How did you get into Pole Dance?

I read a lot about it on magazines and saw a lot of stuff on TV.

What has made you stick with it? You’ve been doing it for two years.

It’s really good fun! I have met loads of new friends and there is a really big sense of achievement when you get a new move because it takes a

Also, it does make you feel overall more confident, sexy and more comfortable with your body. As well, it does tone your body and makes you feel fitter and its good exercise and you don’t feel like you’re exercising because it’s fun.

From a confidence side, what does pole fitness add that other forms of fitness lack?

Femininity! Even pole fitness is an expression of sexuality if you like. If you want to make it sexy then you can, if you don’t then, you don’t have to. It’s very individual and for me, I quite like the sexy aspect and it makes me feel very sexy. As well as having a skill you are good at makes you feel really quite sexy as well. It’s just something you really feel confident in yourself that you know what you’re doing and good at.

What do you feel you can do now thanks to pole that you couldn’t do previously from a character?

I am a lot more confident about my body even if it hasn’t changed that much. I’m more proud of it for what it can do rather than how it looks. But because I am more proud of it in that way, it means I am more comfortable with it in general. Before I would probably never have gone out with a really really short skirt because I kind of had issues with my legs, all sorts of stuff. But now, I am quite happy going out wearing a short skirt.

As you progress with pole, you start to achieve things that you never thought were physically possible. For the things physically possible, you’d think only a gymnast could do that. You never expect that one day you could do that. You’d never expect that one day, you could do it. And when you finally achieve it, its such a massive sense of achievement. You become really proud of your body for actually developing to that extent.

One of the key things u mentioned was the social aspect of the sport. Tell us more:

It brings like minded people together. The type of person getting involved with pole fitness, especially the type of person that wants to get involved in the sensual side of pole fitness, it’s hard to find people who understand the motivation behind that. And sometimes, you get funny looks when you start talking about it. People are inhibited and they think that they shouldn’t be thinking that way so you shouldn’t talk about it. You meet people in pole classes they all kind of think the same way and they’re all into the same things. And its not just pole, it can be burlesque… It’s a take life by both hands kind of attitude that most people don’t have. It takes a lot of guts to go into a pole class in the beginning so a lot of people that you meet are that kind of way inclined and that’s quite nice to find. A lot of people let their inhibitions get in the way of the things they want to do. I’ve met a lot of friends that think a lot along the same lines as me and totally understand the way I think about things. It’s really nice and a bit of a change.

Talk about your first lesson:

I’m not really sure what I really expected. I had no concept of how heavy I was to lift with my own arms. I didn’t really know the kind of people I was going to meet. I went in with a fairly blank canvas in my mind. But it just seemed like something interesting and fun to try and something that could help me explore the more feminine side of my nature. And being an engineer, I don’t get to explore that very often! That was probably what I was hoping for.

I do remember the first move my teacher demonstrated which is one of the basic moves ever. It’s called the “prayer slide”. At the time I thought “Oh my god, I’ll never be able to do that”. I think my attempt was put both hands on the pole, take my feet off the floor, slide down slightly and come crashing down! I didn’t expect it to be that hard but it was quite challenging.

Was this in Bristol or up in Glasgow?

It was in Glasgow. I did a 6 week beginner course then did a drop-in class every week for about 8 months. But mostly I taught myself at home and since I met Bubbles and we’ve been partnering-up.

You and Robyn are like two peas in a pot. How did you meet?

We met on one of the pole forums. When I was seconded to Bristol, I didn’t want to miss classes. Robyn said she taught drop-in classes which sounded exactly like what I needed. Being advanced, it’s hard to find a structured class that fulfils all your needs. So it’s quite good to do a drop-in class. I kept going weekly until I finally relocated to Bristol. We were both talking about how we never practiced enough. And we agreed we’d practice together every week at one of our houses. So now we do!

Prior to beginning pole, did you do any specific conditioning or did you gradually build the strength as you went along?

I built the strength as I went along. I think 3 months before starting, I went to the gym but my heart wasn’t really in it so I didn’t see any improvement. When I started pole, I was probably one on the worst people in my class. I couldn’t lift my knees up to my chest. I couldn’t hold my own body weight and even people whom I’ve taught since, when they started they were ten times better than I was. So I was obviously really weak. But just over time, practice and sheer dedication, I just built the strength up.

What’s your goal over the summer? Is there a particular trick you want to do or a level of strength you want to reach?

