Pole dancing in Naperville... a workout to remember.
April 28, 2009
By Nicki Anderson For The Sun
I must admit, when I decided to explore pole dancing for my column, I had no idea what to expect. I went in to this assignment with a bit of skepticism, after all, pole dancing? A common reaction, but I quickly changed my attitude once I met Kristin Hubbard, owner of Tease Dance and Fitne
ss in Naperville and experienced a class. The fitness industry has never been stifled when it comes to exercise innovation, and pole dancing is no exception.
A classically trained dancer, Kristin found herself seeking the right kind of fitness program shortly after delivering her first child. Like every other new mom, Kristin wanted to find someplace to recover her pre-baby body. She happened upon a Fitness Pole Dancing class in Los Angeles (where she lived at the time), and fell in love with it. When she and her family relocated to Naperville, she couldn't find pole dancing classes locally, so she started her own. Being certified through Cooper Clinic as a Personal Trainer, Kristin decided to teach pole dancing classes for friends and family and that passion for dancing has evolved into a thriving business.
"Tease is three things combined," Hubbard says. "Finding your bliss through your body, a challenging but really fun workout, and the 'Tease sisterhood.' These three elements come together and create an incredibly powerful experience for each woman, which is what makes each class so special."
When you enter the Tease studio, what little light there is comes from two sources, candles and a single chandelier which hangs from a "tent like" ceiling in t
he center of the room. The studio includes four dance poles and while the instructor sits below the brightest light in the room, the students are placed around the perimeter of the room where there is less light. This is done intentionally to help students feel more comfortable and less self-conscious. As a student, I appreciated that, given my personal trepidation.
The class begins with a 45-minute floor stretching sequence including some yoga and Pilates moves. From there it's on to the pole. Kristin taught movements that, although you wouldn't practice them everyday - though she encourages you to - the various movements challenged my body. With climbs and spins, my upper body was working overtime. Even with the challenge, Kristin did a great job of making the class fun.
However, Kristin told me that she kicked up the level of the class for my benefit; I think I appreciated that.
K
ristin says, "Pole dancing is a big step out of the box for most women. But when these women come into their own ... it's a force of nature. Pole dancing has an interesting past that most people don't even know about. It began in the circus; men and women would dance on the poles that held up the tents. It wasn't until the 1980's that the pole came to gentlemen's clubs. Bu
t that's what people know."
What people don't know is that it's certainly a workout, 90 minutes of stretching and strengthening. For me, I must confess, I was pleasantly surprised and appropriately challenged.
So, is pole dancing for you? I would encourage you to check out a class, if you're looking for something very different. Tease offers classes Level 1 through Level 7 - something for everyone.
For more information visit www.teasedanceandfitness.com or you can call 630-901-9697. Tease Dance and Fitness is at 1841 Wherli Road in Naperville. New classes begin Sunday.
If there’s one thing I love about working in the fitness industry, it’s the variety o
f things I get to try. Take today, for instance. I flew into Chicago a couple of days before the start of our 2009 IDEA Fitness Fusion Conference so I could visit Nicki Anderson, 2009 IDEA Personal Trainer of the Year, who also happens to be a dear friend. Aside from all the fun we had in the city yesterday on a wonderful architectural tour of historically significant buildings in the downtown loop, we shared a lot of conversation and exchanged many ideas about what’s happening in the industry. Very enlightening, good stuff! Here are two highlights from today:
- We got up earlyish, walked to her studio in downtown Naperville, Illinois, and dove into a pretty intense workout. About halfway through, it dawned on me that I was training with one of the real elites in our business and wa
s delighted at my great luck of having this opportunity. There was Nicki sweating next to me as she counted out reps, cued me on form and kept me going with her abundance of energy and humor. My muscles were trembling when we finished the creative cardio-strength circuit work.
