Columnist tries popular class that separates the men from the women.

I am clinging as if clinging to life itself, muscles I didn’t know I owned now straining, parts of my body previously unfamiliar to me suddenly calling out, begging for a break.

Or a Valium. Or a Budweiser.

I am feeling many things at the moment, not one of which is sexy.

“One of the great things about this,” Collette Kakuk says, “is that it caters to you as a woman.”

This is when I realize I probably should point out to my instructor that I am not, in the most technical sense, female.

But there’s no time for that now because now I have to execute a spin, hooking one leg and twirling the other while lifting myself off the floor, all the while exploring my sensuality and expressing my flirtation nature. And trying to protect my groin.

You know, men really shouldn’t pole dance.

“We have noticed,” Kakuk says, “that it doesn’t look right.”

No, it doesn’t. Personally, I resemble a square-dancing primate, my moves not from The Great Gatsby but more from the Grape Ape.

Thankfully, this isn’t about being a good dancer or really about dancing at all. This is about toning muscles, burning fat and building serious self-confidence, even if it’s sometimes done while wearing FootUndeez, a product that bills itself as “underwear for your feet.”

This is OC Pole Fitness, a company started in Aliso Viejo 21/2 years ago by Kakuk, who recently opened a second location in Huntington Beach.

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An effort of changing style of pole dancing as an experiment. Not sure if it works but it’s infulanced by elena gibson.

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Regarding the letter “Pole dancing debases yoga,” (April 30) in response to Kylie Mendonca’s article about the Yoga Centre (“Move your body,” April 16), Mendonca reported that yoga was being made more accessible, not by offering pole dancing, but through the Yoga Centre’s new Yoga Therapy programs, as people with chronic pain, illness, disease, and injury find a typical yoga class in this town is not possible due to their condition. The fact that the Yoga Centre has chosen to offer pole-dancing classes is no different from my choice to offer various forms of movement weekly, including women’s ecstatic dance, aikido (martial art), gyrotonics and gyrokinesis, as well as various forms of yoga: pregnancy, intro to yoga, vinyasa yoga, beginner yoga, and yoga therapy.

Pole dancing in studios today is a movement form, instructed and presented as a Pole fitness activity. Just as gymnastics use horizontal bars or aerial dancers wrap themselves in fabric into beautiful shapes, pole dancing has transformed itself and empowers women to hold their body weight, and improve strength, balance, and body mechanics. There are national and international sport competitions and pole dancing is up for approval for the Olympics. I was raised in San Luis Obispo and being a local business owner consider it a gift and opportunity to provide people a safe place where they can attain their ideal health, both mentally and physically. It would be out of the question that I would offer a program that would debase yoga and its tradition or “perpetuate the culture of pornography” or “objectify women”.

This is one of my favorite quotes, “Not all pole dancers strip and not all strippers pole dance“. It is so true. Just because you’ve seen a stripper doesn’t mean you’ve seen a pole fitness dancer. The two are not the same and for some people, it is just too hard to comprehend. Maybe it’s because they don’t really want to understand why millions of people are fascinated with this dance/gymnastics style. Most assume that the women who participate in fitness pole dancing are uneducated, drug abuser, low IQ, sexual deviants.

Let me tell you the facts about some of the 20 competitors in this weekends pole competition: We have 6 school teachers. Six! Two ladies with masters degrees, four with bachelors degrees, a scientist, a martial arts instructor, fitness instructors, mothers, wives, gymnasts, a military wife, a life coach, a film director, an author, equestrian competitor, and five women who own their own business. These women are not mindless or senseless. If these types of women are embracing pole fitness, there is no reason why any woman regarless of religion, background, or marital status shouldn’t be able to get in shape with a vertical pole or at least accept it and those who practice it.
I genuinly ache inside when a woman snubs her nose at the pole. You have no idea how it will change your life if you just give it the opportunity. Your body will transform, your mind will evolve, and your relationships will thrive with your new found confidence and self worth. Don’t knock it until you’ve tried or seen it. I will put my pole against the treadmill any day!

