Pole dancing exercise classes

[BadgerBumBag]

A friend is organising a group pole dancing class as a fun night out. I have reservations. I won't lie, most of my reluctance is due to being rather larger and less fit than the others, but I can't help feeling uncomfortable with the whole idea.

Am I being daft or does gyrating round a pole as exercise seem ok to you?

True - and the more experienced you are, effectively the more clothes you can wear! As a novice I wear a vest top and shorts plus I use a grip aid on my hands
Mine is very much a pole fitness class - there are no heels, no gyrating or dancing as such. It's burpees, star jumps, crunches and pole work

Why don't pole dancers wear more clothes then? If it's perfectly possible to do the moves in any one of a million interesting costumes, why do they always seem to choose a bikini or a high-cut leotard?

It's the problem I have with pole dancing. Its proponents claim it's just a form of acrobatic dance, it's no different to ballet or whatever, yet the only character that pole dancers seem to portray is some sort of enraptured nympho, flicking her hair all over the place and arching her back while pouting.

You could be a beautiful bird or butterfly, a magical fairy with wings, a colourful circus person, a mysterious airborne ballerina, an Eastern princess on a flying carpet, a Valkyrie, a mischevious clambering animal - the choices are endless and there, but it's always the same old tiny costume and histrionics.

I don't know - my friend has done a performance with amazing streams of fabric
Part of it is the grip, if I only have the back of my knee as contact, would you rather have tacky skin or tights?!
I guess you could ask the same about gymnasts and why they wear leotards. Personally it doesn't bother me, I reveal less in class than when I wear a bikini and nobody questions why I swim in a bikini instead of a swimming costume

Hm. I know three people who regularly work out on a pole and are very keen on it.

Two practice 'pole fitness'. They (one man, one woman) are incredibly fit, practice fully clothed, and have amazing upper body strength - their performances are acrobatic and involve them seemingly hanging in midair from the pole using one arm. Really impressive. I'm not sure I could do it, but I would be happy to be involved.

The other practices 'pole dancing'. Her group also does performances, which involve the high heels-thong-fringed bra 'costume' and the tickets include an 'over 18s' clause. That one I'd give a miss. Speaking as someone who did belly dancing for a while, it sails too close to the wind for my liking, in a way that I didn't feel with belly dancing which was more about rhythm, scarves and small cymbals.

As a result, if I was invited to a 'pole dancing' party I'd be a bit wary for exactly the reasons you describe. It's possibly a personal thing, but I'm not keen on the associations.

I wear running shorts, a yoga bra and bare feet fwiw. I need lotion-free skin and chalk to grip and not fall. Grip points include back of knee, inner thigh, inner arm, inside knee, etc as well as hands. Clothes make it very hard but if I'm just spinning about rather than inverting or climbing I wear yoga-type gear.

I have seen people dressed as fifties swimmers, butterflies, all sorts - there was a video of a Japanese champion up thread in that sort of kit.

Why does the pole have to be shiny, then?

As I understand it, you can have aluminium poles with a matt surface, which offer more grip, but you can still slide on them if you want. You could have wooden poles, as traditionally used in China.

The aesthetics of it are still too rigidly stuck in the strip club for me to just consider it another dance style.

There are various finishes, brass, chrome, brushed...
They have varying degrees of grip/slippage. As well as grip you also have to spin and slide.
It's a different tradition to Chinese pole, with different moves. It's like asking why Turkish belly dance is different to Moroccan or Egyptian - they are different traditions with different moves. Though as in belly dance traditions, some moves have crossed over.

Nobody is pretending pole didn't come out of strip clubs and the classic and basic moves and tricks reflect this, what's interesting is that it has evolved and there are now numerous completions reflecting this - some suit more stripper/burlesque showgirl dance and others more gymnastic/fitness.

Chinese circus performers often go bare chested and in tight clothing. You still need to grip and avoid friction burns!

www.ipdfa.com/about/history-of-pole/

Have a look at this: Indian pole gymnastics.
Minimal clothing, extreme strength and flexibility, ancient (male) tradition, I recognise a few moves that have crossed over into top competition repertoires.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=jM6kUQXxdAI

If you're interested, here are most of the possible moves/balances/inverts/transitions including Chinese pole moves: you can see the cross over.

There are no Indian pole moves shown but quite a few are the same. There are, after all, a finite number of ways you can move on one.

If you do them slowly in heels whilst hair flicking you are doing them in the strip club dancer way.
If you do them at warp speed and you are a man you are doing them in the gymnastic way.

They are generally pretty much the same core moves if you are performing at a very highly skilled level!

Whoops link for all the main moves
poledancedictionary.com/moves/

Some moves will always require skin grip no matter how experienced or strong you are!

Trucks I love poledance dictionary!!

Seriously, you are wasting your time on this board talking about poling. I have tried many times but gave up yonks ago.

I know this is an older thread (and that this a DM link but its only for the pics) but stumbled across this..... there you go, men doing pole dancing!

www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2514523/Miss-Pole-Dance-South-America-turns-sexy-sport-art-form.html