When I started taking pole dancing classes, there were very few places to do so. There was no such thing as Youtube, and trying to find information on what it was all about was difficult. If you told people that you were taking lessons they automatically thought you were training to be a stripper, or you were a stripper. Don’t get me wrong, I took classes because I wanted to learn how to pole dance, I had visited strip clubs and was fascinated by the dancers’ amazing ability and I wanted to do that too, and I liked that it was a bit “naughty”.

Pole Dance instructors and students alike have strived to get pole dancing accepted by those who still think pole dancing equals stripping (or worse). However, I still love that what I do IS a bit naughty. And I don’t think pole dancers should ever forget pole dancing’s roots in stripping, or as I’m seeing in some places, denial!

Recently there has been a lot of attention to up the game of acceptance and apparently make a bid to get pole dancing recognised as a sport, and ultimately to get it into the Olympics. For some advocates, they claim to be aiming for 2012!

There are 3 camps of pole dancers now.
The Pro-Olympics – they think that the Olympics will give us global acceptance once and for all.
The Anti-Olympics – Those that think it’s a bad idea in more ways than one.
and those on the fence – they either haven’t made up their minds, or maybe have an allegiance to someone in one of the other camps, so don’t want to be seen to be different!

I’m thoroughly in the NO camp. Now I don’t want you to automatically switch sides... what I want you to do is THINK about what this bid means to pole dancing, and make your own decision without being a sheep.

Pole Dancing is an artistic endeavour. It is imaginative, creative, personal, and expressive. The strict rules that would need to be imposed to be able to mark and judge it fairly would take all of this away in a competition format. Current competition judging is not evolved enough, it’s still very much upon the view of the judge what is good and what is bad. We can currently see pole dancers winning competitions who are not technically perfect, but are fun, entertaining, engaging, or beautiful to watch. An Olympic level competition would have to focus on the technical aspects in an absolute scoring system. This would also mean restrictions on moves, and standards on alignment and form – there goes your creativity, and the fantastic differences in style.
Pole as we know it now, even our TOP championship winners are not up to Olympics levels. It won't be any pole artist you know now competing. Everything you do would have to be perfect. Dead lift, straight legs, perfect form, every time. Have you ever seen a pole dance that would compare to a perfect 10 score in Gymnastics? I doubt it. It will be those who have trained in gymnastics since childhood competing.
I'm not saying that pole as we do it would change, but I'm saying that pole in the Olympics would be a very different animal and not recognisable against what we know today! So what would be the point?

I’d much rather keep pole dancing with that little bit of taboo. I love wearing my heels and feeling sexy with it. What gymnast feels sexy doing a beam routine?
Pole dancing to me is more like an aerial art. I love that when I watch a silks routine I can’t take my eyes off the aerialist. Saying that though, pole dancing even at its current highest level is not as difficult as some of the aerial arts – why aren’t they in the Olympics? Because they are an art form.

It also worries me greatly that any new reports or articles on the bid have gained a lot of ridicule. The majority of comments against these articles are either from those who think pole dancing equals stripping, and are disgusted by the thought; or those who think pole dancing equals stripping and think that it would boost ratings due to the sexy factor. Both views prove that pole has a long way to go to gain acceptance by enough of the general public for us even to talk about a bid seriously, let alone actually go ahead with one.

And anyway. If Pole was going to be in the 2012 Olympics, shouldn't you all be in training already?
I'm quite enjoying drinking wine and eating Haribo thanks!

Want to join me? Join my FaceBook Group: Pole Dancers who DON'T want Pole to be in the Olympics
But remember. It's YOUR choice.

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