SOUTH Windsor woman Lisa Ebrahim’s pole dancing interpretation of the movie Predator saw her win a bronze medal at the Arnold Sports Festival in Melbourne earlier this month.
Ebrahim attended the three-day festival, which is run annually, and claimed a bronze medal in the amateur pole dancing category, which had 14 competitors in it.
The festival, started by Arnold Schwarzenegger, features a number of sports such as pole dancing, body building and cross fit to name a few.
The bronze medal in the Pole Championship Series was a big deal to 39-year-old Ebrahim, who finished in fourth place the year before, and was disappointed to miss out on a podium finish.
“I was visualising what it would be like to get the medal all week,” she said.
“It was a great feeling. I was pretty shocked when my name was called out.”
The mother of two has participated in pole dancing for about four-and-a-half years, and became an instructor at Poletique in Richmond two-and-a-half years ago.
“I just loved how strong the women were and how acrobatic and dynamic and how graceful it is,” she said of the sport.
In Melbourne, Ebrahim decided she needed an eye-catching act to break into the medal category, after just missing out on one in 2017.
She opted to honour the man who started the festival, and created a routine based around Predator, the creature which Schwarzenegger hunts in the movie of the same name.
“I was Predator, my movements were quite animalistic,’ she said.
“Arnold was in the original predator, I thought it would be good. I am not a dancer by trade, so I thought what could I do.
“I remember in the movie he hung bodies up from trees. I got into a ball shape at the top of the pole and let my arms go like on a roller coaster. Everything went well luckily.”
She said she loved the entire experience of the competition.
She said there were Sydney based pole dancing competitions that she attended, but they did not have nearly the same crowds as were at the festival in Melbourne.
“It was exhilarating. Normally in pole competitions you are in front of your own community, but there were thousands of people there watching,” she said.
“You would do something quite basic and you would be applauded. To entertain all those people was pretty exhilarating.”
Ebrahim said she was happy her two-and-a-half minute routine went down well, after putting a lot of effort into it.
“You need choreography throughout the routine. Combo after combo on the pole is ridiculously exhausting so you break it up by doing floor work or dance routines,” she said.
“You are only limited by your imagination.”
Ebrahim added that she had quite the support crew in Melbourne for her performance. Her family joined her, as did many of the dancers and instructors from Poletique in Richmond.
