March 31 (Bloomberg) -- By day, Victoria Gibbs works as a personal assistant to bank executives. By night, she puts on hot pants and high heels, climbs a pole and swings upside down.

Gibbs, 23, a statuesque blonde, is one of thousands of women taking pole-dancing classes in a fitness craze that may owe some of its popularity to the example of celebrities including the model Kate Moss, who performed in a video for the White Stripes.

``When you start, you use muscle groups you don't know you actually have,'' says Gibbs, who is five feet nine inches (175 centimeters) in her bare feet. ``It gives you a real confidence boost: makes you feel nice and glamorous and a lot more womanly.''

Gibbs trained at the London Academy of Pole Dancing, which offers classes in gyms in the City financial district and across London, competing for students with companies such as Pole People and Pole Secrets, which runs mixed classes with men.

Pole Secrets was founded about five years ago by Claire Wright, 30, who says she formerly worked in the music industry, with her own record label, and trained in ballet and modern dance.

``I was very into fitness and I knew there was a niche for women who want to be fit and have fun and feel confident,'' she says. ``It made me feel good and I wanted to do something to help other women feel good. We have a syllabus and aim to train and tone people's figures. It's not about sexy movements on the pole, though we do have classes that are chair dancing and striptease.''

Body Confidence

Wright says many students in classes held in the suburbs tend to be working mothers in jobs such as nursing who have had a couple of children and want to feel confident in their bodies. In central London, more professionals such as bankers come along. They tend to be self-confident and are doing it primarily for fitness.

Women pay 150 pounds ($300) for a six-week course in each of a dozen venues, Wright says, and she estimates there are more than 2,000 students a year. Over at the London Academy of Pole Dancing, where Gibbs is becoming a trainer, the maximum charge is 130 pounds for six weeks. Venues include the LA Fitness gym on Leadenhall Street, where Gibbs demonstrates a few moves using a portable pole.

``No woman in the world is comfortable with herself,'' says Melissa Gray, who founded the academy with her friend and business partner Alexe Woods almost two years ago. ``In week one, everyone's in track suits, by week two everyone's chilling out a bit. In week three, everyone's running around in hot pants.''

Black Shorts

I turn my back as Gibbs changes into her outfit of black shorts and top. She works at Kleinwort Benson, the London-based private bank owned by Allianz SE, Europe's biggest insurer. What do her colleagues at the bank make of her hobby, I wonder. Do they ask if they can watch her perform?

``No, they're very reserved: senior executive private bankers and the people I deal with are at the senior levels, so they've never asked anything untoward about my classes,'' she says.

``When I was bringing in my dancing bag, I preferred to make it clear from the start: yes, I'm a pole-dancing teacher; yes I do it for fitness; no I don't do it in nightclubs and I teach ladies and it's fun. From there I could talk about it openly and they're all fine with it at work. It's brilliant. I'm me at work and people like me for who I am and the things that I enjoy doing.''

Duncan Bannatyne, who owns the Bannatyne's Health Club fitness chain, including a branch in Tower 42 in the City, says he has refused to allow pole-dancing classes on his premises.

``I've been approached about letting my clubs be used but I've said no on the grounds it sounds a bit close to the exploitation of women,'' Bannatyne said in a March 20 interview in the British chef Gordon Ramsay's restaurant outside Paris, where Bannatyne was attending an opening dinner.

Wright, of Pole Secrets, says he's got it wrong.

``We have mixed classes so I don't see how we could be exploiting women,'' she says. ``Anyway, the women choose to come along to us for fun. No one is forcing them.''

Dance Parties

Alexe Woods of the London Academy agrees and says it's a bit of fun for women, who also like to attend pole-dancing parties.

``It's a cheeky thing to try,'' she says. ``Kate Moss, Angelina Jolie -- all these sorts of people are doing it. Britney Spears. The Spice Girls did their tour with pole dancing, so it's really starting to become something. You've got Madonna doing it, too, Pamela Anderson.''

``We also teach lap dancing but it's fairly sedate,'' Gray says. ``It's nothing too raunchy. It's more burlesque -- a bit of cheeky chair-dancing and rolling round the floor.''

(Richard Vines writes for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)

To contact the writer of this story: Richard Vines in London at rvines@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: March 30, 2008 21:27 EDT