The main trick I want to perfect more than anything is the handspring. It’s like doing a handstand but you put your hands on the pole instead of the floor. I can do it but I’ve been practicing on and off for six months and it’s not in any way solid or reliable so that needs to get fixed.

Another thing I want to do is increase my flexibility. I’ve been saying for 2.5 years that I’ll start stretching but never done it. I could do the splits but lost it when I pulled a muscle so can’t do that anymore. I really need to build up my lower abdominals so I can perform a shoulder mount where you go upside-down over your shoulder. It’s got to happen this summer!

Quite a few challenges! How are these progressing so far?

Not badly. Usually when you shoulder mount, you can kick into it a little bit to build momentum. We can both do that without any trouble at all but now we’re trying to dead-lift into it, which is pretty difficult. Bt we’re managing.

Flexibility – no progress there because of a pulled muscle. And the handspring, I have fixed a few things I didn’t like about it. It’s getting there; I need a bit more practice.

Where do you get your inspiration for moves?

Youtube and forums! These are usually discussed there. There are so many videos out there at the moment. The bar keeps getting raised every couple of months some amazing video comes out. Your jaw hits the floor at what’s possible.

Do you have two or three persons you really admire?

Jenyne Butterfly is at the top of my list at the moment. She came second in the Miss PoleDance World Competition 2009 to Felix Cane. I prefer Jenynes’ style over Felix.

What should a newcomer to pole looking out in a school?

You’ve got to be really careful about people who don’t have an awful lot of experience. There are a lot of people who do a few weeks of beginners’ classes and think they can now teach a beginners lesson. They maybe can do the move but in terms of the experience in making mistakes and teaching, they don’t have that. And they wouldn’t have had time to perfect and polish the moves. They’re probably not ready to teach. That may not be true in all cases but as a rule, you need to have been polling for quite a long time to have the experience to teach properly. On top of that, you get a lot of people that charge quite a lot of money for not an awful lot of content. It’s obviously not all about quantity but by the time you finish a 6 week course you want to be able to do a reasonable amount of spins and probably starting to work on going up the pole and going upside down. There are a lot of people who go through such courses and they haven’t done very much like four moves and a routine. And that’s the sum total and they’ve been charged £100 for that. You’ve got to be careful for that. A lot of teachers won’t give out a curriculum obviously but you should be able to ask for a guide of what will be taught. And if it’s too sparse and the school charges a lot of money, I think they’re just trying to string out what they know over as long a period as possible. You need to look out for experience and supportive environment. It’s also good to go for a taster session so that you can see if you like the teaching style and the environment is like. Unfortunately it’s quite difficult to judge from a beginner’s perspective how good the quality of the dance teacher is. But you can get a rough idea of how good it’s going to be.

Any final words to encourage people to do pole?

I think a lot of the time what stops people from going to pole fitness classes is they’re embarrassed they won’t be able to do it. They’re self conscious because it’s something a bit controversial. But at the end of the day, it’s becoming more mainstream and more accepted. Everyone in my office knows I pole dance and nobody cares. No body judges me for it. When you go to the actual class, you got to remember everyone there is in completely the same boat as you. Even the teacher who is fantastically amazing started the same place as you. They’re all feeling the same and starting at the same level as you. As I said before, when I began, I was probably the worst in my class!

In terms of confidence, it is a massive sense of achievement when you start to progress, when you get a new move, the excitement! I’ve been known to run around rooms screaming hands in the hair when I get something new. That feeling of achievement gives you a whole new confidence that you never expected. It even affects the way you view yourself, the way you carry yourself. Your mindset completely changes and you stop being so susceptible to media images of what is beautiful, how your body should be and start being proud of it for what it is and what it can do. And you start becoming proud of yourself for what you can do and what you can achieve when you put your mind to it. Because you overcome so many thoughts of “Oh my God I could never do that” and you eventually can, it’s like climbing a mountain sometimes but you do get there. It’s a massive sense of achievement and its fantastically good fun. There are times I’ve been four, five six hours on the pole. By the end you’re knackered, so tired. You’ve had so much exercise but you don’t realise.

I don’t think I’ve ever had a negative response yet to telling someone. I think everyone is really just curious, especially girls. The number of girls I have told, I think a massive percentage of them say “I really want to try that” and a huge number of them have actually gone to classes. So go for it if you really want to try it!