Pole Dancing

A dim of squealing, shouting, cheering, giggling and whooping was all I could hear coming from upstairs in the salon.

The pole dancing class was in full swing - but I was banished downstairs as caretaker and security guard while everyone at the sell-out sexercise session laughed away the evening.

It's odd that I would never have contemplated visiting a pole or lap dancing club -although there is one in Halifax - yet here I was, listening to a group of women in my own salon clearly having serious fun with a pole.

Learning pole dancing as an erotic alternative to aerobics, step, gym and circuit training is becoming very popular and you can now buy your own pole for about £400: static, rotating, fixed or removable.

'Improve your wiggle and have a giggle' is one of the favourite slogans on the pole dancing scene, but women also seem to find it liberating and confidence-building, sensuous and healthy.

Experts may glide up and down their poles like monkeys, but for ordinary women the techniques are really challenging and test muscles to the limit. Pole dancing is brilliant exercise, not just turn-on posturing.

Pole wear is shorts, hot pants or mini skirt as legs must be bare, and hand creams, moisturisers and fake tans need to be washed off before class as they can cause serious slippage.

Our pole queen, Rachel Anstis, has devised a range of pole parties and weekends to suit any excuse for a girlie get-together. These include hen nights, divorce celebrations and, of course, birthdays.

Interestingly, our local vicar popped in for a trim the other day and asked lightheartedly whether we could put 'May' in front of the word 'pole' on our sign outside the salon.

Some parishioners had been grumbling about our 'explicit' notices and no doubt wondered whether he could persuade us to reform and repent.

Have they considered that dancing round the maypole was a pre-Christian fertility rite and celebration of the phallus - as symbolised by the pole?

It was probably these same complainers who objected to our 'have a vert sexy Christmas' poster last year - as if sex were somehow intrinsically sleazy.

Two local women busy proving it most certainly isn't are Ruth Netherwood and Andi Butterworth who set up Roobifroot earlier this year - a women's website for sexuality and sexual health.

Running alongside this award winning website are roobifroot parties where groups of friends can buy sensual products and sexual aids and talk openly about any sexual concern they have.

Roobifroot - the name comes from a book on female sexual discovery called 'The Ruby Fruit Jungle' - complements the pole dancing classes at Hair and Beauty World where the message is definitely: women who feel good about themselves make the best lovers.