Pole Bliss

Getting fit was never this fun

By Amy J. Vellucci
NH Mirror Staff

For some women, it’s a guilty, hidden pleasure. One student lied, telling her boss she was going to a jazz class as she left work for the evening. We all laughed.

Unfortunately, for many, pole dancing and exotic dance carries a stigma. “You’re taking a stripper class?”

Above: Lisa Olson, left, is the owner of Pole Bliss in Manchester. Christine Sweetser practices in the background. (NH Mirror/Bruce Preston) Below: Emily Hodges shows a move on the floor, while Nicole Black, left, and Renee Poitras work on standing positions. (NH Mirror/Bruce Preston)

Lisa “Leela” Olson, owner of the newly opened Bliss Healing Arts Center and Pole Bliss on the second floor of the Waumbec Mill in Manchester, wants to change the way some people view this form of art.

“It’s not a bunch of women in high heels stripping,” she said. “Most of the women who come to my classes are 35 to 50 (years old) and moms. My classes are really about empowerment, sensuality and getting in better shape. The real focus is on building self-confidence.”

Her classes, she said, are fun and really are about fitness.

“It’s about exotic dance empowerment for ALL women,” said Olson, pointing out that her students usually wear yoga-style clothing or dance pants and take the classes in bare feet, perhaps not what those unfamiliar with her classes may envision.

Olson, 43, is also the exotic dance instructor at the studio, which offers classes at many times and levels Monday through Thursday evenings and on weekends.

She has created a beautiful, sensual and comfortable space inside the mill building. When you enter, you smell mild incense burning and are faced with a spacious wooden dance floor with five gleaming poles spaced evenly in front of a wall of mirrors. The lighting is dim and soft music is playing.

A small Buddha sits on her desk, the support beams for the building are draped in red gauze and strips of crimson Oriental carpet line the perimeter of the room. It’s clear the environment is designed to make you forget your daily stresses at work or home.

She starts her beginner classes with basic stretching and yoga-type warm-ups. You learn how to walk, with style and sex appeal, and then she proceeds to teach you how to navigate your way around the pole and up the pole. It’s a workout.

The pole dancing trend, which started in the western part of the country, was featured recently on “Oprah,” and some of Olson’s students saw the show and became intrigued. Indeed, the show has helped market Olson’s business.

Olson will tell you that she was an exotic dancer for about six years. But she’s also had many other different kinds of jobs and, of course, now she’s a pole dance instructor and a businesswoman. When she’s not at Bliss, she’s at home on her farm in Deering.

“I love talking to people about my business,” she said. “I have such a passion for it that it’s sometimes overwhelming.”

Pole Bliss, at 250 Commercial St., No. 2007, Manchester, offers drop-in classes for $15, or you can preregister for $120 for a six-week session. There’s also a Girls’ Night Out introduction to the class, and Olson also hosts bachelorette and girls’ night out parties.

If you’d like more information, visit www.polebliss.com, or call Bliss Healing Arts Center at 624-0800.