Business Unusual: Pole Position Sheila Kelley's S Factor cleans up on dirty dancing.

An Exotic dancer who wants to be an actress? OK. But the other way around?

Meet Sheila Kelley, a star on NBC's L.A. Law and in films such as Cameron Crowe's Singles. Her career detour began back in 2000, when she portrayed a stripper in the film Dancing at the Blue Iguana. "The more I moved, the more my body responded. I shed weight, and my muscles got long and lean," Kelley recalls. "I was feeling cocky, sexy and hot. My whole relationship with the world changed."

After the film wrapped, Kelley gave birth to her second child and gained 55 pounds. "I was feeling miserable," she says, so she set up a dance studio in the office of her husband, actor Richard Schiff--and included a pole and chair. "My body popped right back into shape. I was reclaiming myself as a woman, and other women started noticing. The other moms would ask, 'What are you doing, and can you teach me?' So I started figuring out a way to teach this experience."