You don’t think pole dancing’s for you? That’s what Stacey thought too and now she’s ‘obsessed’

Stacey Windsor gets some funny looks when she explains what activity got her hooked on fitness.

The Naracoorte local has been a dancer her whole life but, when it came to finding a way to stay fit throughout adulthood, she could never quite get into conventional sport. 

That’s when she tried pole dancing, despite initially feeling that swinging around a pole in front of people probably wasn’t for her.  

“I just saw classes advertised in my local neighbourhood, so I went along and I just fell madly in love with it,” she says. 

“I’ve always done dance for fun, but now it’s added that element of fitness that I never understood, but now I’m obsessed.”

After a stint away from Naracoorte in Melbourne, Ms Windsor, who performs and teaches under the stage name Dee Dee, is back in her home town and has established her own pole dancing studio. 

Despite Naracoorte being known as a small, conservative country town, she hopes it will take off with locals looking for a challenge. 

“You don’t need anything to start, I think that’s one of the biggest myths where people say, ‘Now I want to get fit before I start.’

“No, you get yourself fit doing this.” 

‘It changed my life’ 

Naracoorte mum Imogen Fudge has a similar background to Ms Windsor, as she too grew up dancing in a range of disciplines.

She is one of the first Naracoorte women to sign up for pole classes and said she wanted to rebuild her core strength after having a baby. 

“There’s a bit of a social side of it as well. Being a mum and getting out and about is important,” she says.

“It will be really good, I think, for both my mental health and for my physical fitness as well, allowing me to build up my core strength again.