Rostyslav Hryshchenko: A Forensic Expert and Pole Dancer
In Zhytomyr, a forensic medical examiner named Rostyslav Hryshchenko has gained online fame after a TikTok video of his pole dancing racked up over 3.5 million views. He has been practicing pole dance for more than three years as a way to decompress from his high-stress work, which constantly involves death. Hryshchenko has worked in forensic medicine since 2008, and since 2022, he has specialized in the aesthetic preparation of deceased bodies for burial. His unusual hobby is now drawing attention not only within professional circles but also from a broad social media audience.
Rostyslav Hryshchenko regularly trains in pole acrobatics, attending both individual and group sessions several times a week. In his class, he is the only male among a group of women. His boss, morgue director Vitaliy Zozulya, supports his colleague and jokes:
“Rostyk, how do you manage it all—today you’re standing in gloves next to a corpse, and tomorrow you’re spinning on a pole?”
He adds lightheartedly: “Listen, if you keep working out so hard on that pole of yours, we won’t need extra orderlies for lifting heavy bodies—you’ll handle it yourself!”
Vitaliy Zozulya, who has nearly 30 years of experience in forensic medicine, stresses the need for personal coping mechanisms. “When your daily work is so tightly and inseparably tied to death, it’s critical for each of us to find our own personal formula to maintain a normal emotional and psychological state and not go insane,” he says.
Pole Dance Practice and Its Impact
Rostyslav Hryshchenko shares his feelings about his work: “What I like most about my job is the final result. For example, we very often receive bodies of people after terrible car accidents, with horrible injuries and facial deformities. I carefully and meticulously prepare them, performing cosmetic restoration so that grieving relatives can calmly and humanely say their last goodbye during the funeral.”
He also explains how pole dancing helps him unwind: “After a very hard, exhausting workday, you just want to completely disconnect from everything you’ve seen. Pole sport is perfect for that. When I perform tricks, I get such a massive dose of pure adrenaline that it instantly shuts off my brain from everything that happened in the morgue.”
Additionally, Hryshchenko addresses the stereotypes surrounding this sport: “People just need to take a deeper interest in what this sport is really about. Even women who dance on the pole are sometimes judged—like, you’re not normal. Stereotypes exist, you can’t escape them, but I’m absolutely sure that over time, all these silly prejudices will simply disappear from our society.”
At one New Year’s office party, colleagues even convinced Rostyslav to show off his skills and dance for them. In this way, pole dancing has become not only his way of relaxing but also a means to strengthen bonds with coworkers and combat the stress typical of his profession.
Rostyslav Hryshchenko’s activities and his passion for pole dance draw attention not only to the profession of forensic experts but also to the importance of psychological health in this field. He demonstrates how vital it is to find ways to relieve stress, especially in work tied to death, which can be emotionally draining. Open discussion of his experience on social media may help raise awareness about mental health issues among professionals in similar careers.