Nikki Craven grabs a metal dancing pole, and to the tune of Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face” lifts herself up on it, flips her legs over her head, does a twirl and slides down, hands first, onto the light-up tile floor.

Her students, on a Saturday afternoon at Inferno in downtown Greensboro, break into applause.

The News & Record of Greensboro reported that the 26-year-old Craven is a pole dance instructor. She is not, however, a stripper. And though she has had some students who were exotic dancers, most are just women wanting to spice things up in their relationships or looking for a unique way to get into shape.

“Some people, when I tell them I teach pole dancing, they instantly shut down,” Craven said. “They hear the words ‘pole dancing’ and then they just associate it with something unseemly. But this is more about getting women to come out of their shells, to be confident in their bodies.”

The classes are part of a growing national trend that’s drawing a wide variety of people. Craven’s students range in age from 18 to early 50s and include college students, a pastor’s wife and even a former body builder, Jody Luman.

“I wish I had known about this, or lived close enough to someone who did this when I was competing in bodybuilding in 2005 and 2006,” Luman said. “It builds up your abs, your thighs, upper body strength. You build up a lot of tone and muscle doing this.”

“I’m probably the only person you know whose house has scuff marks on the ceiling,” Craven says. source