In Krisha CatZen's Queen Anne apartment is the kind of display you can't easily hide from your mother: an extra bedroom, softly lit with glowing red, in which three vertical poles are installed. A silver, sequined curtain lines the back wall. Five ladies are wearing their mandatory, industry-standard 6-inch stilettos. Yep, you've reached the fourth-level "Pole for the Soul" class. The atmosphere is affable, the laughs are frequent. "It's just something to get me out of the gym," a student tells me after completing a warm-up that's a bit like a sexed-up Pilates routine. There are other pole-dancing classes in Seattle (cardio striptease at Urban Fitness, for one), but CatZen, who also pimps out her teaching craft for parties, recently completed the first-ever pole-safety instructor course offered by the Aerobics and Fitness Association of America. Making it, possibly, the safest sex in town.—Karla Starr www.poleforthesoul.com.