New Mesa business uses pole dancing for fitness

Every woman wants to know what it’s like to be an exotic dancer.

At least, that’s what one Mesa business is counting on.

Former exotic dancer Jennifer Bourland and Debbie Faaaliga opened PlayfulPole, a gym at Alma School and Guadalupe roads that teaches women to pole dance in a workout that mixes fitness and exotic Pole dancing. It’s a safe place for women to express themselves, they said.
The women opened the gym last month when Bourland was ready to retire from exotic dancing.

“I wanted to give women a place they could learn without having to go to the clubs I went to,” she said.
She touts pole dancing as an excellent workout for women. In 16 years as an exotic dancer, Bourland said she never went to the gym because her job kept her in such good shape.

The workout has become popular in recent years with a series of workout videos starring Carmen Electra Pole, and it’s showed up in family gyms across the country.

Bourland, a former food merchandiser, said she felt her self-confidence grow when she became an exotic stripper pole.She got into better shape and felt more beautiful and powerful, she said.

And her job helped her get a jump on becoming an entrepreneur. One of her patrons eventually agreed to invest in her studio, so she could teach classes rather than dance for a living.

The two parted ways after a few months, but Bourland had already made up her mind about becoming a business owner.