Team: The story of LëtzPole’n’Dance officially begins on the 26th April this year, when we founded our association (asbl). Our first class, however, was only held at the beginning of September, because there was just a lot of preparation that had to be done. We already had a few coaches since they had been in other studios with us before and we got super lucky with the location, the room at the Schëfflenger Schräiner was the very first one we had a look at and we immediately fell in love with it. Although the ceiling height is not quite as high as we had hoped for, it’s a family business and the owners are just amazing, they really helped us out with a lot of things and we have a very good relationship with them, which is way more important than having the perfect place.

Then, of course we also had to build up our team – coaches and committee. Via instagram we found two amazing new coaches, Samantha from Madagascar and Carolina from Mexico, that joined our existing teacher team. Coralie and Laeti were already our coaches in previous pole dance studios and we are really lucky to have them because they are super good at what they do and all this wouldn’t be possible without them. Later on, Jojo also joined our team. She’s one of the girls that started pole dancing when it wasn’t yet popular in Luxembourg, so when she contacted us we immediately said yes. Then, we launched a crowdfunding campaign to help us get started, because renting a place, buying material, paying insurance, hiring coaches etc is pretty expensive and since we’re only doing this on a voluntary basis beside our jobs, it wouldn’t have been possible, financially, to do it without some help.

Alongside this we started to setup everything in our studio, poles that can be removed so there’s space for other classes, hoops and aerial silks. And the schedule, that one was kinda tricky. We’re again super lucky that our coaches are all pretty flexible, so that we managed to create a schedule with a total of 19 classes of pole dance, aerial arts and gravity yoga. We had a lot of friends helping us out: Yannick Schumacher, a graphic designer friend, created our logo, Joelle from our committee designs all our flyers, Diogo DS, a dancer friend of ours, shot our promo video while Laura’s boyfriend, Tim Morizet did the photos, our coach Samantha created beautiful illustrations for our website, which Ralph, a friend of Salima’s helped us out with, Esther's sister, who sewed our logo on towels so that we could sell them as merch, our friend Gunter that we could always count on no matter what, and generally our families supporting us materially and with good advice and motivation. And of course all the people that donated. We were able to collect over 8.500 Euros which is just WOW. We can never thank people enough for their help, it’s just crazy how supportive everyone was.

And well yeah, then it just started. We did two taster weeks with reduced prices so that people could come and have a look, maybe try some things out before really signing up for this and that went so so so well, we were overrun by people. And then the regular classes started, we’re adapting the schedule each month and that’s been going really great so far – despite the restrictions due to Covid.

Laura: I think our main goal was to have a place where we could train again. The three of us started pole dancing in a studio in Differdange but the owner closed it a couple of years ago. We then went to another one and when that one was closed too, we decided to do something on our own. You know, the pole dance community in Luxembourg has existed for over ten years now and there are a lot of people that love this sport, but at some point there was just Jenny Liebert’s studio left, Flirty Fitness in the city. One studio is definitely not enough for a whole country, plus most of us come from the south of Luxembourg so we were really looking for a place around there. And the demand has also grown, people now see pole dance on TV in talent shows and realize it’s an amazing sport. We already got tons of messages and mails from people that wanted to start pole dance even when we hadn’t opened the studio yet. So I guess that’s how it just happened.

Esther: Personally, I had in mind for a while that it would be nice to start something new. I was very sad when I found out that our old dance school was going to close. However, I was aware that it is almost impossible to realize such a project alone, both from a financial and organizational point of view, especially if you work and have a family. Afterwards, I was very happy to hear that Laura and Salima had the same idea in mind and that, of course, the teachers were willing to join in.

Salima: Having known Laura and Esther for quite a while, I knew for sure that our new project would be a success because all three of us have different qualities, working schedules and character traits that complete each other well. Esther is more reasonable but at the same time cautious, especially when it comes to finances, Laura is super optimistic and jumps right in, and I like to combine both sides.

Laura: I would say it’s the same as with any other type of dance: to move your body and just feel good, express yourself. The special thing about aerial arts is that they combine dance, acrobatics, flexibility and strength and have so many different facets. Pole dance can be super elegant, hyper powerful, sexy, smooth, energetic and and and. And the same goes for aerial hoop and silk, which are actually circus arts that have gained a lot of popularity these past years.

Esther: What I like about aerial dancing is that it doesn't necessarily have to be a competition. Everyone has their own way of doing it and everyone has the opportunity to express their own personality with it. That's why I like the saying: remind yourself, nobody poles like you. You design yourself!

Salima: After having been dancing salsa for a while, I was looking for new sportive challenges that needed to combine music and movement. Seeing a professional pole dancer for the first time on an international tv show, I was immediately fascinated and blown away by the strength and flexibility a pole dancer must have. Feeling like a potato in my very first pole class, spaghetti arms, no strength at all, this sport kept me motivated and I saw some slow results coming soon. The positive side effects of pole dance are less cellulite, strong arms and core, but the best part about it for me is that it makes me feel proud about my body for what it is able to do and not for what it looks like.