The last time I was at Nicki’s studio in 2007, it was in the middle of a remodel and frankly, it wasn’t pretty; but at least it gave me perspective for my visit today. The result of the remod
el is a bright, colorful, flowing space with many private rooms for her primarily female clientele. Nicki has discovered over the years that her clients thrive in this protective setting. By providing such an environment, Reality Fitness helps women achieve their goals and change their lives in a safe comfort zone.
- Nicki writes a wee
kly fitness column for a local newspaper. This week she chose to research and report on a local pole fitness enterprise that has opened in Naperville. A few hours after our morning workout, we drove over to Tease Dance and Fitness and were warmly welcomed by owner Kristin Hubbard. Kristin’s philosophy for women is to “Be Confident; Be Sexy; Be Strong,” and I definitely got the sense that she lives and breathes it. At first glance, her space appears to be the polar opposite of Nicki’s. It’s open, it’s dark—it’s sensuous with wafts of lilac and patchouli wafting through the candle-lit studio. There are 5 poles in the room forming a “circle” with an old antique chandelier softly illuminating the center and colorful, silky material forming an exotic “tent” overhead. But then it dawned on me that, beneath the surface, this space wasn't so unlike Nicki's afterall. It also is a "safe" environment for women. It was dark, comfortable and pretty. It was so unlike a regular fitne
ss facility that I could see why so many women who otherwise would never set foot in a gym would feel unintimidated about being here.
Kristin put us through the dynamic warm-up and training portion of the class (about 45 minutes), which included Pilates variations, yoga and some strength and stretching work. Mostly, what it achieved for me was a way to connect with my body—to get in tune with it and appreciate all it does for me as an athlete and as a woman. It also helped put me at ease about what was to come next—maneuvering on the pole! It was fun. It was dizzying (figuratively and literally). It was damn hard! Talk about an athletic activity! Anyone who makes fun of this form of dance and gymnastics or thinks it’s easy has never tried it. It somehow seems appropriate that I heard today that people are petitioning it for a slot in the Olympics. Why not!? Do you know what kind of strength it takes to shimmy up a pole gracefully and then flip yourself into a superman position sideways? That’s all core, baby! Kristin’s stunts were incredible, and she performed them all with the iron-fist-in-a-velvet-glove finesse that only a very strong, very flexible woman can pull off well. Although I’m bruised and a little sore, I vow to become a disciple of it when I get back to San Diego! The greatest thing about both experiences with Nicki and Kristin is the common thread of empowering women. Nicki’s private rooms and no-nonsense approach give women the strength and confidence they need to move forward on the sometimes rocky road toward fitness, weight loss and, indeed, life. Kristin’s approach puts women back in touch with their bodies and makes them connect to t
he very essence of being a woman. She works with everyone from beginners (including overweight and deconditioned) to advanced students. She told us she has watched women blossom under the dim lights of her studio and learn to love their bodies and themselves again. As I mentioned, it was a great way to spend the day. What a wonderfully diverse industry we work in! Have you had a similar experience? Does your studio do something unique to empower women? Share your thoughts with me in the comment box below. Posted by Sandy Webster @ 4/23/2009 9:32:01 PM
Click here to read a great 2009 article about us!
Dancing
with the Poles
By MEG DEDOLPH Staff writer
For women who find step aerobics boring and spin class
a snore, there are a couple of area businesses bringing
pole dancing to the suburbs. The classes remove the seedier
elements from the activity and focus on exercise, camaraderie
and good, clean fun, said teacher Kristin Hubbard of Naperville."They've
lifted me up so much and helped me become a woman again,"
Fazekas said of taking cl
asses at Tease Workout. Hubbard's
business, Tease Workout, expanded almost faster than she
could manage. She started teaching classes in her basement,
with about 18 students, last September. Now, less than
a year later, she has more than 100 students and has outgrown
her renovated garage. She'll be offering classes in a
storefront in the University Commons shopping center down
the s street from her house, starting this month. Small
groups Despite the bigger space, she doesn't want the
classes to get bigger. No
w, they have about a half-dozen
students each, and that's small enough so the stud
ents
can form a bond with each other, she said. “"I
want to share this with more women, but I don't want to
push it,"” she said. “"It's already
done way more than I was ready for. That's been tough.̶
1;
Had she known demand would be so great, she wouldn't
have renovated her 400-square-foot garage, adding a wood
floor, mirrors and pale yellow walls, as well as the three
floor-to-ceiling poles. The family parks their vehicles
in the driveway. “"I had no idea at all, otherwise
I would have been prepared for it,"” she said.
