Meet Amy: She’s a forensic scientist by day, champion pole dancer by night

Meet Amy: She’s a forensic scientist by day, champion pole dancer by night

 Forensic scientist and uni lecturer Amy Cowles has scored first place in the semi-pro instructor category at Miss Pole Dance UK after taking up the hobby five years ago to help boost her confidence.

By day, Amy teaches science at Keele University, but by night the self-confessed former ‘science-geek’, whips off the lab coat and dons the sparkly hotpants for a workout on the pole.

And last month, she scooped first place at the Miss Pole Dance UK contest, held in Capel, Surrey.                        30-year-old Amy says pole dancing has transformed her life: ‘I have seen big changes in my life since I started. I am much more confident around people.’

She adds that those positive changes have been in every area: ‘I have never been in as good a shape as I am now. I’m so much more toned than I used to be and feel far healthier.                                       And then mentally it is really positive too. Socially I have seen a difference.’

She admits she always struggled to make time for a social life as she was working her way up the ladder at work, from lab assistant to teaching fellow. But, attending pole dancing classes with British Pole Dance Academy, near her home in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, has helped her meet new people.

‘I tried all sorts of sports but the difference with pole-dancing was I’d found something that interests me, that’s got so many different elements to it,’ she explains.        Earlier this month, Amy, now also a part-time pole-dancing instructor, wowed the Miss Pole Dance UK judges with a five minute routine to Madonna’s Material Girl.

She will now attempt to win the overall professional Miss Pole Dance UK title in Sussex on October 4.

And, although she admits her day job and her hobby are poles apart, she loves both, asserting: ‘I’m proud I pole dance and proud to say I pole dance.’