I finally went to Ed Aniel’s Jazz Le Pole class at FTX this afternoon. The off-peak hour, more or less, ensured that I had my own pole. There were four poles and three students. Now, if only I lived in Makati…

Ed says that, when it is busier, there are two students to a pole, and the reason why the classes are an hour and half long is for him to have the time to supervise each student through every move.

Ed showed us some pole moves and then combined them into a routine. Again, I didn’t have the strength to do all the moves correctly. Nor the brain capacity to remember the choreography. And we learned quite a bit in that hour and a half, since there were so few of us.

Then again, one lesson doesn’t a pole dancer make. But seeing the other girls do tricks on the pole is proof that, with consistent practice, one can do anything. (Unfortunately, I am anything but consistent.)

It’s amazing how sensual Ed is. He can out-sexy any girl that I know. Watching him dance reminded me of a line from one of my favorite plays, David Henry Hwang’s “M. Butterfly”:

Why, in the Peking Opera, are women’s roles played by men?.. Because only a man knows how a woman is supposed to act.