Pole dance classes offer an option for fitness, community in Cedar Rapids

CEDAR RAPIDS — The screech of skin losing its grip on 45-millimeter chrome mimics the sound of sneakers scuffing a busy basketball court. Thumping music creates a foundation of energy like a crowd rooting its players on.

Erica Lovan’s fists are gripped in determination. Suspended in the air, perpendicular to the ground, her body floats in a circle without signs of strain — affixed to the pole with nothing but her hands.

“Argh... yeah!” she grunts, before finishing in the same triumphant shout you might hear after conquering heavy bench presses or a wrestling match.

Before long, all of the dancers around her are delicately gliding around their poles like carousels — their bodies unyielding as their muscles do most of the work beneath the skin.

“Your goal is to get here,” instructor Emma Long then says with legs crossed midair, suspended well above her standing height. She concludes the move with one hand on the pole, and the other hanging out as if to say “voila!”

And when one of the girls masters a new move, the crowd goes wild.

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Using virtually every muscle in their core and limbs, dancers scale the poles with their bare feet the way utility workers climb telephone poles. As the moves get more serious, they set up “crash mats” on the floor beneath them.

If you closed your eyes, it would be easy to believe you’re in a basketball court, wrestling mat or gymnasium. But at Aerial Elegance Academy, an emerging form of fitness is taking dancers to new heights.

And here, they’re finding meaning no other sport affords them.

“This is much different from a gym,” said student Danielle Spangler, 37. “This is family for me.”

If you go:

To learn more about Aerial Elegance Academy’s pole dance fitness and other fitness classes, visit aerialelegance.com. Classes start at $25.

Why they do it

Students at Aerial Elegance Academy come from every background and every athletic ability.

For Spangler, one of the dance studio’s longest attending pole dance students, it comes after a childhood of participating in ballet, jazz, tap dancing, marching band, soccer and cross country.

After her father-in-law was killed in a traumatic homicide, pole dancing is what pulled her out of a deep depressive episode. Working her way up through the class offerings, it has helped her stay active for nearly five years.

“We have a really good community with people. It can get personal,” she said. “It’s just good to have people cheer for you.”

It’s a sport of blood, sweat and tears. Spangler has the callouses and bruises to show for it. With every slip on the pole, skin is exfoliated forcefully.

But she wouldn’t give it up for anything, despite the stigma she faces from some relatives. It gives her a sense of power and femininity unmatched in the outside world.

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“I don’t plan on stopping any time soon, because this is a sanctuary for me,” she said.

For Lovan, a registered nurse from North Liberty, the chance to improve her self-confidence is what drew her in. Since 2023, she’s gained that confidence while also losing 50 pounds.

Pole dancing is not about stripping, she said — it’s about strength.

“It’s freeing, to be honest. You can kind of forget about the world around you and let your body move to the music playing — in the room or in your head,” Lovan said.

That’s a contrast to her experience in other arenas of dance and athletics, which she said are competitive and tend to form cliques.

For most dancers, the draw is an intrinsically human need: freedom of expression.

“It’s a euphoric thing,” said Tara Sloan, owner of Aerial Elegance. “They come through just a completely different person. Their whole vibe and aura blossoms.”

Today, the dance studio has about 20 pole dancing students. Together, they celebrate good days, work out bad days and come together to support each other through wins and losses outside the studio.

A vertical subculture

Pole dancing here is offered in addition to other aerial forms of fitness, like bungee and aerial hoops.

Unlike the latter two, pole dancing still faces some stigma associated with nightclubs. But here, the body’s largest organ is not a tool of seduction — it’s a necessity.

“The more you get into pole dancing, the less you wear. The only reason is so you don’t slip and fall — you’re using your skin to hold yourself up,” Sloan said.

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Dancers use their choice of grip aid, such as liquid chalk, to scale 45 millimeter poles, usually made of chrome that lends well to the art form. Poles can also come in thicker sizes and other varieties of metal, such as stainless steel or brass.

Some bring experience from professional dance backgrounds and nightclubs. Others bring no experience at all.

Together, they blend styles that are graceful, brawny or exotic while doing moves often named after other women, like the Monroe or the Ayesha. Dancers also become familiar with more traditional terms, like plie and pirouette.

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“We take a lot of our vocabulary from other dance styles,” said Long. “All forms of pole dancing are valid.”

Each year, they showcase what they’ve learned in a recital.

You will be hard-pressed to find dancers who use pole dancing to make a living in this studio. But you will find nurses, teachers and professionals from all walks of life. In fact, medical professions are the most represented among Aerial Elegance’s students.

Strength in and out of the studio

It’s not as easy as they make it look. Dancers figure that out on day one.

“I didn’t even know I had some of the muscles that were sore,” said Lovan. “Not only does it take physical strength, but the mental ability to say I’m upside down and I’m going to let go with my legs.”

Instructors write lesson plans that reinforce warm-ups, conditioning and a variety of reps that balance weight on the ground or on the pole. Most dancers come twice a week.

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After they realize the amount of work pole dancing requires, Sloan said the exercises help dancers feel more in touch with their bodies.

“Everyone thinks it’s all arms — it’s not,” she said. “It’s core, it’s legs. It’s keeping that intact, using a lot of shoulder movement, making sure you have the proper form.”

Most challenging of all is situating the body and coordinating each element as dancers move through space while turning or being upside down. Poles can rotate “on spin,” allowing each dancer’s weight to help them twirl, or “on static,” remaining in place for a much harder workout.

But what’s more is that each dancer comes into their own, independent of their dance skills, in a way that prepares them to conquer the world as much as the exercises. Long said the confidence students gain helps them feel more connected to who they are as people.

“I’ve told my other co-workers (about pole dancing,) who give me some weird looks,” Lovan said. “But I’ve built up enough confidence that I don’t care what you think. This isn’t about you, it’s about me.”

That goes double for the studio’s “Hell on Heels” class.

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Comments: Features reporter Elijah Decious can be reached at (319) 398-8340 or elijah.decious@thegazette.com.