Debbie Does Dance Studios

I believe that there's always a subtext to dancing. There's a form of intimacy at stake whether it's just jumping around at a club or a specific routine with a partner in formal dance. Ideally, dancing occurs with people of a certain comfort level, one that allows bodies to be in close proximity. This intimacy can be problematic when searching for partners when one is single and/or teenaged. For my school dances, this intimacy was usually denied or feared from potential partners. This is why I spent most school dances getting close to the gymnasium wall. Even a small potential for greater intimacy was one reason my alma mater (which will remain nameless) did not allow dancing on campus. This actually saved me from having to get familiar with other gym walls, but something that wasn't policed was dance classes. These remove the physical barriers to dancing because partners are assigned and you have to get closer to learn together. Since it's "education," the taboos are gone. Leaving aside the physical contact as well as the dance-appropriate outfits that can create stimulating situations, consider the stretching. I assume there's no need to explain the unintentional stimulations of stretches.

But then there's the Simply Circus studio: not only is stretching recorded and explained, it's done so in the photographic style of late 70's porno. Also mind-boggling is this dance studio's (lack of) dress code. Still, it seems to put a lot of effort into the teaching of stretch. There's the Front Bend Warm-Up Exercise, a same exercise if you're incredibly limber, there's warming up the legs, the always favored arching of the back (the final picture especially), and of course the splits, a long time favorite. This dance studio sure looks like it was in full swing during some of my more awkward days. I sure see a few mid-80's dance outfits in those pictures. Wish I'd been learning stretching at this studio instead of gym wall patterns during those days.