Noa Linden

What my show actually looks like

I came from rhythmic gymnastics, so my pole work is contemporary in the air rather than one trick after another. Long lines, clean angles, slow descents. I am 160 centimetres and light, which lets me do things that are simply harder for a bigger dancer.

The move I am proudest of is called a flag: a full horizontal lock on the pole, arms only, no legs. Roughly five per cent of pole dancers get there, and it is the moment the room goes quiet. I save it for the end.

Without a pole I move to chair choreography and a minimalist floor solo. It works, but honestly it is about eighty per cent of what I can do. If you have a pole or a high ceiling, say so and you get a different show.

Who I suit

Fashion events, openings, evenings where people want something beautiful rather than crude. For a company event I am the safest choice of all of us, because my show sits closer to dance than to stripping.

A birthday where the friends want something impressive and not embarrassing. And anywhere with a pole: lofts, studios, villas with height.

For a loud stag night with fifteen men I am less of a fit. That room wants energy and interaction, and I give a clean line.

Where it works

A pole is the dream. Without one I need a ceiling of at least two metres seventy and a hard floor. Carpet kills half my show.

Most of my work is in Florentin lofts and around north Tel Aviv, plus Herzliya. Hotel suites with high ceilings work well too.

What I do not do

I do not get on a pole I have not checked. That is not fussiness. A badly fitted pole comes out of the ceiling under a hundred kilos of force, and I know two dancers injured that way. I arrive ten minutes early and check it.

Nobody touches me while I am on the pole, not even as a joke. No filming. The show ends when it ends, with no afterwards.

How I got into this

Rhythmic gymnastics from six to seventeen. A back injury ended competition, and a year later a friend dragged me to a pole class. On the first day I did things people usually reach after six months, because the body already knew.

But pole is not gymnastics. In gymnastics there is a judge, in pole there is an audience, and they are two different jobs. It took two years to learn not just to do a trick but to deliver it: stop before, look, then move.

Nine years on the pole, five performing. I still train four times a week, otherwise the flag simply disappears.

What I bring and what I need from you

My music, two outfits and grip powder for my hands. Without grip the pole slips and there is no working, and it is the one thing I never skip.

From you: if there is a pole, access to it ten minutes early so I can check it. If not, a ceiling of at least two metres seventy and a hard floor. Carpet closes half my programme.

And light. Not darkness — pole reads best lit, because the whole point is the line of the body. A strong side lamp beats the dark.

Mistakes people make when they book me

Not mentioning there is a pole. It has happened three times: I arrive with a no-pole programme and there is a perfectly good pole in the living room. A waste.

Installing a pole the same day without checking it. A bad pole comes out of the ceiling under a hundred kilos of force. I check it myself, and if something is wrong I switch programme and do not argue about it.

Turning off all the lights. With me that is a mistake. In the dark you cannot see the lines, and every trick looks the same.

Booking me for fifteen drunk men. I will perform something beautiful that nobody remembers. That room needs energy and interaction, and that is not me.

Booking me

Tell me in the message whether there is a pole and what the ceiling height is. Two words, and it changes the entire show. Then the hour, the address and the number of guests.

Standard price, no deposit. If you want something athletic and I am taken, Eva Wright works acrobatic and Sapphir Berkovich holds the fashion line. Everyone is in the gallery.