Hanoian women take to pole dancing … warily
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After work, Huyen and Hanh, employees of a Japanese real estate firm in Hanoi, ride to Ba Trieu Street for their pole dancing class. After changing into gym wear, the two start to warm up around a pole to rap music.
Hanh, 29, says she loves working out and used to learn classical dancing. After knowing about a new pole-dancing class in Hanoi, she registered immediately. The more she practices, the healthier and sexier, she feels, she says.
Huyen is married but still finds time to frequent the gym.
“My job keeps me sitting all day. I feel passive and exhausted and so want to practice something. In the beginning [when she started pole dancing], my arms and legs ached, my knees were bruised, but I still love it.”
At 6.30 pm other members turn up. Despite arriving straight from work, none of them show any tiredness and are eager to start the class.
Introduced in the 1920s in the US, pole dancing has become popular in many countries, including Vietnam. While it helps improve core and general body strength as well as tone the entire body, it comes with a slight stigma, linked as it is to sex appeal, sensual moves, and strip clubs.
Not surprisingly, many middle-class Hanoians are wary of telling their family or colleagues that they practice pole dancing.
Bich, 36, who has practiced for more than two months, said the dance makes her excited. But only a few close friends know her “secret”. Every time she goes to the class, she tells her husband and 14-year-old daughter that she is going to gym.
“I think it is a great workout which helps me to be in shape and feel confident and attractive. However, not many people around me think so and I am afraid to tell them. Most of my colleagues are middle-aged and it would be awful if they know I practice pole-dancing.”
Ngoc, 28, is luckier than Bich since her mother and colleagues support her.
But even she has not dared tell her father. “He is very conservative. If he ever knows about this, I will be in trouble,” she says.
In complete contrast to all the others, 24-year-old Thuy Duong is encouraged by her husband to learn pole-dancing.
“He told me to take up any sport I like. It is okay if pole dancing is a little sexy as long as I do it for no one else but him.
“Why hesitate to make you more beautiful, optimistic, and attractive?”
Do Phuong Lien, a pole-dancing teacher at ISIS World Dance, said most of her students are white-collar workers, students, or freelancers aged from 18 to 50.
Lien said most of those who learn care about their appearance, have previously played sport or practiced aerobics, dance sport, or belly dancing.
The main feature of pole dancing is its variety -- It is a mixture of climbing, spinning, body inversions, and flexible dance movements.
Most parts including the waist, abs, belly, thighs, and legs have to move, ensuring practitioners not only have good health but also a sleek body.
Many women in Lien’s class were initially shy to do certain sensual moves, but they later got used to it and loosened up. Some have even created their own sexy moves.
“Women are born attractive and sexy and they love it like that,” Lien opines.
“However, due to the environment and education, some are afraid to express themselves. Learning pole dancing is simply learning how to love yourself, use your body as a sexy language.
“But how to use it depends on each woman’s personality.”
