Pole dancing exercise classes

I understand your argument, MummyOf, But I don't agree with it. Is pole dancing popular as a set if classes you can take because of the inspiration of athletic pole dancers or because of the link with stripping? I think the latter.

That is true Doctrine but at the same time how can someone honestly say that what is done in strip clubs (imo doesn't deserve the term pole dancing) and what has been shown here are one and the same. I'm not troubled by the wider context because what the woman in that video (as an example) is doing is dancing (it just happens to be around a pole) and so (imo) should have no link to stripping.

I know, LtEve, it's not a perfect analogy but I was thinking that some things can be both skillful (or tasty) and damaging - it's not that the second precludes the first.

Hmm, I'd never kill and animal for fun or 'extra special' pate. Pole Dance or Pole Fitness however....

Trucks that is beautiful. My colleague isn't as good as that, but she is pretty amazing. I'd love to be that graceful.

that's funny, I thought of bull fighting on horseback when I read 'skill and grace'

MummyOfIsla, it's possible to realise that something requires skill and grace and still be troubled by the wider context.

Like bullfighting, or eating foie gras, or something.

• it (dropped the last word of my post somewhere)

trucks you speak very persuasively about it, makes me want to try

That is utterly stunning. Its such a shame that people have stupid, unsubstantiated misconceptions of something that takes so much skill and grace.

Very

Thanks LtEve. :)
You might enjoy this beautiful dance

Trucks, that was a beautiful, eloquent and imaginative post.

sorry pleaser

Not dancing there's music and movement to that music..... o...k.

As for the comments stating that we must all be man pleasers, considering that no man has ever seem me pole dance, since its a hobbie I enjoy for myself and no one else (and i'm sure that is the case for many participants) exactly how does that equate to being a man teaser?

Also not a strip club user, but rather someone who has been once (on a hen night.)

who goes for a fun night out to work out with their friends? Also, who invites friends to watch them working out? Or wears heels or bumps and grinds?

Well, if I was invited to a fun night out trying flamenco/hip-hop/ charleston/jitterbug/ belly dancing/ can/can dancing with my friends and advised heels/pumps/ trainers/shorts whatever were advised I'd go. Sampling a new type of dance with friends would indeed be a fun night out for me. Maybe not for you but why be sneering about it when you've not even tried it?

It is dance .

I can see why developing strength and agility would feel powerful - this is very different from the sexifying-empowerfulising nonsense that comes along with playing at strippers. I remember when pole dancing first started being something that women did who were not strippers. AFAIR the Primrose Hill set started going to classes that actually were for strippers and it was all sexy-fun / manpleasing bedroom tricks. As others have said, I think pole dancing currently is mostly still in that place (with some exceptions). It looks incredibly difficult to do and I've no doubt it's a good workout but it's not dance and, come on, who goes for a fun night out to work out with their friends? Also, who invites friends to watch them working out? Or wears heels or bumps and grinds?

I have been thinking about why I find pole classes make me feel powerful (I can see why if you haven't been to obe the idea of pole dancing can be seen as objectifying, sleazy and disempowering but the reality for me feels very different).

One of the things I used to love about ballet and contemporary dance (which I did a lot, in my 20s) was the lifts: working with a partner, holding a beautiful pose/balance in space, soaring up or spinning - like flying.

We were short on men/women strong and skilled enough to do lifts with.

With a pole, I can lift myself. I can defy gravity, fly, hold a beautiful powerful extended line in space, spin and rise and fall, hang or spin upside down. I can make shapes that I would struggle to produce even with a strong and skilful partner. I don't need a man to fly.

That, and the camaraderie of a class of women cheering each other on to do things that are often painful, exhausting and frightening and bruising at first - is intoxicating.

The incredible strength poses that champion pole dancers do take years of training and brute strength to perfect. They are not necessary to part a punter from his tip - yet they were developed by dancers anyway. For the sheer joy and exhilarating excitement of it, I think. By dancers, for dancers. Not for punters at all. Anyone can swing a bit and shake their ass in heels: this is something different. It's brutal and bruising and yes, empowering. There is nothing like it in the dance world or sport world that I've ever found. I guess you have to be there.

my class we didnt wear heels-eh hello warm up!!
and as a beginner we wore leggings not shorts as no climbing.

I did one of these classes after Ds1 (managed to fit it in before finding ds2 was on the way).

I loved it, it was alot of fun, it was amazing to see the strength I had & it wasnt sexy, it was a hardcore workout.
I have a hell of a lot of respect for anyone who does it professionally or competitively as it requires amazing strength!

If men were paying to watch women in pole classes or expecting pole students to perform for them it would follow that it was a man-entertainment thing. But men don't get to watch the classes and unless students buy poles to use at home, there is v little chance of any man seeing any pole action at all; women are doing for themselves without a male gaze involved, no?

If all stripclubs were closed, no longer in demand or banned like Iceland have, then pole dancing might perhaps start to lose the connection to them after a couple of/many decades.

I do find it ironic that it's sold back to women as fun exercise.

Probably not but I just know that if I was to prance round in high heels, I would trip over and have to prance on over to A and E :)

The more people do it in fitness classes, with zero bump and grind for the tangible fitness and strength benefits the easier it becomes to discard the stigma of man-pleasing sexual performance origins. If a million women are doing it and none of them are doing it for paying men then it is a different and legitimate exercise or dance choice and there is only a historical interest in its origins, much like other dances (Argentine tango, charleston etc) that were seen as sleazy and sexually flaunting/immoral at first).

I consider myself a pole dancing feminist. It is the most brutal workout I have ever done. In one of the classes I attend there is a member of the national women's rugby squad and the director of the women's crisis shelter who is a martial arts instructor. I would not call them 'man-pleasing girls' - they are strong, fit, determined women who pole dance (in bare feet mostly) because it is fun and because there is nothing like it for building upper body strength.

I have 2 teachers: one is a Latin dance champ who moved into pole, hoop and silks as well and the other an ex contemporary dancer trained in Pilates.

prancing around in heels is probably not much worse for you physically than going en pointe though