There is no one as passionate about the female body as Sheila Kelley. The actress, who founded S Factor, is almost solely responsible for women worldwide repossessing the stripper pole. Since supercelebs Teri Hatcher, Kate Hudson and Lisa Rinna are all embracing her new striptease workout, we had to talk to Sheila about the exercise craze that is rocking the worlds of both men and women.

SM: How did you discover stripping?
Sheila: I fell in love with it at the age of 23 when I was researching a movie. I fell in love with the movement and I fell in love with the dynamic between the men and the women in the club. I made Dancing at the Blue Iguana, and I realised that I had really raised four million dollars to learn how to do this as a “good girl.” And I fell so in love with what I did, what my body did for me and I thought “Oh my God, I have to do this for the rest of my life!”

SM: So who taught you how to strip?
Sheila: Various exotic dancers, erotic dancers. There were no tools or tips or DVDs. I had to go to the clubs, but having been a dance major in college it was very natural for me. It was like “Watch. Learn. Break it down.” There were two specific strippers that I watched and they really encouraged me to go further and further. But the first time I went up there I was so pathetic. I was trying to be sexy. You either live in your body fully for yourself or you make a fool out of yourself. Eventually I opened up this entire part of my body that had been locked.

SM: Was it hard for you to separate the beauty of the movement from the seediness of the business?
Sheila: No. I’ve always been a very female-centric person and I’ve always felt that there was an injustice in the world about the way we saw and treated women. So the minute I walked in, I thought it was just beautiful. The problem was that it was owned by the male culture. I feel like I stole our fire back. It’s like I have a torch and I’m lighting each woman’s torch who comes here to learn. That’s the most poetic way I can think of saying it.