Edmonton Journal
Saturday, April 23, 2005
Page: D6
Section: Ed
Byline: Olivia Cheng
Source: The Edmonton Journal

Only for ed would I prance around a pole in some hotel room while my editor, a colleague and "fun facilitator" Jan Janzen egg me on.

Pack away the tupperware parties! Janzen's Vancouver-based company A Pole Lot of Fun is sashaying into town to teach women the erotic art of pole dancing in the privacy of their own homes. For a flat fee of $200, a spring-loaded pole is erected in the comfort of your living room so you and up to 10 of your girlfriends can learn to strut your sexy stuff.

Janzen admits "there's a tremendous amount of stigma" attached to pole dancing since it's generally linked to sleazy strip joints. But the entrepreneur insists that the pole empowers the women who give it a whirl.

"This is not about stripping," she stresses. "This is way bigger than that. The pole allows women to be absolutely totally beautiful, to bring out that feminine side, to be the woman they truly are."

Self-discovery is a journey Janzen knows all too well. Once a Jehovah's Witness, she left the fold five years ago and found herself estranged from family, friends and the only community she'd ever known.

"Here I was, 38 years old and I was very alone," she recalls.

"I'd made no friends yet and had to figure out who I was."

She launched an organization called Women Empowering Women to raise money for charity. She travelled to Africa to teach English in an isolated rural village. But it wasn't until attending a stagette-cum-pole-dancing party last September that she found her calling -- though she was too intimidated at first to realize it.

"I've been to one of the most dangerous countries in the world ... I've walked on fire, I've rappelled off a cliff ... and this pole unnerved me."

But by the end of the night, Janzen was sold -- so much so, that she decided to turn it into a livelihood. "I've never seen anything that transforms women as quickly, and brings them to a place of higher self-confidence and self-esteem than this pole. That's why I chose to do it."

Flash-forward to the hotel room, where ed editor Therese Kehler, ed columnist Misty Harris and myself are testing out the empowerment theory. Janzen runs us through a mini-party of sorts, and we learn to spin, swivel, and slide around the pole.

It's a little awkward at first.

Therese tries to beg off, but is pulled in by Janzen, who admonishes her: "No one sits out at my parties."

Misty gets a little too into things and does a Demi Moore-Striptease imitation. She limps away after wrenching a leg muscle.

And I become like a hyperactive kid let loose in a candy store as I recite the routine over and over: "Walkwalkwalkspindipwigglewiggle -- got it! When do we learn the fireman swing? Now? Now? How 'bout now?"

Janzen is patient and encouraging and says getting into the swing of things is the toughest part. "A lot of women aren't comfortable with their sexuality. We're not used to being women anymore, we've had to move into a very masculine world in order to survive, and women are constantly trying to be more like men."

The demand to awaken our inner sex kittens is what Janzen is banking on for her business. All I can say is I am woman. Hear me ROAR!!

Or at least watch me work that pole.

ocheng@thejournal.canwest.com

For more information or to book your private party call 1-877-POLE-FUN or go to www.apolelotoffun.com.
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