Meagan Burroughs
Ogden

The high heel shoe on the sign at Stiletto’s isn’t just part of the fitness pole center’s logo.

At Stiletto’s, women learn “pole fitness,” using a stripper’s pole as the basis for a workout. And yes, all members are required to wear stiletto heels during each workout.

Nicole Moak, 30, opened the aerobics center last year in Port Neches because she said she felt women needed a new way to work out.

Beginners start by wearing 4½-inch stiletto heels, Moak said, and when they feel comfortable enough they move to 6 inches.

All of Moak’s classes are one-on-one by appointment only, and twice a month she said she hosts parties where all members can come together and show off their moves.

Women work out in a room painted deep red, on a stage in front of a mirror. Two exercise poles are on the stage.

A one-hour session can burn up to 350 calories, she said, and women do all of the exercise moves on their tiptoes which helps build core muscles.

When she first opened in April 2008, Moak said some members of the community expressed their discontent with her business – which is located next door to the Port Neches Chamber of Commerce. The opposition since has died down, she said.

Tom Ivicevic, spokesman for the Aerobics and Fitness Association of America, said fitness pole is a popular workout and is an excellent exercise to strengthen arm and core muscles.

Ivicevic said Crunch – a gym in Los Angeles that many celebrities go to – teaches pole fitness classes.

Moak said she first discovered pole fitness in Dallas, where she took a day-long class with a large group of women. The group broke for lunch and she said many of the women did not return, possibly because they did not feel comfortable exercising in a large group.

That’s why she said her classes are one-on-one.

Moak said her students are women of all shapes and sizes, and even of all ages. She’s taught girls as young as 17 and as old as 67, she said.

“It’s not raunchy,” she said. “It’s a great pole dance fitness program and it makes you feel good about yourself.”

Recession snatching their plush jobs women are now on their toes to tunes as ‘gentlemen’s club entertainers’ at upscale jiggle joints in Manhattan.

Women who previously earned their living as stock agents, fashion executives and real – estate agents have now clutched the poles to sway their way as pole dancers and strippers for about 1,500 dollars for a night.

With the big bucks aiding to remove the dent caused by recession, the girls are also much for the job due to its flexible working hours.

A financial analyst by profession at Morgan Stanley, Randi Newton, 28, who lives in Midtown with recession laying hands on her job has now taken to pole dancing at Rick’s Cabaret in Murray Hill. She entertains three or four days a week and makes about ‘160,000 dollars a year on tips alone’. Newton calls herself as an ‘independent contractor’.

The New York Post quoted Newton as saying of her shift to the dancing job as : “A few nights after I got laid off, I went with friends to a strip club to get drunk and forget my unemployment troubles. The manager offered me a job as a dancer. I thought it was different. And fun”.

Newton also appreciates her new job atmosphere as, “It was very odd seeing a strip club being better run than a major brokerage firm, not to mention I’ve never had problems with sexual harassment at Rick’s,”

Owner of Sapphire Club on East 60th Street opened in January, Peter Feinstein’s words flow thus : “I am receiving a lot of applications from women who recently lost their jobs in particular New York City real-estate agents.”

Becky, 24 who worked as a pastry chef previously has now become a ‘massage girl’ at Rick’s.

Becky said : “I couldn’t find anything after I got laid off because it’s hard to land a chef job these days,” .

Though recession’s tightening grip has caused a lot of lay offs in different fields, business in the ‘Jiggle Joints’ seemed to be on an upsurge with owners into hiring more talent than ever at present.

A rep for Flash Dancers also went on to say about the mounting applications in surplus, as about 40 forms a month to occupy five positions.

Eric Langdan, Rick’s president has said that about 50 candidates a week compete for positions at their club.

“These places give men hope. Even in the worst of times, for us it’s the best of times,” said Langdan.

Greener pastures on the other side?

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