“"I wouldn’'t have spent $20,000 to turn
this into a really nice garage.” New location To
prepare the rental space, she moved the three
poles and
did some redecorating. She plans to use a small conference
room for child care for moms who enrolled in her daytime
classes. The classes include 45 minutes of a Pilates-style
workout, including abdominal exercises, before the members
start learning a pole routine. “"We work on
self-esteem
and uplifting each other,” she said.
“"The end of class is when we dance and everyone's
screaming and telling everyone how great they are.”
Hubbard, a personal trainer who also taught classes at
the f
ormer Naper Olympic Health Club, offers about 14
classes a week and has hired several teachers to help
with the workload a d. The eight-week sessions cost $200,
and Hubbard has had no trouble finding willing students.
“"We don't advertise, it's all
word-of-mouth,”
she said. “"The majority of the women in here
are soccer moms. They've got the husband and the kids
and they've lost touch with their sensuality and want
to get in shape –- and this is definitely more fun
than any kickboxing class.” `Newest rage’-
Carolyn Trisilla of Aurora, who owns Friskey Business,
caters to a slightly different segment of the market.
Rather than running pole-dancing classes from a studio,
she sends consultants to in-home parties. Many of them
are bachelorette parties, at least during the summer,
but she's been hired for other gatherings, including a
bunco party. “"It's a different kind of party,
it's fun for all our friends to get around, and everyone's
hooting and hollering,” she said. She has 10 consultants,
and handles two or three parties a week on her own. Trisilla
plans to add more consultants, up to 30, by the end of
the summer. “"I definitely want to grow a little
bit more with the consultants and see where it goes from
there,” she said. “"I have one consultant
in Iowa, one in Indiana and the rest are just around here.”
Trisilla said the climate seems to be right for pole dancing
classes now. “"With it being on Oprah, everyone
wants to do it, everyone wants to try it,” she said.
“"It's the newest rage.”"
Aurora Beacon News...
Dancing with the poles
April 29, 2007
You'll be happy to know I'm finally taking a break from
writing about kids on drugs. Today's subject: Moms on
poles. Guaranteed to be a bit less serious, if not totally
free of controversy. Here's the deal: It appears that
pole dancing -- you know, the provocative main attraction
at all those gentlemen's clubs we pretend not to notice
-- has become quite the trend among the more conservative
(certainly more clothed) females here in Fox Valley suburbia.
Kristin Hubbard, a 35
-year-old mother of three who is
a certified fitness instructor and church volunteer, started
teaching pole dancing in the basement of her Naperville
home last fall to 18 students. A half-year later, she
boasts well more than 100 students, five instructors and
blueprints for a brand new studio. And still she has trouble
keeping up with the demand. "I'm going out of my mind,"
Hubbard says of her rapidly growing Tease Studio. "Women
try (pole dancing) and see what an incredible workout
it is."
Making It Their Own From Exercise to Hobbies to
Parenting, Baby Boomers Are Putting Their Spin on Everything
By Mary Jekielek Insprucker Daily Herald correspondent
Back in 1988, General Motors' ad campaign, "It's not your
father's Oldsmobile," enticed people to purchase a newer,
hipper, automobile than generations before them.
Newer and hipper seem to be the norm in several facets
of a bo
omer's lifestyle, and we're not just talkin' trading
in an Olds Ninety Eight 4-door Holiday Hardtop for a Chevy
Corvette.
