Culture & Leisure

Rachel Yip

Pole dancing pushes up confidence

By Rachel Yip

Surrounded by sweet and soft music, ladies are swinging their bod-ies erotically along steel poles in a dimly-lit bar. Pole dancing, in the eyes of the public, is an outrageous entertainment performed only by strip-teasers in nightclubs. However, Suzanne Stuart, believes that pole dancing helps bringing out women's femininity and building up self-confidence, apart from getting fit. She has started the activity in a class.

Different from the venues of ordinary dancing lessons, Suzanne chooses to have classes in a bar called Backroom in Central.

Instead of using harsh lights like gyms or dance studios, subdued lighting, velvet furniture and slow contemporary music in this kind of bars create a calm atmosphere. Students are relaxed and feel less self conscious.

Brenda Ho, 31, one of the students, thinks that it is a good idea to teach pole dancing in a bar. “You're more in the mood for dancing when you're in a club environment, where the lighting is dim and music is sweet,” she said.

“If students are shy at the beginning,” Suzanne said, “buying a drink in the bar may help them let go of their inhibition.”

The four detachable stainless steel poles are a special design. “When the poles are removed, other activities like parties can be held,” Suzanne explained.

To make students feel more comfortable, outsiders are not allowed to sit in. But students' friends are welcomed to a drop in session in order to know more about pole dancing.

The students come from a variety of backgrounds like young students, professionals and housewives. Most regard pole dancing as a kind of exercise.

It is Nivedita M's fourth class. “Pole dancing works out the whole body. I go to the gym regularly, but the effect is not as great as pole dancing.”

Kate explained in this way. “Pole dancing is beneficial to our bodies as all your muscles take part in the dancing. We use our triceps and biceps a lot when we hold on to the pole. We constantly exercise our hips and legs when we slide along it. When we raise our legs, our thighs and stomachs are also working,” she said, pointing to her own body as illustrations.

Apart from exercising muscles, pole dancing helps bringing out the students' femininity. It begins with the way they dress. They wear shorts and high heels in the lessons.

“High heels help us to feel more sensual and sexy, and they are great to get an extra lift to the pole,” explained Kate.

After some warm up exercises like muscle stretching, body waving and pelvis rotating, Kate led the students to walk around the room, with particular attitude.

“Just walking around the pole is possibly the sexiest thing for a woman to exhibit her femininity,” Kate said, and the students smiled.

After warm up exercises, students learn a set routine, named by Kate herself. “Walk and dip” is walking around the pole, dipping the hip along the pole with a sensual wriggle. “Backslide” is a slow slide down along the pole while swaying the body sexily, like a snake. “Pretzel” means jumping up and spinning down along the pole. “Fireman” is similar to “pretzel”, but this refers to only one hand holding the pole while the other hand stretching out.

These are only some of the many examples that students can play with. They can combine the routines they have learnt. There are also lap-dancing classes. While pole dancing uses poles as props, requiring students to develop the ability to grasp the pole with both hands and legs, lap dancing students are taught to move slowly and freely with every part of their bodies to project femininity and confidence. Students put one leg on a stool while moving their bodies intimately.

Kate also teaches her students to crawl around the room like a wild cat, stretching their limbs and arching their backs.

“Confidence is all you need,” Kate smiled. “If you don't have enough confidence, we are here to help you build it up.”

Suzanne and Kate assure that everybody can do pole dancing. “In the first lesson, they don't believe that they can do the pretzel. By the end of the second lesson, pretzel is just a snack to them. In the third lesson, they have completely transformed into real dancers,” said Kate.

However, after learning how to wave like a snake and crawl like a wild cat, few students have ever shown their skills to others. Difficulty in finding props is the first problem.

“Pole dancing is not very practical. You got to have a pole when you do the dancing. So you cannot practice it just anywhere,” Brenda said.

Others are not confident enough.

“I have never thought of showing what I have learnt to others. Maybe one day I would be brave enough to dance in front of people,” Angie Wong, 34, one of the students, said.

Some do not even dare to tell others about their dancing class.

Brenda said, “It's not something very common in Hong Kong . If it gets more popular, I will feel more comfortable to tell others so.”

Though not confident enough to dance in front of others, most students enjoy the dancing class. Angie thinks that pole dancing helps to bring out the feminine and sexy side of her. She is a broker, which she says is quite a manly job.

Some students think the dancing is useful when go clubbing.

“Lap dancing is useful. It's all about body gestures and positioning. You can show the routines you've learnt when you go clubbing,” Brenda explained.

Nivedita likes pole dancing. “Pole dancing is more direct and aggressive than lap dancing,” Nivedita said, “it is less inhibited and it requires more confidence.”

A friend of Nivedita, who declined to identify herself, was invited to sit in the lesson. She thinks lap dancing is very graceful. “You have to get the feel of it. It is something you cannot do without passion,” she said. “You feel less inhibited when you're moving your body this way.”

The classes are getting more popular. According to Suzanne, more people have signed up. “The level of interest shot up in January, and we were quite shocked,” Suzanne recalled. “Depending on the demand, we're planning to organize an advanced class. Besides, there will soon be a men-only-class.”

Rachel Yip