Allure Fitness Inc

Picture a big room with many nine-foot tall brass poles. These poles are designed specifically to get you in shape, keep you interested in your workouts and help you have the time of your life as you exercise. This is the promise of Allure Fitness Inc., offering suspension yoga, "Booty Camp" and other motivational classes under one roof in Hamilton’s Westdale Village.

Now, about that pole dancing: it’s the most popular class. “We use the pole for exercises and we also use it to learn spins and tricks and moves. It’s pretty athletic,” says owner Michelle Kriedemann.

Michelle is quick to point out misconceptions about pole dancing. She says it’s becoming a mainstream sport. “I think within the next 10 years we’ll see it in the Olympics,” she explains. “There are different aspects to it. There is pole dancing that has a sexy side to it, and there is pole dancing that has a dance side to it, and there is pole dancing that has a fitness side to it. You can take it in whatever avenue you want to take it in. It’s interpretive, just like anything you learn.”