The News, Portsmouth reporter Joe Buncle has a go at pole dancing at The Pole Coven at the Portsmouth Enterprise Centre.
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00:00 I'm here at the Portsmouth Enterprise Centre outside the pole coven and I'm
00:04 about to try pole dancing for the first time. This is a whole new world for me
00:08 I've never done anything like it before I'm very excited to give it a go but I'm
00:12 not sure how much of a great pole dancer I'll make. Let's find out.
00:17 So welcome to your first pole class. How are you feeling today? Good, well I'm excited but a little bit nervous.
00:28 Yep, no worries that's completely normal, it's something new. You've done a hard bit by signing up and coming today.
00:33 After you leave you'll feel ready to take on the world. So the main reason you're going to come today is all the things you've covered in the first pole class
00:41 is basically we're going to start off with some nice moves and transitions where you don't have to take your feet off the floor
00:47 so you get used to how the bar feels. This is probably the first time you've held a pole like this.
00:52 And then we'll go on to some more challenging things, so we'll do some spins where you take your feet off the floor.
00:59 Don't worry, you will do better than you think. A lot of people go 'I've got no body strength, I can't do this'
01:05 and they hang for a little bit and they're like 'oh, I'll be alright, I'm going to be good'.
01:09 And then we'll finish with a little bit of a fun thing where you'll put the pole on spin because it has two functions.
01:15 So I'll just put it on the stand up there and put it on spin. So it spins on its own.
01:22 Yeah, so a lot of people don't realise that, they think I'll just put this in the videos of people on Instagram and they think 'are you spinning yourself?'
01:30 So I'll just tell you my trade secrets, the pole spins. And then once you finish the class you'll probably be a little bit sore.
01:39 You'll also probably feel it in your shoulders, upper body, the hands also might be a little bit sore because they're not used to gripping quite so tightly
01:46 so you don't 'ugh' to the floor. But you'll be alright.
01:51 And what am I most likely to struggle with as a beginner?
01:55 Just the spins and holding spins for a while. But I'd say the more you do that, we also do a bit of conditioning as well after our warm-ups
02:04 so you get used to those different things and we do those at the beginning of every class to help build you up.
02:10 Okay, brilliant, let's go.
02:12 Okay, I'm just going to do some twists, get that back nice and mobile as well.
02:23 You're going to be stood the other side, so if you're going that way, you want to be this way basically.
02:28 That's it, yeah. So outside leg over inside, legs the other way, that's it.
02:33 And then you're just going to roll inwards, that's it, roll over, yes, yes, yes.
02:38 Nice! That roll over the knuckles better on that one.
02:41 So that knee gets out of the way, like so, that's it. Yes, nice.
02:46 Misconceptions do people have if they've never tried pole dancing?
02:49 So one of the main misconceptions is people think that they need upper body strength to already join.
02:54 You don't, that's why you come to build it up, it just takes a little bit more time maybe
02:59 because we do welcome people from all sorts of fitness backgrounds.
03:03 The other misconception as well is people feel like they're too big to do pole dance or that they have to get fitter
03:08 or they have to lose weight to do pole. Come as you are and we'll accept you for who you are.
03:13 The other misconception a lot of people have is that it's just solely tied to stripping and sex work
03:20 and even though that is where the origins of pole comes from, we do celebrate it here entirely,
03:26 we do do flow classes and we do get instructors from other parts of the country that are working in sex work
03:34 to come and teach workshops here to build people's confidence.
03:37 We don't necessarily have, you don't necessarily have to be into that to do pole, you can do it as a fitness element
03:44 but we just want to make sure that we're not completely cutting the ties of a hobby that amazing women
03:50 and queer people gave to us basically.
03:53 That's it.
03:54 Yay!
03:58 So I've just finished and my main takeaway is I have a lot of respect for people who do this regularly.
04:04 It's very hard work. I couldn't seem to grip very well on the pole, maybe I've got particularly sweaty hands,
04:09 I don't know, but it was very addictive once you get started.
04:13 I'd definitely like to give it a go again and it seems like a really good exercise.
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