A DANCE school is offering pole-dancing classes for 10-year-olds.

The six-week course, available for 10- to 16-year-olds, costs just £30 ($45) and was touted as a healthy form of exercise, Britain's Sunday Mirror reported.

But parents and local politicians disagreed, calling it "disgusting" and the "premature sexualisation of children".

Chris Hyde, whose 13-year-old daughter takes other classes at the Fusion Dance School in the coastal resort of Blackpool, in eastern England, said: "It's disgusting someone has come up with this.

"I think most parents would be pretty upset if they knew that's what children are doing."

Local council leader Peter Callow said that the classes were "totally inappropriate".

But class teacher Carolyn Armstrong said the course did not cover the "sleazy side of pole".

"People get the wrong end of the stick," she said.