I really enjoy Brass Ring's classes and instructors. There are so many classes to choose from and…read moreeveryone is supportive of exactly where you are at. You may have to share a pole depending on how full the class is but it's a friendly and diverse community. I feel very gender affirmed at Brass always.

A newly renovated space, but the same amazingly queer community! This stunning studio offers…read moreall-gender classes and has a TON of variety with awesome instructors. Community-driven and a safe place to take on pole dancing at any level!

Creative teachers, fun classes. Great workout. The teachers are fantastic artists in their own…read moreright. Be ready to share a pole at this location.

I love Pole Icons. The vibe and space is unique to the other studios in town. Great ambiance,…read morelighting, and small classes. The location is super accessible and I feel like it more dancers should know about this local option!

Great classes! Amazing teachers and fun ! The workshop…read morehelped me understand the physiology of shoulderstands .

Highly recommend!! All the instructors I've worked with…read moremade me feel comfortable, have helped me grow so much in my technique, and in general just make it a really fun class!

Fantastic patient and kind teacher! Safety and cleanliness is a priority. Good warm up, excellent…read moreinstruction. Fun lesson tailored to your personal fitness and strength. Highly recommend LOAPT.

I've been going to LOAPT for several months now, starting with pole journey as a complete beginner,…read moreand am now doing her Pole Tricks classes. I love everything about the school...Sonia is a very knowledgeable and caring instructor. I felt right at home and her classes are always so much fun! I also like that it's more of an intimate setting with just a few students in each class. She makes sure to give each of us our own personal "homework" to work on so we can improve our skills for the next time. Her new studio space is gorgeous too, and there's plenty of parking around. I would highly recommend! :)

I have taken two different types of classes at Position Red - "Red Dance" and pilates. The studio…read moreis conveniently located in the west loop, so it is easy to get to before or after work, or even for a break at lunch. The fourth floor of the studio is dedicated to Red Dance--a dance class that mixes elements of pilates, relaxation, and pole dancing. I have to admit, I wasn't sure if Red Dance was the class for me, but after trying it, I had so much fun! I went on Saturday mornings and took from Patrice, one of the instructors. I learned how to do pole tricks, but more importantly, I learned how to look at my body in a completely new way. It sounds strange, but from someone who has always been very critical of myself, this class was amazing! I felt so refreshed and ready to start my weekend. Along the way, I also got a great upper body workout. I have also taken extensive pilates classes from Margarette Raymond, Position Red's owner and visionary. I have taken pilates at a gym before and at other studios--there is no comparison. The studio is beautiful. The third floor has about ten sets of equipment, perfect for group classes (reformers, cadillacs, wunda chairs). The space is open and peaceful. I have taken both private sessions and group sessions on the equipment, in addition to mat classes. All are excellent; Margarette has a way with words. She says things that force you to think about what you are doing with each exercise. I learn something new each time. Position Red's pilates classes have even influenced how I workout at the gym--I try to get that same feeling where it seems that I have somehow worked through each joint and every muscle in my body. Margarette also offers teacher training at her studio, which says something about her own expertise. She is certified to train others to become pilates teachers through the core dynamics program. More importantly, though, she is very personable and offers all her students a new way to look at themselves and their lives. My time at Position Red is always the highlight of my week and I encourage you to try it for yourself!

Super posh dance center. Came for a 90's/00's dance class with Dre. It was a high energy but low…read morepressure class. I really enjoyed the class and the studio that the class was held in. Our class was in studio #5. The sound system was good. Unsure if I loved the floors, but they worked good for this class. Ample spacing for our class which had nearly 2 dozen participants. The space it self is really comprehensive. I saw multiple bathrooms and a gender-neutral bathroom. There is at least 5 separate dance spaces. Each space was arranged depending on dance style. I saw a room with several barre. The general area also boosted several areas to just chill while waiting on a loved to finish a class. On this day...all the kiddos were taking classes. So many little one excited to take their dance classes. It was cute because this little girl kep staring at our class through the window. Highly recommend seeing all the offerings at this dance center. I was surprised by the many offerings they have. I want to try a beginner hip-hop but we will see. Tip: Parking is located around the building on street. Mostly free but get there with time to look. I found it easier to just park off Belmont and walk.

Came for beginner/intermediate ballet with Brian! It was super challenging, but definitely more…read moretechnical for beginners so wouldn't recommend for first timers. Beautiful studio

Finally got to visit this magical place! I was in Chicago for work and had one day available to…read moretake a few pole classes with Patty. It was easy to sign up for drop-in classes through Mindbody, though street parking can be a challenge to find in this area, especially after 9-5 work hours. The space itself is super cute (very purple!) and serene. Patty is an incredibly strong and inspiring instructor. She's great at guiding students of all levels, and I learned so much from her as both a student and pole teacher myself. Loved seeing the regulars interact with each other, challenge themselves, and learn new techniques. I'll have to buy a Pole Appeal jacket next time and bring a friend to class with me.

