuesday classes, we have one on Friday nights and one Saturday afternoons. Unfortunately, Simcoe County has just been slammed by a snow storm, so Mariposa's dance classes for tonight, including Pole Fit, have been cancelled due to the weather and road conditions. Our Friday ladies will be a week behind the other four classes, but that's just how it'll have to be. The roads are practically impassable. Oh winter. Oh Canada.