Former acrobat now in pole position - The Canberra Times

GLOBE-TROTTING acrobat turned professional pole dancer Susanna Defraia says her new sport is all about strength, athleticism and grace.

The Gungahlin woman, who grew up in Italy, was to take to the stage on Saturday when the ACT and national pole championships were held at the Canberra Theatre Centre.

Defraia learnt gymnastics as a child before taking up dance lessons at college.

Susanna Defraia takes a break from training at the Aerial Pole Academy in Kingston ahead of the National Pole Championships in Canberra. Photo: Jeffrey Chan

She performed in the landmark Millennium Dome show in 2000 in London, where she was trained in aerial techniques and spent a year soaring 20 metres above the ground.

Defraia then toured for five years with world-renowned performance group Cirque du Soleil, performing trapeze in its Varekai show.

Love brought her to settle in Canberra - she met her partner in a bar in Kingston while on tour with Cirque du Soleil in the ACT in 2007.

Defraia decided to give pole dancing a shot after meeting Elizabeth Domazet, owner of Aerial Pole Academy in Kingston.

"I had the strength and I had the flexibility and dance background, acrobatic ability, so it wasn't too hard," she said.

"I was lucky in that way because I've always been very strong; being strong when you start something like that is an advantage because you have to pick up strength first."

At last year's competition Defraia won the amateur division not long after taking up pole dancing.

But this year she will compete against the professionals.

"It will be much, much harder, all the best Australian pole dancers will be competing so it's a tougher competition," she said.

Domazet runs the Australian pole championships, the largest competition of its kind in the country with more than 300 dancers travelling to Canberra for the event.

She said five pole dancing studios were operating in Canberra, including her own, and she described the ACT pole dancing scene as "massive".

The ACT pole championships were held on Saturday afternoon, and the national championships on Saturday evening.