Really enjoyed pattis beginner class! It was a lot of fun, empowering and patti made me feel super…read morecomfortable

Giving 2 stars instead of 1 because I actually enjoyed the class I was taking there (stretching…read morewith Linnea) and would have kept going had the administrative staff not treated me like crap. Aloft uses an online platform called VAMP for students to sign up for classes, manage payments, and more. I used to email them to let them know when I would be absent but then noticed on the dashboard that there is a "Manage Absences" button on the online account dashboard. In an effort to be respectful of their time I began using it to log my planned absences instead. I felt bad for having wasted the administrative staff's time before I had made this discovery of a seemingly more streamlined way to record my absences. But after a few months of using the "Manage Absences" button on my account dashboard, I noticed I hadn't received any makeup credits. This amounted to about ~$120 in class credits I should have received, but didn't. I emailed Sarah Tapper, the person who handles this stuff, and she responded with the lifeless and cold bedside manner of an animated machine, not offering any help whatsoever and instead just recited company policies to me without offering any solutions or even partial credit. (I've included all of the emails with this review but Yelp puts them out of order which makes it hard to follow, so I've numbered them to try to make it easier.) She basically told me that despite my efforts to be respectful of her time, Aloft was keeping my ~$120. Any other business would see that what I did by using a button that was clearly labeled "Manage Absences" to *MANAGE* my *ABSENCES* is an easy mistake to make and would have credited me back for the absences I logged but also informed me that going forward I was to do things following their weird old-fashioned protocol that makes you feel like you're back in the dial-up days of the internet, which I'll outline below: At Aloft, you are not to log planned absences in the streamlined account dashboard. That would be too simple and modern. INSTEAD, you have to email back and forth with Sarah Tapper about any planned absences AND log them into the account dashboard. (According to Sarah, logging absences in the account dashboard helps instructors know who will show up and emailing Sarah ahead of time is what gets you the credits, which seems like it just creates a lot more unnecessary work for everyone). It's like this place is run by the same people running the DMV or something. Like they've been doing things the same way since they first opened over a decade ago and are holding their own customers at fault for daring to assume they would be utilizing the very platform they have for literally everything else (registering for classes, managing payments, you name it) to also be able to manage absences and get credit for makeups. Why do things the hard way when you can just cut out all this extra work and make things simple for everyone? And why was I treated with the same understanding and compassion as a protagonist in a Kafka story? I was literally just trying to be respectful of Sarah's time and was instead met with zero compassion. In initial emails with her I was very respectful and understanding and offered to do things in Aloft's weird roundabout way going forward, but would like my previous planned absences credited back to me. She just responded with company policies and not lifting a single finger to help me with my ~$120 that was now just spinning down the drain. So then I got upset and informed her that I would be writing reviews about this experience to warn others as well as reporting them to the BBB because they had taken my money and weren't giving it back despite my logging my absences (albeit not in *exactly* the way they wanted them to be logged). I never called anyone names -- but I did express my frustration about the complete lack of understanding and absolute unwillingness to bend even a little bit for a good customer who had referred others to their business and had been going there for half a year and intended to keep going. It's not like there's an elaborate enigmatic code that Sarah would have to crack that absolutely prevents them from helping me--they just didn't WANT to help me, despite the fact that I only got into this situation because *I* was trying to help *them* out! Finally, the owner decided to get involved and did in fact refund most of my ~$120 back to me but said that it was best if I didn't attend classes there going forward and I agree. I don't appreciate how I was treated--punished for the crime of mistakenly trying to do something nice for someone.

Two years ago, I took a huge risk to move all the way from South Florida to Chicago to do Aloft's…read moreProfessional Training Program and can honestly say it was my best decision. Aloft has been like a second home to me. The coaches are always welcoming and encouraging and always pushing you to succeed. The training space it's self is one of the few places i've been too where everyone is friendly and you don't feel judged. I have been able to make life long friendships here. I highly recommend Aloft to everyone regardless of abilities and if you're not interested in training, Aloft always puts on amazing shows.

Awesome spot to get in a lift. It's usually not super crowded, especially compared to other gyms…read more Typically waiting for a machine isn't necessary and in the it is actually taken, others should be available to use. The membership is one of the cheapest in the area too. Only complaint was with the treadmills. Seemed like the treadmill belts were also broken and couldn't jog past 5.5 speed.

I fell in love with this gym during a recent Chicago visit (I am from LA), and almost can't believe…read moreI stumbled upon it. It was like walking back into the 90's, true authentic old school gym. I loved it so much I bought a t-shirt!

We thoroughly enjoyed Gilt Bar! It was super busy when we arrived, but they moved people through…read morethe restaurant so efficiently that we were seated surprisingly quickly. We absolutely loved the aesthetic and vibe throughout the restaurant as well. For dinner, we had the vodka pasta with meatballs, and it was the perfect creamy consistency with incredible flavor. We also ordered the hamachi crudo, which was super fresh and definitely something we'd order again. Not pictured: we wrapped up the meal with the skillet cookie, and oh my gosh... I can't recommend it enough.

I've been back a few times now and do find myself liking it more over time…read more They have one of my all time favorite cocktails - the 100 year-old cigar. It's smoky, rich, boozy but not overpoweringly so, really well balanced sweetness from the rum. Love it. My wife and I got the ricotta gnocchi which was great, very cheesy. Surprising how much cheese they got in there. The steak tartare was also great. Super flavor, though probably didn't need the sriracha sauce. The wagyu burger was great but not worth the $30 price. That's a lot and not as good as other Chicago great burgers. The skillet cookie was a great way to wrap up the meal. Fantastic flavor from the brown sugar cookie and tons of chocolate. Definitely save room for dessert.