Being a pole dancer you tend to meet other Pole Dancers all the time – classes, competitions, over the internet. We’re everywhere! So what happens when you meet a Pole Dancer out of context and you are taken by surprise? Well that happened to me just a few days ago…

I’ve been poling in the studio in my gym for about a year now.

I love it. It has 3 poles, cushioned floor, mirrors and is usually very quiet. All you have to do is avoid the occasional evening RPM classes and the studio is all yours. On the odd occasion I’ll find people stretching or doing their own cardio workout but last week was different.

I had been to the gym the previous day and popped upstairs to do a pole session after my gym workout. I got to the studio and realised it was locked, and it’s never locked. I assumed that it was because it was late on a Sunday and they were looking to close up, so I left.

The next day I went back in determined to use the studio. After my gym session I decided to go and see if the studio was open before I got changed to go in there. When I got there I saw a girl inside wearing hot pants and a crop top. Pole Dancer sprung to mind.  She saw me and immediately went into a Reverse Grab Spin. Brilliant. This was the first time I had ever seen anyone else use the poles in the studio.

I went to go back downstairs to get changed but decided to speak to her before I did. I went back into the studio where she was stretching. I asked if she was teaching a class or if she was just working out and if I could come in. (Sometimes our gym doesn’t write the official pole classes on the timetable as they are organised by an outside group.) She said it was fine to come in.

I knew that I wanted to tell her that I was a Pole Dancer.

It might have been a little odd if I had come back and gone straight into a Shoulder Mount. I told her that she was the only person I had ever seen using the pole… other than myself. She said she goes in there quite a lot. We must have just missed each other.

I went to the changing rooms to put my shorts on. I was really excited to go back to the studio and make a new friend. I thought we could learn off each other, go over routines, practise harder moves. All in all, it was going to be great. That’s when the panic snuck in. I hadn’t pole danced for a few weeks due to the Christmas break and I knew I’d be a lot weaker than before Christmas. I worried that she would be a lot better than me and I would just watch her and not work out myself.

I thought it was silly to panic so much. I’ve done plenty of performances and am adding competitions to my set of skills. I’m working on the hardest tricks there are and won’t be able to get any better if I don’t practise. So I got ready and I went back in.

Luckily she had her music on quite loudly or else it could have been oddly silent. I stretched for a while as I usually do so that I could sneakily see how good she was.

She was good.

We started talking in between moves and found out about each others Poling history – turns out we were taught by the same instructor! She now attends the pole classes at the gym and tries out moves there in her spare time.

After a certain point she decided that she was going to go and workout in the gym. She told me that she often feels like she’s great in class but can’t do any tricks when she practises alone.

As soon as she left I felt a little bad.

I wondered if I had put her off her sessions. My dreams of us being great friends immediately vanished. I wondered what I should have done differently. I was going to find her in the gym and give her my number (sounds like a date!) so that we could train together. I decided against stalking her and shortly left myself. Such a shame.

The next I went back to the gym. The manager who I often speak to came up and told me that he was speaking to the girl I’d met in the studio. She said that she was watching me and that I was really good – which made me very happy. She’s looking to become an instructor over the summer. They thought and I agree, that it would be great if we could train together or even eventually teach together  She asked him to give me her number.

I couldn’t find him when I left the gym and so had to wait for the next day to get her number. I’m about to go on a short holiday and have decided to wait until I get back to contact her. At the moment I’m very excited at the idea of having someone to train with. I’ve had lessons with people but no one to just go to a studio and have a pole work out with. It’s brilliant.

It made me wonder about Pole Dancers. We are all so proud of what we do and what we have achieved. We are so happy to show off our skills and talk about pole all day long. I love the idea that everyone you meet could be a secret Pole Dancer. From now on I shall embrace every opportunity I have to meet Pole Dancers and to keep in touch.

They can turn out to a great friends after all 🙂