Pole position

Karen Neville

Lucy Cropper shares how learning to pole dance helped her to grow in confidence and to change women’s lives

At 18, I thought I knew exactly how my life was going to go. I had my dream life planned out, and it was all falling neatly into place. Until when it really wasn’t. My plans failed but everything I knew about myself changed when I started to pole dance.  

Horses were my passion from the age of two, and that was all I wanted to do. I “fell in love” and ended up in an abusive relationship that had me in a safe 9-5 office job and a life I hated. I had no confidence, no self worth, and everything I liked about me had changed; the way I spoke, the way I dressed – even the way I made decisions! I was 6.5 stone and drinking wine for breakfast. Not my finest moments.  

I felt like a changed person leaving that relationship. After months spent learning who I was and what I liked (again), I took my first pole class. It was upstairs in a grotty room in a pub, we had one pole, and we lined up to take our turns learning moves. I was instantly addicted. A place where I could be completely myself, and learn to do incredible things with my body; get fit and strong and feel healthy, and share my feelings, experiences and my story with a community of incredible women.   

Within 18 months, I’d been offered a full-time job working in the gym where I was teaching pole classes (I already had experience teaching people to ride horses) and went on to open multiple pole dance venues with them. In 2012 I opened my pole dance studio in Witney, where I began to share all my confidence knowledge with the women who came through the doors.  

My client base seemed to be largely the same – women who had lost sight of who they were. Who, despite how amazing they were, hadn’t felt good about themselves in so long, didn’t feel attractive, didn’t feel joy, and wanted more out of life.  

And I would slowly watch changes happen. First it would be the clothes worn to classes, which became more fitted and showed their personality more. Then I helped them become less critical of what their bodies looked like and more interested in what they could do. And then, most excitingly, I supported them to find their voices, take up space, and change things in their lives.  

During lockdown I retrained as a Mindset Coach, which gave me a platform to share my “special confidence sauce” even further. I now help women all across the country, creating safe spaces where women can find their voices, learn to prioritise themselves with less guilt, and get more confident in their ability to do whatever takes their fancy.