When you think of pole dancing, the beautiful imagery that comes to your mind is that of sexy and beautiful women twirling around a pole. Shimmying up and down as they catch your eye again and again. It has been long associated with strippers but today the perception has changed as it is now fast gaining popularity as a form of fitness.

Pound Kakar who started the first ever pole dancing studio in Hyderabad is passionate about what she does. IT professionals to celebrities, this is a space of self-expression where they can chill out and stay fit and feel sexy.

When asked about the origins of pole dancing she says, “Actually as far as I’m aware, this started with stripping and there are still studios that teach those strippers dancing but there are two different categories. For instance, I am part of a Facebook group of dancers in which a lot of them are strippers and a lot of them are into fitness. It is like this across the world.”

Curious about what really inspired this beautiful pole dancer, we put forth the questions and she responded, “I was going through a little bit of a bad patch in 2018 with a relationship and I just needed a bit of a distraction that’s how it started so I decided to pick up an activity. Even as a child, I was pretty much intrigued by gymnastics, acrobats in the circus and things like that and I always want to try it out. I initially thought of doing belly dancing but came across an article on pole dancing and thought it would be a good activity to try out.

“I went to Bombay and took 2 classes. I didn’t really do much but I just liked the vibe when I came back. I picked up a pole for myself and started learning online during lockdown with the help of YouTube videos.

“When I started with Pole Dancing, I started it as a hobby but basically I realised that it was really helping me with my mental health and physical health and thought that it was a nice thing to share.

“When I thought of opening a studio and I just realised how much our bodies all our bodies you know are underestimated and we are so capable of doing so much with it and you know the how much the body and mind can support each other and coordinate with each other.”
Surprisingly, Pound’s background has nothing to do with dancing or sport. She started her career as a journalist, she holds a Bachelors in Mass Media and has specialised in tourism. She was also anchoring and reporting for CVR English for a while and shifted to content and copy and social media content after that.

Did she face any backlash or moral policing on taking up pole dancing? “I actually did not face a lot of stigma because my family is very supportive and we all look at it as a fitness activity.

Pole dancing she believes is a lifestyle. It’s not just about learning the art and stopping. “You keep levelling up and it’s, it’s basically a workout and because you pick up your own body weight, it’s basically gymnastics. You know, even if you do it once or twice a week, it’s a lot for muscle growth and yeah, you just keep getting stronger as you level up and talk about flexibility, you level up.

“Everyone wants to feel sexy on the whole. There are a lot of ways you can get fit. But there is a reason why you chose pole dancing, because you know there’s your feminine and sexy side somewhere that’s stuck deep inside of you.

“It wants to come out and this is a safe place but being able to figure out goals differs from person to person. It could be because they want to feel sexier, they want the feminine energy inside to come out.

“Pole dancing is a mix of a lot of things. It’s strength, grace, flow, focus, body positivity, you know, mind and body coordination, balancing is like meditation in a way because you’re so focused. I think anyone can be a good pole dancer and no matter whether you’re a beginner or intermediate or advanced level, it should look graceful.

“I have a couple of favourite moves, in fact I have one in every category. If there’s something more exotic, then that would be the horizontal split. And the current favourite is called the INX, that’s the human flag and Pole. Now, that’s my favourite calisthenic move because that’s the toughest of the lot and there’s also an upright move called the ballerina, a very flowy move that requires immense amount of flexibility,” Pound signs off leaving us inspired.