The Sweetest Taboo: Sensual Movement & Fitness

Lena Hanchard flies high on the beach in Bermuda during a Black Girls Pole retreat in June 2019.

Written by JENNIFER DZIEDZIC

Owner Lena Hanchard opened the doors of Closet Poler Alternative Fitness, her boutique fitness studio, just before the pandemic hit in 2020. The business's tagline: "Where women go to play."

“I was in a bad marriage,” she says. “I needed something to do to get me through the divorce.”

After professional counseling and focusing on her healing, Hanchard started taking pole classes in Union City.

Pole classes?

Often connected to the world of exotic dance, maneuvering on a vertical pole actually dates back to hundreds of years ago in India, China and other countries. Combined today with acrobatics and aerial gymnastics, it's a total body workout for women to build their confidence while improving strength, coordination and flexibility.

Hanchard began her journey in pole fitness by attending classes in studios around Atlanta, studying and learning which elements of the programs she preferred. Ultimately, she was inspired to start teaching.

“Poling itself was therapy for me and it helped me to just be patient,” she says. “Learning different things with your body and wanting to progress, you have to have patience and you have to be consistent with what you’re doing.”

Adds Hanchard: “The divorce took me three years. It was a nasty divorce. My child was having some issues because of the marriage and the divorce, so I was dealing with a lot of different things at that time.”

She credits pole with helping her process it.

Seeing a need for classes closer to home, Hanchard opened her studio in Newnan.

”I needed to bring it here,” Hanchard said to herself. “I don’t know if they’re ready for it, but I’m bringing it.”

With a background that includes doing pole fitness for 10 years and teaching almost three years, Hanchard began teaching chair classes at several studios around Newnan. 

Eventually, she rented out temporary space at Southern Arc Dance Center, taught chair classes, and then added pole classes.

However, she could only teach one or two students at a time, and the pole was heavy to transport, so she began looking for a space to set up permanently. After studying a few different locations, a permanent classroom became available at Southern Arc on Greenway Court.

“When I finally opened up, it just changed everything for me," says Hanchard. "It was just going to be a space for women, and I knew there were lots of women out there like me who had things in their life that go on, and they don’t have time for themselves. Or they’re in a bad marriage and the person might have made them think differently about themselves. Whatever it is, the pole helps women with their confidence.”

The instructor says she's had students cry as feelings came to the surface from dancing.

"They finally felt welcomed and free," she says. “That's what keeps me doing it because I know that women need it. I know it’s just a pole, but it really isn’t. Those are props and, yeah, you have to condition yourself, but it does something from the inside out when you pole. Any woman who's done it and taken that journey – they all have a different story to tell.”

Don’t stereotype her classes as “stripper pole classes,” however. Hanchard educates women that there are different types of poles and that what is portrayed on TV is nothing like what she teaches.

Students are offered classes in pole, lyra (aerial hoop), sensual movement on the floor with heels, and sensual chair classes.

"We teach sensual pole, which helps a woman know her body and understand how it moves – and to appreciate it," says Hanchard.

Newbies can start by taking a virgin pole class with instructor January "Crimson Goddess" Da Vila, who conducts affirmations with students before class. Hanchard says it’s a great class to start with as the choreography is easy and it gets the juices flowing.

Once a student has mastered the moves, she can advance to beginner classes, taught by Hanchard, who also offers stretch and balance classes and pole conditioning. A few popular classes include:

Liquid Motions. This sensual floor class gives students a break from pole.

Legmerize. This class teaches students how to wear their heels along with knee pads to do leg movements without having to stand up.

Chair Flair. In this class, students learn sensual movements while wearing leggings or fishnets and lingerie.

“If you have an outfit that you want to buy but you don’t know where you can wear it, bring it to pole class,” says Hanchard.