Poles apart from what you think

ECRETLY, manywomen think they can be models and strippers. After all, how difficult can it be to walk down a ramp or swing around a pole? There’s just the small issue of physique, but other than that it’s child’s play. Until you try it. There’s nothing more unnerving than trying to put one leg in front of the other on a ramp while hundreds of people watch, waiting for you to slip and fall in those ridiculously high heels; or, try posing for a photo shoot and see how you suddenly forget how to smile and come out looking majorly goofy in tons of unusable pictures.

The same can surely be said for pole dancing or pole fitness as it’s called.

You don’t have to be a stripper or know howto strip to join a pole dancing class. In fact, pole dancing is the “in” thing – perhaps even somewhat elitist because it lives in the realm of upper middle class fascinations.

I attended a class with the Nouveau Dance Studio in Musgrave recently, instructed by long-time dance teacher Bronwyn Waite, who teaches pole fitness, belly dancing, lap dancing and burlesque, and coming soon is aerial fitness (on hammocks).

There are classes in Pinetown, Waterfall and Musgrave, and Umhlanga is on the cards. There is no nudity. However, in typically conservative sectors of Durban society, there is a demand for private classes – for those who want to learn but don’t want others to know about it. These are often women who want to spice up their marriages.

As Waite so aptly puts it: “There’s nothing sleazy about making an effort to keep your marriage interesting.”

Those who attend the classes say it’s great to be doing something that not everyone else is doing.

Claire Wright, a 23-year-old au pair, says pole fitness is all the rave among the kids’ moms; it’s popular at hens’ parties and it’s rather a special way in which to say you keep fit.

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