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Exercise appeal
Pole-dancing shakes off its seedy past
She hangs upside down from the vertical pole – no hands, just her bare legs gripping the shiny stainless steel.
Alithha Lassiter, left and Mimi Fischer, far right, work out with instructor Traci Lujan. (RAJAH BOSE / The Spokesman-Review)
In her six-inch, black stiletto heels, Megan Goude begins to spin as her inverted body slowly slides down the pole.
"It makes you feel sexy," says the 23-year-old, using her muscular arms to climb back up again.
Before your mind even goes there, stop. This is not a sleazy strip club. In fact, there's no nudity involved.
And the precariously high heels? Those are optional.
Goude's acrobatic moves are actually part of a workout – an advanced pole-dancing class at Spokane's Goddess Arts Academy.
It's definitely sexy and seductive. But it's also a grueling, bruising form of exercise – a workout that strengthens the core, increases muscle tone and improves strength and flexibility. It can also burn hundreds of calories an hour.
Goddess Arts Academy
Group and private lessons in pole fitness, pole dancing, ballet-yoga, exotic movement and acrobatics.
The studio is located at Specialty Training Gym, Suite 104 in downtown Spokane's Paulsen Building, 421 W. Riverside Ave.
Contact: (509) 868-2168 or e-mail polegoddess@ hotmail.com
"It's a fun, sexy way to get in shape," says Goude, a college student who took up pole-dancing about six months ago. "You work on muscles you didn't know were there in the first place."
No longer reserved for strip clubs, pole dancing is now recognized as an art form and also as a legitimate workout. It's a fitness craze that has grown in popularity worldwide ever since Oprah Winfrey featured it on her show in 2003. Five years later, women from throughout the Inland Northwest are finally giving it a whirl at Goddess Arts Academy, a downtown school dedicated to teaching the skills of pole dancing and exotic movement.
"Our mission is to teach women to love, honor and become the goddess within," says owner and instructor, Traci Lujan, better known to her students as "Chastitie."
Her goal is to change the perception about pole-dancing: Yes, it began as a form of strip tease, she says, but nowadays, most women do it for fitness.
Her students include women of all ages, sizes and abilities. While most are moms in their 30s and 40s looking to get back in shape after pregnancy and childbirth, Chastitie has taught women as young as 18 and as old as 65. One of her students took up the class shortly after undergoing gastric bypass surgery as a way to tone her stomach muscles.
Besides helping participants get in shape, pole-dancing has the added benefits of improving one's self-esteem and sexual confidence, says Chastitie.
A mother of two boys, ages 9 and 2, Chastitie is built like a gymnast on the U.S. Olympic team – lean, petite and muscular. She's 37 and makes a living as a nurse, but has been involved in dance from the time she was in college. Years ago, she did some stints at gentlemen's clubs and strip joints in Las Vegas and Salt Lake City, but it wasn't until five years ago that she discovered the pole.
Contrary to what people think, most strip clubs in the area don't do much in the way of pole dancing, says Chastitie's husband, Anthony Lujan. Most of these strippers couldn't even climb a pole if they tried, he says.
The difference between the average strip tease and the pole dance is "a lot like ping-pong and tennis," Anthony explains. Pole-dancing is more technical and strenuous, he says. Women who use the pole see themselves as both athletes and artists and not just exhibitionists, according to Chastitie, who recently tied for third place in the Northwest Pole Fitness Competition in Bellingham.
Pole dancing is a skill that incorporates gymnastics as well as ballet and modern dance movements, she explains.
"It's an alternative form of exercise," Chastitie says. "I think of the pole as a vertical ballet bar or balance beam."
Most women who take up the "sport" can't help but feel a little intimidated at first. After all, gripping a metal pole with your bare flesh can't be easy.
Yet, after the first class or two, most women say the experience can be quite empowering.
"You get so much self-esteem just by touching the pole," said Courtney Smith of Spokane. "It doesn't matter how big you are or how old you are. You feel sexy when you pole dance. It's a beautiful thing."
After a while, especially after they learn how to pull themselves up on the pole, arch their backs seductively and master a few tricks like the basic back-hook and front-hook spins, the women soon bask in the spotlight.
That's when the stilettos come in, for those who are both brave and balanced. Most women, however, stick to dancing barefoot.
"Women blossom when they take this class," says Mimi Fisher of Post Falls, who uses pole dancing as one of her workouts to help train for next year's Ironman. "Friends have told me that I walk differently now."
As a result of all the inverted poses she has practiced on the pole, Fisher, 42, also can do upside-down wall push-ups – just as well as her 17-year-old son. Fisher has become such a huge fan of pole dancing that she even bought her own detachable chrome pole for well over $300.
Goddess Arts Academy in Spokane opened last September with just a few students in the living room of the Lujans' north Spokane home. With the growing demand for pole-dancing classes, Chastitie recently moved her studio to Specialty Training Gym in downtown Spokane's Paulsen Building.
"Embrace all of who you are – that's the idea behind Goddess Arts," says Chastitie, who is working on a pole-dancing instruction book. "My goal is for women to love themselves."
