Pole dancing
Once associated with seedy strip-clubs, pole dancing is now used by many as a fun way to keep fit. After a quick rise in popularity, gyms across the country now offer pole dancing alongside the traditional step aerobics and yoga classes for women who are bored of the typical gym workout.
Pole dancing is over two thousand years old and has a male dominated history. It can be traced back to Mallakhamb, an ancient Indian sport that involved gymnastic stunts performed by men using a thick wooden pole with a ball on top. Chinese pole is another origin of modern pole dancing. It is where men leap between two poles performing gymnastic stunts. The strip-club didn’t lay claim to pole dancing until the 1980’s, when poles began to be used alongside burlesque dancing as a form of erotic entertainment for men. But this is a reputation that has become hard to shake off. It was only ten years later that Fawnia Mondey Dietrich began teaching pole as a form of fitness and art and since then, pole dancing associations have sprung up across the western world with a variety of competitions for fanatics to compete in.
When the BBC revealed plans to create a show called Strictly Come Pole Dancing for Comic Relief in 2006, there was a great backlash from the press. Joan Smith wrote an article for The Independent arguing that pole dancing encouraged female exploitation, prostitution and even rape. She said:
“Not only do I not want to watch female celebrities gyrating round poles for a blokeish audience of sports fans, I'm sure many other people will be alarmed by this evidence that raunch culture - the commercial sex industry selling demeaning male fantasies as sexual freedom - has invaded the BBC.”
However, she failed to give any comment on the rising in pole fitness within her article, choosing to focus on the seedy reputation born in the strip-club.
On the other hand of this debate, pole dancing has spent the last few years trying to become acknowledged as an Olympic Sport. Timothy Trautman, the Executive Vice President of the International Pole Sports Federation (IPSF), told Buzzfeed that getting pole into the Olympics was the only way people would see how athletic pole dancers are: "They have such grace and elegance and they absolutely belong in the Olympics.” Despite this, the IPSF doesn’t expect to get anywhere near the Olympics until 2020 at the earliest.
In 2010, Cambridge University was reported backing the sport when the Cambridge Union Society offered female students the opportunity to take pole classes. A spokesperson from the Union said that:
“classes like these are a way of empowering women, as well as being a fantastic way to exercise and have fun together.”
The sport has plenty of celebrity fans too, with the likes of Eva Longoria, Carmen Electra, Lisa Riley, Miley Cyrus and Christina Appleton all publicly showing their love for pole fitness. Eva Longoria trained to use the pole for a scene in Desperate Housewives and Carmen Electra has her own pole fitness range available to buy from Ann Summers. Lisa Riley famously told the Radio Times how pole dancing in a play landed her a place on Strictly Come Dancing: “I did a play that involved a pole dancing scene this year and I think one of the Strictly producers saw it, so I got the call.”
Pole dancing uses more muscles than a normal workout and so tones and shapes your entire body after just a few lessons. You learn to support your entire weight using just an arm or leg, which is great for core muscles. Regular classes focus solely on the fitness aspect of the sport, teaching students how to spin, climb and hold their weight on the pole. Specialised classes suitable for hen parties and the like add a bit more of the dancing aspect to it, with time spent learning how to pose on the pole and a bit of erotic dancing. If you’re interested in taking up pole dancing to boost your fitness and confidence, odds are your local gym is offering classes. No luck at your gym? A quick search online will bring up plenty of classes near you.
By Sophie Atherton @SophAthers