PERSON: Penny Bedford, tailor
ACTIVITY: Pole dancing for fitness
Penny Bedford is a spunky, attractive 50-plus Toronto tailor with a lovely Scottish accent and an unusual workout regimen: she pole dances.
For the uninitiated, pole dancing is a staple of a stripper's routine, with practitioners using an upright brass pole to support a series of twirls, bends, stretches and other dance moves. Strippers do it in dark lounges to titillate anonymous men but at a fitness club like the Uptown Toronto Aradia Fitness, where Bedford has twice taken the eight-week course, the goals are more noble: body confidence, muscle toning, feeling "like a woman."
Alishia Sala, owner and head instructor at the studio explains: "Women coming to the class for the first time always feel they are doing something risqué, but once they attend their first class they come to realize that what we do is really just fun and confidence building."
Bedford, single and glad of it, she says, spoke playfully about her lifestyle and fitness aspirations in a phone conversation:
FY: Describe yourself.
PB: I'm just gorgeous, in my opinion. Medium weight, 145 lbs. and five-foot four. So I don't want to lose weight, I want to tone. I am comfortable with my body.
FY: What is your best asset?
PB: Gift of the gab! I am a social being, I love what I do, know all the people in the neighbourhood. And soon, a bod to die for!
FY: Tell me briefly about your attitude towards fitness throughout your life.
PB: Like all women I have been on and off but as I have got a bit older, I decided I should be a wee more serious about it. When I was younger, I went to the gym three times a week and I swam in between.
FY: How did you find out about pole dancing for fitness?
PB: I saw it advertised on a pole. I thought, brilliant.
FY: Describe the class.
PB: It's a good overall workout, good for toning. This is fantastic fun, a tough workout. It helps me find my female side.
There are about eight in a class, and you really do bond with people in the class. It's a fun thing girls can do and you don't need a partner to be alive and feel like a woman.
They are very strict on the exercises, warming up 30 minutes before we even get to the pole, and as you go along you are learning a routine.
It is tough, you bet your bottom dollar it is my friend, it's a hell of a workout, I'm a tough cookie but this is vigorous exercise. Hey but lots of fun.
FY: Did you have any reservations given that it is pole dancing?
PB: It is kind of cheeky. At my age I think of it as a little bit cheeky.
This is about me, this about feeling like a woman, this is about my sexuality, this is fun, this is feminine, this is feeling good about being Penny and in control of my body. I am woman.
I got in tune with my own body. We Brits have a bit of a stiff upper lip so I got in touch with my body.
FY: So you would recommend pole dancing to others?
PB: I may be comfy with my bod but I can't speak for others.
Give it a try, it's so much fun really! Carpe Diem.
