Heart and Pole - Hermosa Beach Dance Studio , Fitness Studio, Best in South Bay, Pole Dancing Classes

LA Weekly, 2005

Pole dancing, once only practiced by "exotic entertainers," is rapidly being embraced as in-home entertainment for women everywhere - very few of whom have any intention of ever removing their tops in public. Since being featured on TV shows like The Oprah Winfrey Show and 20/20, the sleazy tarnish has been buffed from the brass pole, and dancing around it has become accepted as a form of recreation, exercise and female-bonding.

Recognizing and fanning demand for in-home, women-only pole-dancing parties is wonderfully named A Pole Lot of Fun, conceived by Canadian businessman Colin Sprake. A professional instructor from A Pole Lot of Fun will visit your home with a portable pole, create a setting and teach a dozen basic moves. Though Sprake only launched the business in January this year, he's already sold the concept to over 70 (female) entrepreneurs in four countries.

In Los Angeles, Trina Lance organizes and teaches A Pole Lot of Fun parties. "I started training to be a studio instructor after I took my first introductory class in January," says Lance. "I loved the way I felt after class and I knew instantly that I really wanted to pass that feeling on to other women. I started studying at an accelerated pace to become certified. Then, a few months ago, my teacher discovered A Pole Lot of Fun and, after attending a sample party, I bought my own business with them. It fills the need for women who don't want to start out in a studio setting or who are planning a special event in their homes."

A typical pole-dancing party goes like this, says Lance. "My hostesses will invite eight or 12 of her friends and split the cost of the party amongst them. I bring a professional pole, music, goody bags and props. We start off with simple moves around the pole, building to dips and the fireman spin down the pole. Many women start out shy and hesitant but, through the course of the evening, they come out of their shell and often will be begging for more pole time by the end. We wrap up the party with a grand finale where the women put together the moves they've learned and put on their own show."

"Most women show up expecting to just learn sexy moves, but they're shocked at how one class affects their self-confidence and self-image. The comment cards that they fill out at the end of the party oftentimes are quite moving. They often talk about how they 'felt sexy for the first time in their live' or that the class 'made them feel worthy.' Women with curves discover that the look pretty damn good moving against the pole and suddenly they embrace their bodies and see assets where previously they only saw flaws. You can't discount how something like this can touch women, even in a giddy party setting."

"I'm in the best shape of my life thanks to pole dancing," Lance enthuses. "I never realized how strong you need to be to hang off the pole and I have such respect for the girls onstage who make it look effortless. It will tone your arms, legs and especially your abs."

A Pole Lot of Fun is predictably popular with bachelorette parties, and even seniors have embraced the concept. "These women, with their life experience and confidence, are some of the best pole partiers and should be an inspiration to the younger generation," says Lance.

Lance, mother of a 10-year-old daughter, advocates pole dancing as a perfect outlet for moms. "Over half the women I've studied with or taught are mothers. Motherhood can really drain you, given how much time and energy you have to give away to your family. Pole dancing reconnects women to that vibrant, sexy, sacred part that we forget to nourish. It's especially good for new moms to reclaim their bodies and sensuality."

Easy Reader - August 2008

In my living room, I have a sectional couch, an easy chair, a stereo and a 12 foot-tall, stainless steel dance pole.

I have been taking pole-dancing lessons for more than a year now. I am strong and sexy and have never felt better about myself. I have never felt more powerful out in the world.

"Huh?" you ask, "Are you a stripper or something?"

Nope. I was just a woman looking for an exercise routine that I could stick to, one that would make me muscular and healthy. I was fortunate to have found a fitness program that makes me feel sexy too. What's amazing to me, and somewhat puzzling to my friends, is that I do not experience any incongruency between pole dancing and my complete and total commitment to feminism and women's empowerment.

I have spent most of my adult life separating my sexual self and my public self into nice sealed boxes that do not interact. I have believed with my whole heart that women should not get ahead in the world through sexual manipulation of men.

"Sleeping your way to the top" has never been my credo. I found power and success in my public, professional and personal life….but I kept the private, private.

