Allison Roberts

by Allison Roberts

Picture yourself hanging upside down from a brass pole. Imagine spinning around the pole, landing gracefully into a cute little pirouette, and flipping your hair back sexily. Take a bow. Now keep these images in mind, and add on the fact that you can lose weight and firm up as well; and you now have pole dancing exercise classes.

Located at 1000 Turk Hill in Fairport NY, is Xpolse dance studio. Xpolse’ houses 8 pole, some chairs, yoga mats, free weights, and a full length mirror running from one end of the room to the other; plus a male blow-up doll wearing a hat. (He does have a purpose and it’s not necessarily what you think…so behave).

Jennifer Dovidio, 27, is the owner of Expolse’. She started the company out of her love for dance (she has 15 years of formal training,) and the desire to be an entrepreneur. Jennifer also shared with me that she has battled with cancer, and that this experience made her realize that life was short, and that she needed to do what she loved.

Xpolse’ offers classes from beginner, intermediate, and advanced Pole dancing, to Lyrical Pole, Chair dance, Burlesque, Aerial Arts, Pole power, and Avenue of Exotica. Jennifer also offers personal training, workshops group parties; which include bachelorette, birthday, and Girls’ Night Out.

“Probably the number one reason why people do pole dancing is because it makes them feel good. It boosts women’s confidence, and allows them to feel comfortable in their own skin,” Jennifer explained. “But it’s also a great core, upper and lower body work out as well. Women who do this regularly see great changes in their bodies, and some of them use the skills they’ve gained to do something special for a significant other at home.” (Wink, wink, nod, nod).

The class I attended was basic beginner pole dancing.  The women attending were a mix of ages—from late 20’s to early thirties. I asked Jennifer what the average age range was and she said that summer classes tend to fall on the younger side, but that during the school year, the highest concentration of women are either in their late 20’s or mid 40’s, with the smallest age range being 30’s, and the oldest, 60.

The poles at Expolse’ are bolted in to the floor and the ceiling. They are brass and about the thickness of a fat flag pole. I positioned myself directly in the front row, not because I wanted to, but honestly I didn’t realize there was a front row. Shoot. Now not only did I have to look at myself in the mirror, but whether they wanted it or not, the women in the back row, had a clear and personal view of my buttocks. Great.

We started with shoulder, neck, and leg stretches, and then moved into some basic pole positions, including launching ourselves around the pole, in ways that I suspected if you weren’t stabilized, might dislocate your shoulder.  Some of the moves were pretty challenging. At one point, we had to hook our dominate leg around the pole, holding the pole with both arms, and launch around the pole, bringing the opposite leg across and into position of the leg you’d originally had. Somehow we wound up on the other side of the pole, and bowed sexily; while trying not to hit our heads on the pole or our knees.

The moves we covered were: the Wrap Around, Wiggle Down, Body Wave, and Pirouette. Then we ended the night with about five moves choreographed together into a little dance number that my husband probably would have enjoyed tremendously if he could have seen it. The dance consisted of a lot of wiggling of our dairy-airs, walking slinkily around the pole, a few spins, some floor hugging, and then sliding down the pole backwards, landing with our toes pointed out toward the mirror and our legs crossed into a sexy little squat.

I had a blast. No kidding. I even signed up to take the last 5 sessions! Oh, and by the way, I asked Jennifer what the blow up doll was for.

“Mostly he is for the girls who come in for a Bachelorette party to take pictures with. Plus, he’s sort of handy during the lap dance class. He is special for the bride and she gets to practice with him.”

LOL!