Greenwood woman ran her idea up a pole and found eager takers wanting to learn lap and pole dancing

Swivel my hips? Thrash my hair around? Crawl kittenishly on the floor? Keep a straight face???

I can't do this in front of a stranger. I can't even do this at home. I got sucked into being a Confident Woman, thanks to a small advertisement my editor spotted on the back page of a local alternative newspaper -- an ad promoting "Confident Woman of Indy: Services for Women by a Woman." Now don't get your brain all in fantasy land. Not those services, but, well ..... kinda.

The Queen of Confidence, Lindsey Truesdel, teaches pole and lap dancing to any woman who's willing to drive to her house in Greenwood. But she's quick to note that she's never been a stripper. This is just kind of hobby with a mission, to keep her busy while her husband of seven years, who does security for Blackwater USA, spends a lot of time in Iraq. "I don't need to make money off this," says the 26-year-old, who grew up in "religious cities" like Lynchburg, Va. "It's just for fun." (Her husband, Glen, wrote in an e-mail, "I think it's great what she is doing. She is providing an invaluable service to women.")

About two years ago, driving in Greenwood, Truesdel spotted a sign for Pole Hotties, run by a couple of 40something ex-strippers in a studio, and then a garage, before it closed. "It was a low-key kind of thing," Trusdel says. "Just some girls getting together to have fun and exercise." And that first night, "I came home and ordered a $600 stage and pole."

When the business closed, Truesdel found there was still a demand for the pole-dancing classes. "I had never danced," she said, "but I thought I could put a whole different spin on it, where everyone would feel comfortable."

After a self-taught year of mastering one-legged twirlies and upside-down maneuvers on the pole, she opened her own business. Her studio used to be closer to Greenwood's downtown, but she packed up after dealing with too many harassing phone calls and creepy men trying to kick in the door during classes.

On a recent Monday night, she opened the door of her picture-perfect, brick suburban house, and a handful of sweaty, but elated, women of all shapes and ages spilled out into her manicured yard -- they'd just finished a pole-dancing class. For all her neighbors know, they were just sweatin' to the oldies. "Absolutely not!" Truesdel says when asked if her neighbors were clued in. "My neighbors love me uncontrollably, and I want to keep it that way."

Truesdel, in black yoga pants and a glittery white tank from Express, led me past her grandly furnished rooms to her basement. But where most people might find a big screen or a foosball table, I was faced with four hot-pink poles and a table full of lube and other unmentionables. (She sells the goods as a Pure Romance consultant, and also offers spray-tanning services).

There was no stalling, much as I tried. Truesdel whipped out two folding chairs and led me through a choreographed session. That's when I learned that lap dancing involves more than basic back-porch gyrations and a shimmy of cleavage.

She sat facing the back of the chair, her legs straddling an invisible man. She whipped her long brown hair around. Dismounted the chair and knelt in front of it, dropping her face into the invisible man's lap, and then looked up at him with come-hither eyes. We dropped onto the floor, lay back and kicked our legs like scissors. Crawled low to the ground, panther-like, toward our man.

Truesdel said her oldest lap-dance student was a 69-year-old nurse. "God bless her, she tried her best," she says. "She had been divorced for 30 years, and wanted to find a boyfriend. She was a nurse at a hospital, and was going to lap-dance her way to marrying a doctor."

But most of her clients -- including herself -- aren't doing this to attract a man. "Oh, please -- I'm doing it for myself," she says. Plus, "a lot of women don't go home and do it for their husbands -- they're too shy." To them, she says, "Men don't know if you're doing it right. They're just happy someone is paying attention to them -- for free."

Most of the women are there to lose weight, from the 18-year-old who comes to class with her mom on Saturday mornings to the doctor who wanted to drop baby weight. Pole-dancing, Truesdel says, works the core, biceps and triceps. "I'm still a little chubby -- I'm not as cut as you think I might be," she says. "But I have killer arms."

Pole-dancing classes may be past their trendy prime, but there's some athleticism involved. Unlike with lap dancing, at least I didn't have to be sexy, for heaven's sake -- there were other things to concentrate on.

Lindsey didn't waste time tossing me around the pole, either. When I timidly said I didn't want to try one move or another, she just smiled and repeated, "Try it. Just try it."

After spinning to the right, kicking up my legs, and learning how to walk seductively around the pole, a strange thing happened. I realized that this was fun. Maybe I can't take a $189.99 pole home, and I don't want to open that can of worms anyway.

Besides, Truesdel said, "I'm not teaching women how to become dancers. I just want people to respect themselves and feel comfortable. Once you get confident that 'I'm sexy,' it just comes naturally."

My confidence came from being proud. I tried something new. I didn't totally suck at it. It's not a talent I'd tell my mother about, but I know I can do it.

Hey, let's pull out those chairs again!

- Amanda Kingsbury contributed to this report

Takin it to the poles

Group and private pole dancing lessons or floor/lap dancing classes are available, $50 for four weeks. Confident Women of Indy also offers Honeymoon Night workshops as well as special sessions for birthday or bachelorette parties.

Visit www.cwofindy.com for more information.