My first pole class was a little odd for me. The other women were there because they were getting married and wanted to learn a dance to surprise their man. They were talking about how not taking your husband's name when you got married meant that you weren't really committed to the relationship. I didn't say anything. I just listened and realized that my reasons for being in class were a little different from theirs. I was doing it for myself. And, for the record, I'm now engaged and I'm not changing my name, even for the love of my life.

My teacher Trina (I now call her my "Sensei") at Heart and Pole in Torrance, is an incredibly talented instructor, performer, choreographer, coach and cheerleader. Her shouts of "gorgeous" while we dance encourage our art, feed our souls and cultivate our positive body images unlike any other experience I've ever known.

As I learned more and more "tricks and built up my physical strength, I started to realize all the benefits I was receiving outside the dance studio. I already walked with power in the world - but now my walk has a little swagger to it. I already knew that my sense of personal worth made me seem taller than my own small stature - but now, I can command attention with a tilt of my head. In pole dancing classes, I learned to express my power through my sexuality instead of hiding my sexuality away in a bedroom.

And I remember that basic of all feminist principles: "the personal is political." Abortion did not become a political issue until women started talking to each other and realizing that they had horror stories that went beyond their own personal tragedies. Their consciousness raising led to solutions in public policy: making abortion legal. Sexual harassment didn't even have a name until women started sharing stories about what was happening to them at the office, and started suing employers and demanding laws to protect women in the workplace.

It's when we share our stories, and support each other that we build each other up and tear down all the barriers that separate us.

Other women in class experience this sisterhood differently. Some women do not share their dancing with the lovers in their lives. They dance only for themselves and for their classmates, using the pole and the dance as a way to learn how to have power over a sexuality that has dominated and overwhelmed them in other areas of their lives. Some women split themselves, finding their sexual and passionate self in the studio, while at home they must be wives and mothers.

Whatever the pole ends up meaning to each woman, it is nothing less than a complete celebration of female empowerment. From stronger bodies, to stronger bonds, what we find in the pole-dancing studio is a sisterhood of women who accept us, encourage us and love us unconditionally. Oh, and did I mention…it's just so much fun.

SENIOR LIFE MAGAZINE

Senior Life Magazine - 2006

So you say you need a physical tune-up in 2007?

Debbi K. Swanson Patrick

Slip, slide, wrap, spin, swing, emote and writhe like a vixen. Does that sound like your typical fitness routine? I don't think so.

But it is what many women are doing these days to rev up their metabolism, self-esteem and maybe even their libido. It's fun, liberating and challenging. Ok, so what is it?

"IT" is unleashing your inner pole dancer. That's right. Safely and privately "find your self on the pole," as Heart and Pole's Trina Lance says. She's a formidable crusader, an evangelist for women to liven up and loosen up, for fun.

As Lance says on her web site, www.heartandpole.com, "Why hire a male stripper to entertain when you are the real star!"

The irony of the trend is that the way Lance teaches, she turns what is often perceived as the sleaziest of male entertainment into a primal path to a woman's freedom and self-expression.

It's the "power of the pole."

"We are now taking control of how we see ourselves," says Lance, who is 43. "All women find something profound in my classes because they are 'learn to love yourself" classes. I call it therapy. It's my church and it's sacred to me. My husband has never seen me pole dance or lap dance. It's the only part of my sexuality that I don't share."

What? Be a pole dancer and not let your husband enjoy? Sure, it's all a matter of choice.

"When I went to my first class (with Felicia Laconi, founder of the Vixen Method of pole dancing), I knew it was going to change my life and I told my husband so," explains Lance. "It (the freedom of pole dancing) was a missing part of myself. Men see it strictly in sexual terms, and bless them, that's how they're wired. With women in a class, we become mirrors for each other's expression. Mirrors are big liars; you see what you think is wrong with you instead of your beauty. So in the studio we cover up all the mirrors with drapes. And when we're on the pole, we're supportive and nourishing to each other."

Silver Vixens

There is no age or size discrimination, either. If you can move, you can groove.

Women of all levels of ages, ability and weight are welcome in Trina's "Vixen 1" class (there are two levels of classes). The series of six classes costs $200 for a weekly three-hour class with a maximum of eight students.