From replacing grandma's trip to Florida with space tourism,
to casting a neon pink glow t o the golden years, it's
not your father's "anything."
Exercise
Perhaps one of the most evident generational differences
can be found in the health arena. As far back as 1982,
the boomer clan quickly replaced Jack La Lanne's jumping
jacks with "Jane Fonda's Workout" video and Richard Simmons'
"Sweatin' to the Oldies."
Even as bones and muscles aged, the kinder, gentler group
refused to become couch potatoes as some before them.
They replaced high aerobics with tai chi, yoga, and Pilates.
Moreover, although you might not p
icture grandma doing
pole dancing, some have embraced it as an opportunity
to stay fit.
"Pole dancing appeals to some baby boomers because as
th
ey get older they lose some of the responsibility of
family and job, so they can spend a little more time on
themselves," said Kristin Hubbard, owner of Tease Workout
in Naperville, which offers an eight- week pole dancing
class. "Some feel it's a good way to being back some of
their sensuality they fee l they've lost through menopause
or breast cancer surgery."
Pole dancing as an exercise involves six levels including
climbing, spinning, and inverting. Participants
strengthen
and train at their own pace.
"The health benefit of pole dancing is that it is an entire
body workout with core strengthening," said Hubbard. "Using
your own body weight as resistance is better than lifting
weights. T
he emotional and mental relaxing drops your
blood pressure."
Dorene Tittle Baran, 51, of Melrose Park, knew the exercise
wa
s for her after seeing it featured on TV.
"It's so much fun and brings out my feminine and sexual
side and is a great workout," said Tittle Baran. "It's
a great way to get in touch and realize you can still
be sexy at 50 and up. It gives me confidence to try other
things I thought I couldn't do at my age
(c) 2007 Daily Herald; Arlington Heights, Ill.. Provided
by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.Source:
Daily Herald; Arlington Heights, Ill.
Today's Chicago Woman
Naperville resident Kristin Hubbard, a married churchgoing
mother of three, opened her Tease studio in September
2006, combining her love of Pilates, exotic dance, and
pole tricks into one hardcore workout. She began with
18 students and now has more than 70, dozens of whom attest
to the physical and mental benefits of pole dancing.
Perhaps it's the novelty, or perhaps it's something more.
But both
Kristin Hubbard and the Knee sisters believe that “sexy
fitness classes” take timid, nervous women and turn
them into empowered, fit divas. Kristin can't say enough
about the mental benefits women get from aerobic striptease.
“"What a joy it has b
een for me to see so many
of my students transform from class number one, saying
‘'I’'m not sure what I'm doing here' to class
number eight, saying ‘'I’'m powerful and sexy...
If you only knew what I could do on a pole!’' That
kind of confidence is invaluable,” Kristin says.
Click For Lesson Article
Jesse Rutherford
Across the country, instructors listed with Click for
Lessons have seen their class sizes grow over the last
year; all those contacted share philosophies of positive
reinforcement, openness to all body types, and policies
against teaching stripping to enter the sex industry.'You're
in a safe place, says Kristin Hubbard of Tease Workout
in Naperville, Illinois, near Chicago, whose student roster
jumped from eighteen to seventy in just six months. “'I
have quite a few younger students who come first to build
their confidence and second for the workout. It's an awesome
way to get in shape . . . It's ninety minutes and it just
flies by—- it's more like playing.” Angela
Reininga, owner of Pole Velocity, also in the Chicago
area, attests to the fitness aspect of the classes: “'Pole
dancing was great for me because I was always sort of
we
ak,' she confides with a laugh, “'but this has
really improved my upper body strength!”
Sexy's back at pole dancing classes
Lauren Heist
Beep Staff Writer
You've never heard of a fat stripper, have you? While
that may have something to do with drugs or diets (can't
really say because I'm not a stripper), it most certainly
has something to do with the fact that pole dancing is
a killer workout. Sure, it looks easy to do a sexy strut
and swing around a pole, but those risqué routines
take major muscle strength. “'You use your own body
weight to pull yourself up on the pole,” explains
Kristin Hubbard, 35, who teach pole dancing at Tease Workout
in Naperville.
