Heather Downe puts on a pole-dancing demonstration
© AFP/File David Boily

MONTREAL, Canada (AFP) - The trend has been fueled by a string of sexy female pop stars, including the Pussycat Dolls, Britney Spears, Shakira, Beyonce, as well as countless barely clad backup dancers who gyrate and swoon in hip-hop videos.

Now their provocative styles are being taught in erotic- and pole-dancing classes across North America, in private studios and even in at least one Canadian university.

"I feel sexy when I do it," said Aisha Hunt, 25, a nurse.

She was swayed by the charms of pole-dancing, but swears she doesn't take off her clothes when she does it. And she says she is turned off by the idea of performing for men.

Jamie Cromar puts on a pole-dancing demonstration
© AFP/File David Boily

"I wouldn't do it in bars. Pole-dancing is an art for me. But if I took off my clothes it would not be the same thing," she said, adding that she practiced "jazz ballet and African dance" for years before turning to erotic dance.

Former ballet professor and mother of two Heather Downe, 53, began teaching erotic dance in 2004 and this year opened her own studio, EroTeknique, in Montreal after being inspired by seeing regular women, not strippers, doing pole-dancing on television.

She checked the Internet to see if anyone was teaching pole-dancing locally, and saw nothing.

"So I put an ad in the paper ... and I was bombarded," she said.

Although Downe was never a pole-dancer, she is a choreographer, so "all I have to do is look at somebody or a video and I can do it and maybe change it," she explained.

Aisha Hunt puts on a pole-dancing demonstration
© AFP/File David Boily

As for her students, most are between 28 and 40-years-old. They come from a variety of educated professions, and all want to liberate their "inner goddess."

"I have lawyers, I have judges, I have doctors, I have nurses," she said. "I have no strippers ... and I have nobody who wants to be a stripper," Downe said.

"Many of the girls ... have no intention of dancing for anybody, including their husbands. They do it for themselves. It has nothing to do with any sexual thing, it is the ability to do it. It's confidence," she said.

And in Downe's view, the trend is anything but a step back for feminism.

"The newest thing that women have now is choice, choice about everything. Some women are interested, some women are not. The point is, it's there. I bring it to the mainstream, whereas before it was all taboo."

Francine Duquet, a professor in the sexology department of the University of Quebec in Montreal, said even though women may downplay the sexual aspects of the activity, they are undeniable.

Wendy Iadeluca puts on a pole-dancing demonstration
© AFP/File David Boily

"There is absolutely an element that aims to become more sexual through pole-dancing even if one could argue that it also provides physical exercise," she said.

"I doubt that it is the only way to bring one's body and sexuality into line. Isn't it more about marketing, and the effects of it when women are just good consumers?"

In any case, Duquet said it was "necessary to understand what women are searching for through these courses."

In a sign of the movement's popularity and acceptance, the University of British Columbia (UBC) in western Canada has been offering a course called "Cardio Pole-Dancing" since 2005, and hundreds of women have taken it.

"I've always had a positive reaction when teaching at UBC," said instructor Tammy Morris, who said she used to be an exotic dancer.

"Pole dancing is great fitness, particularly for women. It keeps muscles long and lean rather than short and bulky."

She said her class is "about women acting for themselves, getting in touch with their own body and feeling secure within themselves in a safe environment."

She said the course is offered to men and women, but so far, no men have signed up.

©AFP