"Curves are embraced; skinny girls have to work harder to stick to the pole," says Lance. "By the end of a class with me you cherish those hips and junk in the trunk."

Ok, but what about being self conscious? How can you help it? Especially if you're not 21 and 100 pounds? Ah, it turns out age is an advantage. Lance says that older woman with real life experience become storytellers on the pole.

"They use that 2-inch piece of steel as their artistic tool. They can touch their skin, run fingers through their hair with meaning. They're not going home to please a man, they're on a personal journey. They're vulnerable because they're revealing a sacred part of themselves, yet they are beyond the preprogrammed idea of what sexy is. Older women understand slow accents and lingering, getting all the emotion out of a move. That's why I don't separate classes by age."

Lance says she treats every woman as an individual so they always feel successful, and uses yoga moves as the strength building foundation.

"It's a huge leap for some women just to do a slow hip circle. I never want to push anyone too fast because if they don't get the lesson that day, they walk away feeling smaller. There is no showing off or competition. We move slower than other pole dancing classes, but women get it into their muscle memory."

Lance has taught about 1,400 women, including amputees and survivors of disease, and says they all go through emotional milestones whether they take one course or several. "All these women are coming to me for disparate reasons, but at the core is a place to find, or re-find, a part of themselves -- the part that has suffered from undernourishment."

Janis Jones went to a two-hour intro class in December. "It's my life resolution to have fun. I've been telling everyone 'guess what I did this weekend?!' Fourteen of us did a full class and I was able to swing around that pole and dance on it. I have bruises on my knees to prove it. I registered for full class starting in January." Jones is 64.

"I've exercised and danced before. I used to do ballet, was a cheerleader and I still snow ski," says Jones. "But this is more fun than skiing, more interactive and you have more control to go as far as you want to go."

Jones is also a director of a mental health clinic.

"I know the importance of having fun. I have a high stress job. I'm 64 but I felt as young as the 28-year-old on the pole."

She says there was nothing in the class that she felt she couldn't learn or master. And she had "the outfit." Isn't she just full of surprises?

"I didn't think I had anything to wear, but I had a boa, some lace, and 'booty' pants. My 23-year-old granddaughter started buying my girly clothes in Victoria's Secret about four years ago, so I've got all kinds of matching lingerie sets. Everyone gives me VS gift cards now. I even have a heart rhinestone thong! There is no limit, except what we have in our mind."

Carolyn Graves, a 54-year-old bank auditor, tried it at a birthday party and is doing the six week course in January, because she "needed something different for exercise." She's been running and walking and finds the pole a low impact exercise while increasing upper body strength. And she says she feels the benefits without being as tired. One of those benefits is her happy husband. "He's more excited than me. He'll have a pole up in the bedroom! I think it's important to remind those of us over 50 that we can reignite our sensuality."

Even founder Felicia Laconi's mother loves the pole at age 76. "I think that for seniors it's a great way to do exercise. Felicia starts out on the floor, doing exercises, then simple things on the pole to give you a sense of 'boy am I good!' It's fun, liberating, and to think at my age that I could do that was amazing to me."

Six-week pole dancing classes can be done in Trina's studios Hermosa Beach or West L.A. for $200, or her teachers can come to you for a party, be it bachelorette, graduation, birthday, or just a love yourself and have fun party for $300 or so.

www.heartandpole.com or 310-526-3038. There are several other companies out there as well.

Even Kaiser endorses living it up so you can "thrive." So what are you waiting for?

Party Time

At a friend's bachelorette party, any initial reluctance among guests quickly vanished as instructors Tiffany and Tammy led the way, first by installing the tension controlled pole in my friend's dining room, then by easing everyone's fears of embarrassment through demonstration. I saw the fear fly out of the room as one after another got close and personal with the pole. There's an exhilaration to swinging around a stationary object and your confidence increases the more you do it. First up was the bride's mother who had no fear and practically lusted after the shiny metal. Then each woman stepped up, some reluctantly at first, their frowns instantly replaced by smiles and laughter, even if they weren't perfect. Of course, the quietest girl in the room was the hottest on the pole, letting her rarely seen side out for a spin. Apparently she showed her husband her new moves on their laundry pole in the back yard when she got home. Now that's liberation.