Emma has seen bruises, injured shoulders, torn nails, pulled hamstrings, and general bumps in her three and half years learning and teaching it.
"The main thing I get is 'are you okay at home?' Because I'm covered in bruises," she said.
Serious injuries don't happen all the time in pole, but for a sport involving spinning, climbing to the ceiling, and hanging upside down by your legs, it's bound to happen occasionally.
While some people worry about things that go bump in the night, Emma is more concerned with things that go bump in the studio.
"I don't like hearing loud thuds when I'm not facing people," she said. "Loud thuds are terrifying."
Despite the threat of injuries, Emma and her students describe pole dancing as empowering, confidence-building, fun, and, unsurprisingly, sexy.
"I enjoy that I can get fit while playing, because I do feel like it's more play time than gym time," Emma said. "It's made me a lot more confident. It's also made me a lot braver ... I enjoy sharing the experience with other people."
Sharing the experience was part of the reason Emma opened her own pole dancing studio in Wanganui. Pole Dance Wanganui has been running on Taupo Quay for just over a year.
Emma works in sales at Pacific Helmets during the day, but runs pole classes in the evenings.
"When I started this I kind of thought I'd get four or five people and ... it would just be a little thing to keep my motivation up and share it with a couple of girls," she said.
"That, I think, lasted the first week. Now it's six classes a week."
She has about 30 students, but teaches an average five per class.
Nineteen-year-old Jess Jones expected her first lesson with Emma to be "hard and challenging", and was right.
"The morning after your first pole class is brutal, you can hardly walk," she said.
Despite the pain, Jess said the classes made her feel "powerful".
During a recent trip to Europe, her tour group nicknamed her Krystal, but she has not faced any serious negativity for her hobby.
"You don't have to be a stripper to be a pole dancer, and anyone can give it a go," she said. "Those people that tell me they can't give it a go because they've got no strength - you have to start from somewhere.
"Just do it. You won't regret it. You'll be stronger and happier."
Jess has been pole dancing for about a year, and hopes to be confident enough to compete in next year's New Zealand Amateur Pole Performer (NZAPP) competition.
Another pole student, 21-year-old Lucy Brickley, also hopes to compete at NZAPP.
She began the class about half a year ago because she wanted to "try something different" and "get stronger".
"I always wanted to try it but never had the guts," Lucy said. "I had an open mind but I was expecting stilettos and bikinis."
Instead Lucy found people came to class dressed in "little booty shorts and a singlet".
"It's not all false lashes and glitter," she said.
While it still wasn't a lot of clothing, Lucy said it was important to wear less because skin contact with the pole was essential.
"It's not dressing slutty at all, it's dressing appropriately. You want everything to be contained but you also want that skin contact otherwise you'll just fall - and that's when you hurt yourself, when you don't grip."
Lucy described pole fitness as "sexy" and "fun", but also "tiring" and "painful".
"There's a lot of blood, sweat, and tears," she said, adding the class was "such a good workout", and nobody needed to be fit to start it.
One move she particularly wanted to learn was called the Titanic.
"That's where you grab the pole between your cheeks. I think you hold on to the pole with your hands behind your head and you're sort of gripping on with your glutes."
Lucy said her partner was "obviously stoked" she'd taken up the class, and her family were supportive.
"They can see that I'm getting a good workout," she said.
Emma said she enjoyed pushing her students and teaching them to do things they didn't think they could do.
"I find it really satisfying to get somebody to do something that they go 'oh, no, I can't do that', then suddenly they are," she said.
Emma got into teaching pole about a year after she began learning it when the owners of Polaris pole studio in Wellington approached her and asked her to teach.
She had previous experience in teaching ballroom dancing, which she had been taking since the age of 16.
"I dropped ballroom for pole. Pole made me feel a lot more confident with who I was.
[Ballroom] was kind of like my childhood thing and pole became my kind of adult thing."
Her time as a ballroom dancer had "definitely" defined Emma's style in pole dancing.
"I'm very much into, like, the floaty, artistic side of pole. If I'm going to just turn on some music and have a play I'm just going to float around on the floor and roll, I probably won't even go up the pole.
Some of the class involves rolls and moves on the floor as ways to transition back up to a standing position.
"I've also been occasionally adapting some of the ballroom moves."
Emma said pole dancing was for all types - the youngest student she'd had was 16 and the oldest few were in their 50s. She was happy to teach under 18-year-olds but parental consent was needed because the classes could be "dangerous".
Men were also welcome, and a few had attended some classes since she opened the studio.
"Men have usually a strength advantage straight off the bat because they build muscle a lot easier. Girls tend to prefer things that are hanging on with their legs. A beginners move for a girl will be like a harder move for a man and vice versa."
Emma remembered one class she was in during her time in Wellington where she was the only girl in a group of five men.
Emma's now-husband Liam Dewhurst even gave pole dancing a go.
"She was doing ballroom dancing and I started ballroom dancing, and then she dropped ballroom dancing for pole and I was like 'damn it'," Liam said.
While he'd tried pole, Liam said it wasn't for him.
"I don't like pain you know about," he said, adding he preferred "pain that sneaks up on you". For example, the immediate pain of sore skin and whacking the pole was worse than aching muscles after a sports game.
But Liam still finds himself involved in Emma's pole dancing - often helping students install poles in their own homes. He also found himself "dragged along" to competitions.
Pole dancers at a get together were "so much fun", he said.
"We walk into the hotel room and there's three of them booty shaking on the balcony within five seconds."
¦To find out more about Emma's class, head to the Pole Dance Wanganui Facebook page.