Irene Yurovsky, 23, of Franklin Park, says she got interested
in pole dancing after seeing it in a bunch of nightclubs
she frequents, but once she started taking classes in
February, she realized how much it works out your arms
and abdominal muscles. But she says to be good at pole
dancing, you just have to try it.'In some ways it's physical
but in a lot of ways it's mental,” says Yurovsky,
who's now training to become a pole dancing instructor.
“'I thi
nk it's just kind of letting yourself go
and having fun.”
Exotic dancers have bee n using poles for years in their
routines, but the idea of turning a exoti
c dance into
a mainstream fitness class is a recent phenomenon.
Pole dancing classes only started emerging in the Chicago
area around 2005. Hubbard started classes in September
2006 with 18 students and now has more than 100 students.“'It's
very popular because it's fun,” DeBouver says. “'You're
getting a whole-body workout and you're building confidence.”
Hubbard says women come “to turn the world off and
awake the sexual and sensual creature inside us.”
<
br>
Hubbard says everyone leaves a pole dancing class feeling
empowered. “'You don't have to do this for money
or a man,” Hubbard says. “'There's validity
in being sexy for yourself.”'
Business
Thrives Despite Gloomy Economy
ExplorersGroup
Despite the ‘'doom and gloom' stories currently
being heard as a result of a difficult economy, Naperville-based
Tease Workout continues to grow and thrive. The business,
which originally started
in owner Kristin Hubbard's basement,
has outgrown three locations and is now located in a studio
on Wehrli Road in southeas
t Naperville. The business recently
held a ribbon cutting event through the Naperville Area
Chamber of Commerce to celebrate the success of
the new
location.
In response the demand, Kristin has added three new instructors,
bringing Tease's total to 10 teachers. Tease Workout offers
17 classes a week at six different skill levels.
"Women will spend
money to take care of themselves and have some ‘'me
time'; even though the economy isn't the greatest,”
says Hubbard. “'They are taking a healthy approach
to living by being proactive against life's daily st
ressor's.”
Class attendee
Peggy (last name withheld for privacy) raves, “'Tease
is a great class and a terrific workout! It makes me feel
incredibly sexy!'”
Another student, Jennifer agrees: “'It's truly
a wonderful experience and I really enjoy working with
Kristin.”'
Tease Workout's
growth has also demanded more from the company's web site.
Tease hired Daria Corbett's Design Garden to completely
overhaul www.teaseworkout.com to keep up with customer
demand. The new web site features a beautiful new look,
online payments, a retail store and class schedule.
Because we've grown,” adds Kristin, “'we needed
a more professional, easy-to-use web site. It's a great
problem to have!”In addition to its new location
and web site, Tease Workout is adding new classes to its
repertoire as well. In addition t o its standard 90 minute
pole dancing workout classes, Tease is now offering 60
minute lunchtime “Quickie” workouts, along
with “Teaser” classes; Teasers are stand-along
classes designed to give women who are curious a chance
to try t
he Tease Workout before committing to a full eight-week
session. Response to Te asers has been overwhelming.
"Teaser classes
are packed,&rdquo
; exclaims Hubbard. “Women love
the chance to try before they buy, and almost everyone
who tries a Teaser signs up for a class.” Tease
Workout has added private women-only lap dance and striptease
classes and parties, too.
So despite words
like ‘sluggish,’slow, and lagging being used
so commonly today, Tease Workout is a fresh, exciting
business that's moving fast and furious to the head of
the class!
Established in
2006, Tease Workout offers fun, challenging, women-only
workouts that strengthen the body, mind and spirit by
combining pole dancing and Pilates into one amazing workout.
Participants discov
er how to be strong, be confident,
be beautiful. For more information, please visit www.Teasedanceandfitness..com
or call (630) 901-9697. |
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