Seduction on a stick (From Swindon Advertiser)

Seduction on a stick

9:36am Tuesday 11th November 2008 in

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WHEN I told a friend of mine I was going pole dancing, he started laughing. He was still laughing 10 minutes later when I hung up the phone. In fact, 24 hours later when he rang again, he was still laughing. Some people are just plain rude - but I could see his point.

I am someone who dives under her desk every time the video camera appears in the office and who squeals when the camera comes out on holiday.

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So I’d clearly taken leave of my senses, for not only had I agreed to flail my limbs about in what was bound to be a particularly indecorous manner, but I’d agreed to let the whole thing be captured on video.

“What is wrong with me?” I asked myself as I headed to Pole Fun (on the Greenbridge estate, just above Jolly Roger) at 10am on a Tuesday morning.

Now, let me put you in the picture. I like pole dancing and every time I went to Rouge, I sat there, jaw dropped, exclaiming how elegant and incredible the show was.

But I couldn’t quite picture myself being seductive, lovely and graceful first thing in the morning with a bunch of other women on a trading estate.

Charmaine Callcut and Emily Smith soon put me at my ease, however. Within minutes, we clocked this was a serious business. After filling in the health and safety forms, we were onto an aerobic warm-up and I started to twig this was more of a gym class than a ’how to be sexy should there be a big handy steel pole nearby’ type thing.

Warm-up over, we began on some basic moves. Well, they say basic, I say nigh-on impossible. It turns out, although I’ve always admired pole dancing, it is much harder than it looks.

To swing around a pole with your knees clenched together can’t be hard, can it? Well, stop and think about it - it means a couple of 360o turns around the pole with your entire body weight supported on your arms alone. I maybe managed one 45o turn before my biceps were bursting and my sweaty hands had slid right to the bottom of the pole.

This is no easy trick. It’s an extremely hard work-out - I left having used muscles I’ve not been near in a long time. I would describe pole dancing as akin to the parallel bars at the Olympics, only vertical. And add to that the ballet-style grace you need to make it look good. Hmmm, tricky.

And for the next two days, I woke up stiff as a post, unable to lift my jumper over my head because my arms were so sore.

And don’t even ask me about the bruises - I do bruise easily, but these were exceptional.

After about 50 minutes of leaping around a pole (admittedly looking a bit like a baby elephant tied to a post) we ended with a lovely cool-down session.

Don’t get me wrong - I loved it. I haven’t felt so good in ages. It hurt, yes, but in a good way - and it was clearly very, very good for you.

Plus, it was a friendly atmosphere and we did a lot of laughing in between ungainly lifts and slithering unseductively to the bottom of the pole. And Emily and Charmaine assured me that after a couple of weeks, the strength in your arms improves dramatically and it becomes much easier.

So if you want to have a giggle, get fit and become roughly as strong as Arnold Schwarzenegger, try pole dancing.

For it has to be said that despite spending the latter half of last week with my legs and arms covered in bruises and incapable of taking my sweater off properly because I couldn’t move my arms, I felt fabulous, rejuvenated and toned. I might have to go back after all.

Give it a go
Emily Smith and Charmaine Callcut, both 23, having been running Pole Fun from their new premises in Greenbridge Road since the start of October.

Already they have about 50 clients on their books and they run classes two days a week at the moment, although they will do more as the business grows.

Most people who sign up are in their 30s and 40s and most choose to do an hour (at £10) a week, though some sign up for two.

The new setting has been carefully chosen, because downstairs is the Jolly Roger soft play centre, so busy mums and dads (yes, men are welcome!) can leave their children to play downstairs - however, an adult must be present to supervise - while they go and pole dance upstairs.

Anyone can go alone to pole dancing, male or female, and any age, providing you are over 16, for health and safety reasons.

Obviously, pole dancing is renowned for its sexy, nightclub image, but it is actually extremely hard work and fantastic exercise.

Charmaine said: “It will increase yours biceps, triceps, abdominals and shoulders. If there are any guys interested in a class, come on down and we’ll run a class for you!”

Asked how they got into pole dancing in the first place, Charmaine said: “We used to be friends with a stripper! And we thought we’d have a go at the pole dancing side of things.”

Classes cost £10 a session, but £20 the first time so you are always one week in advance. Call Charmaine on 07886 170691 or Emily on 07807 771454, or go to www.polefun.co.uk