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Patricia Hockin's assignment for her graduate school thesis was to develop a business plan. Given that the mother of two from Milwaukee works in technology for Kohl's department stores, her thesis creating Miss Pole, a gym dedicated to teaching pole dancing, lap dancing and striptease, was unexpected.

Yet shortly after finishing her master's degree in 2006, Hockin opened a Miss Pole in the Milwaukee suburb of New Berlin. This week she opened a second location at 1502 Greenway Cross in Madison.

"I love my corporate job," said Hockin, 27. "But I needed something that was a complete shift from spending all day long in operations technology, surrounded by guys in a very serious environment."

Hockin is not a stripper. And Miss Pole is not what you might envision: Think more workout gym, less strip club. All women, no men.

"People kept telling me that women in Wisconsin are not ready for something like this," Hockin said. "But it seemed ladies want to get out, be active and be sexy. It's a gym with the additional elements of self-esteem building and empowerment."

The Miss Pole Web site, www.misspole.com, reflects Hockin's philosophy. There are no salacious pictures and it touts this summary:

"Miss Pole is dedicated to providing a safe, comfortable, confidential and exciting environment for women to incorporate sensuality and fun into an aerobic exercise class while building self-confidence. Therefore, criticism to any student (self-criticism included) is not tolerated."

Hockin based Miss Pole on experiences, good and bad, that she had learning exotic exercise in Chicago and Las Vegas.

"Many of the places I'd taken classes were lights low and candles - I don't do that here," Hockin said. "It's a bright, open environment. ... We have pictures of powerful women icons like Marilyn Monroe and Diana Ross on the walls."

Her core customers in New Berlin have been "30-something married women with kids who want out of the house." But Hockin stressed that all ages and body types are welcome: She's had 250-pound-plus women in class and her oldest student right now is 72. She even taught a student with a prosthetic leg.

Cindy Larke, a computer database engineer from Waukesha, began taking classes at Miss Pole earlier this year after turning 50. She's now in Pole 3 and can hang upside down on a pole by one knee.

"There's such a misconception about this," Larke said. "Nobody is there because they want to do this as their job. We're all professionals - my class has a pharmacist, an RN and several other computer geeks."

One of Larke's classmates, who had just had a baby, dropped 58 pounds in three months. "I don't do this for any men I know and I don't intend to," Larke said. "I do it for myself."

One group not welcome at Miss Pole, in fact, are men. That rule too Hockin based on a negative experience at a studio run by a man who wandered in and out during classes, creating an uncomfortable vibe.

Hockin said women often underestimate how exhausting the workouts, taught by Hockin and her five instructors, can be. Beginning pole dance builds upper body strength. More advanced pole dancing, which requires being inverted on a pole, targets the body core. Lap dancing focuses on the legs. And "Strip This," which involves removing layers in class but never nudity, is a choreographed 55-minute cardio workout.

Most classes cost $85 for six weeks. She also offers Pole Parties for groups that come in for an hour-and-a-half to learn a little of each technique, often booked for bachelorette parties. Madison classes are already filling, although Hockin had some difficulty finding a landlord willing to accept an exotic dance gym.

"We have to walk a fine line with a business like this so perception does not become that it's a place you train strippers," Hockin said. "We're a bunch of women and we want women to come here for a safe, fun healthy workout where we can leave feeling good about ourselves."