In the West you have always associated the Islamic faith 100 percent with Arab culture. This in itself is a fundamentalist attitude and it is mistaken.

I just wish the crowd I was associated with was more passionate about what they were doing and less consumed with the commerce of the art form.

Obviously there's the seedy side of the strip club world and pole dancing. But pole dancing as an art form is really beautiful. It's been hyper-sexualized because it's associated with strippers but if you think about it just in terms of other kinds of dancing they're using an instrument to create these amazing dance forms.