YNOT — Kylea Killeen of KyleaKilleen.com is a Kansas-born dancer, with some impressive credits to her name. They include:- Miss Burlesque United States 2010
– 2010/09 Miss Nude United States Performer of the Year
– 2010/09 Miss Nude United States Duo Championship (Sugar & Spice)
– 2010 Miss Nude United States Hottest Body
– 2010 Miss Nude United States Best Breasts

Beyond all theses accolades, Kylea is also a dedicated pole dancing instructor, and the focus of this exclusive YNOT.com interview:

YNOT.com: Is it fair to say that you love striptease? Or is it just the pole dancing you enjoy?

Kylea: It’s totally fair to say that I love striptease. When I started dancing I had this thought in my head that the dancers were all going to be these super sensual women like Jessica Rabbit from “Who Framed Roger Rabbit,” and that I wasn’t going to fit in at all. To say the least, I was very wrong. In a way though that idea of what I thought was sexy and sensual has helped me come full circle with dancing.

I’ve always loved to perform, and the club that I first started at had two vertical poles and two horizontal poles, which ran along the ceiling. None of the ladies that I danced with really knew or ever did any tricks on the poles, so I went years just knowing one or two tricks on the vertical pole.

YNOT.com: Tell us about those early days.

Kylea: In that first club I actually did more work on the horizontal pole and would strip upside down on it. That club also didn’t offer any lap dances either, only table dances, and I never even knew what a table dance was until a customer asked me to do one. I had to ask management if we were allowed to give table dances. I’d been there almost three months at that point and had never seen one sold, the dancers usually just earned their money from the stage shows.

In Colorado I only learned how to perform on stage. When I moved to San Francisco I learned for the first time how to give lap dances and “hustle” for dances since the customers didn’t tip on stage the way they did in Colorado. There the dancers did more pole work too. I still remember walking down to Broadway & Columbus Avenue in San Francisco and picking up a copy of the Deja Vu magazine from one of those newspaper racks on the street. That was when I first saw Pantera Blacksmith, right after she had competed in the P’olympics. Seeing her photo and reading the story made me realize that pole dancing was becoming a lot more serious, and I started learning it more.

YNOT.com: So you have been teaching for the past few years?

Kylea: Yes. A few years ago I began teaching striptease and pole dancing classes and workshops. These types of classes have become very trendy all across the country, and I’ve had people from all walks of life in my classes, and students up to 80 years old.

I think what sets me apart from most in my area is that my background really allows me to instill so much confidence in my students. It’s one thing to say, “I’ve never danced professionally, but this has made me feel sexy.” It’s another to say, “I’ve done this professionally and I can tell you that for every person who thinks you aren’t sexy there are 10 more who think you are.” A statement like that coming from a professional dancer, especially with titles, is very powerful.

Another thing that makes my teaching technique so unique is that I’m a bit of a history buff. When I’m teaching I like to share stories with student about where the movements came from and other tidbits on human sexuality and history.

A lot of instructors are teaching striptease and pole dancing classes as “women’s empowerment” classes and I don’t necessarily agree with that. First of all, not all of my students are women. Second, some very well known instructors such as Jeff Costa and Josiah Grant, who many people know as Bad Azz from YouTube, are teaching some of the same classes with great success. So I don’t necessarily think it’s right to think of these classes as being for “women’s empowerment” but rather “personal empowerment,” and in some instances even “sexual empowerment” depending on how the classes are taught.

For example, many instructors choose to teach pole dancing from a gymnastics perspective and the moves are not sexual at all. Most of the time I teach with sensuality in mind, though. I don’t think that any one gender is better than the other or deserves more respect, it’s the duality and balance of both genders and sexualities that is such a beautiful thing. I laugh about how when I’m older I’m going to be like Barbara Streisand’s character in the movie “Meet the Fockers.” In all seriousness though that is exactly how I plan to be. She did such a great job in that role too.

YNOT.com: So why do you like pole dancing so much?

Kylea: I love pole dancing because it’s so athletic, and a great workout. Plus, I’m not a fan of public gyms, but the pole is like one perfect piece of gym equipment. It’s easy to clean off and maintain, and it uses your body’s own weight for resistance and momentum.

For years, slow resistance training has been touted as probably the best way to work out and build muscle, and pole dancing can be a perfect example of that. The pole really helps you to build up your muscles in essential areas such as your back, and at the same time can be great cardio. The thing that is so great about pole dancing though with resistance is that it can be really powerful and fast, or it can be amazingly slow (more resistance) and graceful.

YNOT.com: Meanwhile, you are also a big burlesque success. What attracted you to this ‘old school’ form of stripping?

Kylea: In many of the clubs, stripping isn’t so glamorous anymore… and it’s not “striptease.” Most clubs in the United States with female dancers have a rule that the dancer has to remain clothed for the first song, and on the second song she’s supposed to take off her top. If the club is full nude she typically removes her bottoms on the third song. What is happening though is that there’s no “tease” to the “strip” anymore, and customers as well as club owners and managers are starting to complain about that.

Many dancers go on stage and don’t make eye contact with the customers, and they aren’t flirtatious. Then the second song starts and rather than removing the clothing in a very sensual manner and teasing they just stop on stage, practically rip their clothes and throw them to the side of the stage… there’s nothing sexy about it.

Learning how to remove your clothes gracefully, flirt with just the slightest movement, or create enigmatic eye contact… all of these are an art form. I think that is why there has been such a rise to burlesque recently, people are starting to appreciate the “tease” again that they are no longer getting in many of the modern gentlemen’s clubs. However, the burlesque cabarets (sticking to the original historical roots) don’t offer the one-on-one experience of a table dance or lap dance… which really is the ultimate tease and probably the reason that I love them so much. Many burlesque dancers left the industry when club owners began allowing floorwork and requiring the dancers to go out and sit with customers or perform lap dances. That’s really where you see the split between burlesque cabarets and modern stripping. Some of the cabarets went as far as to post signs saying “No strippers allowed!” referring to modern strippers.

When I’m performing I try to keep all of this in mind and bring back some of that old school glamor of not only the burlesque queens like Tempest Storm, Dixie Evans & Lili St. Cyr but also silver screen sirens like Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield, and Rita Hayworth. Luckily a whole new era of burlesque performers have become popular such as Dita Von Teese, Catherine D’Lish, and Vanna Lace. Some of these very well respected modern burlesque performers have ties to the same pageants and gentlemen’s clubs as modern “strippers”, so it’s getting easier to transition between the current style of stripping and burlesque & be accepted by both groups of performers.