Why pole dancing is my latest obsession

This is a first-hand account of why pole dancing is a fantastic workout for men — and how men react when I say that to them

- Arnesh Ghose

Ever since I saw Jacqueline Fernandez enthusiastically take to pole dancing on Instagram, I have been intrigued by the possibility of, maybe, just maybe, trying it out myself. When Jackie started putting out her histrionics with the pole, it, sort of, felt real, you know? You watch pole dancers in cinema and wonder “but they have been training all their lives as dancers, of course they will be able to do it”. You see strippers live in Amsterdam or Vegas and think “well she isn’t putting in as much effort as she should, but poor thing, this is a rough life”. Then you see somebody putting in the effort, and doing a smashing job of it, and realise that “everybody can do it if they just put in the hard work”. JLo did it in Hustlers, at her age, and you just want to hide under a rock and cry in shame.

I have been tracking a bunch of pole fitness classes in Mumbai for a few years now, and nobody offered classes for men. I don’t know why. While I don’t see the need to desexualise the dance form (we don’t desexualise Salsa or Bachata, now, do we?), we need to definitely deshame it. So, when one of my writers enthusiastically pitched a story on Arifa Bhinderwala (she’s on Instagram as aarifa.pole.burnt), I asked him to take it a step ahead.

“Ask her to host a class for the men of MW.”

“Errr…excuse me?”

“Yeah. She is going to teach us how to pole.”

“Umm…okay.”