Is pole dancing changing? (potentially NSFW)

It was great. Like a good gymnastics set. I also didn’t care for the first minute – but then she’s a gymnast – and not a dancer. She is in need of a choreographer.

As to your question – I don’t like strippers/prostitutes. I know they aren’t the same, I just am opposed to both. I don’t care for a debate on the subject.

I think it’s a nice routine – and it looked like some kind of competition. Hell, there’s pie-eating contests – so why wouldn’t someone think up a competition for this?

Now that pole dancing has become an accepted form of exercise, it may be.

@linguaphile, I think you may have it backwards in a way. Chinese troupes, Indian Mallakhamb gymnists and other acrobatic entertainers have used “poles” for decades. I believe the strip clubs and other venues using dancers as entertainment then started using poles.

@bkcunningham Just wanted to say that I never said it wasn’t an old art—the circuses have used a similar ribbon dancing routine for decades, and maybe centuries… I’m not an expert.

I’m asking about the whole strip club/pole dancing connotation that exists now and whether that’s on its way to changing, and how it would change. Also, the performance is amazing as it is, why couldn’t it be appreciated by spectators without the beginning segment?

@linguaphile, people take pole dancing as exercise classes and like I said before, it is used by gymnasts and other performers outside of strip clubs.

Watch this. I think you’ll love this from the CBS Morning Show.

http://uspoledance.com/?p=1062

I didn’t particularly care for the performance in that video, but I may be biased. I don’t think anyone will ever top this in my mind. I could watch him dance all day without looking away. It’s mesmerizing. Sadly, I get the feeling I’m not his type.

Phwoarrhh!
Now that’s what I call Pole dancing ;¬}

It’s going to become an Olympic event. It’ll be part of the gymnastics routines. You watch my words.

I’m sorry, you were saying…?

This was a pole dance that was not in a strip club and never would be seen in a strip club. It was based on pole dance classes outside of strip clubs. As you can see, this work takes an incredible amount of strength and body control. It is a completely different thing from strip clubs, which is all about sex and beautiful bodies. They couldn’t care less how strong a girl was, just how many pheromones she can get the men to give off.

There was a club across the street from my old job, and I saw routines like this (not as skilled) all the time when I went with the guys on slow nights during the week. I live in a relatively small city, too. They ladies used to experiment with moves and showing each other how to do things on the pole early in the evenings.

I can’t watch pole routines anymore without cringing. I saw some nice young lady go upside down and she lost her grip and slid down. She got a nasty concussion.

So it seems it is indeed changing. Non-sexual pole dancing competition in New York, next the Olympics? I would still prefer the sexy, sleazy strip club pole dancing though. Have to have a place to put my thick sweaty wad of 5 dollar bills. Lol.

Sorry, I can’t think of pole dancing without thinking of this episode of The King of Queens, with Kevin James doing a pole dance at the end.. I think you have to admit, he was pretty damn good at it for a guy his size.

And here are some pretty amazing pole gymnastics from India

@lillycoyote It’s really quite fascinating to see the similarities between the Indian pole gymnastics and the American pole dancing. I wonder if the moves in America were learned from India, or independently developed.

Is this the next new sport in the United States?

@linguaphile Reminds me of things I see in CIrque du Soleigh.

@wundayatta @bkcunningham previously mentioned Chinese pole gymnastics and Mallakhamb which is what Indian pole gymnastics is called, what they were doing in the video I posted. I checked the wikipedia article on pole dancing and it mentions that Western pole dancing has been influence by Chinese form but, even though the moves are similar to Mallakhamb there is no evidence of a link. I don’t know. I don’t really know much about the history of pole dancing in clubs. The article also mentions, as @linguaphile suspects, there does seem to be a movement to have pole dancing become a more legitimate form of dance, acrobatics and gymnastics. But it doesn’t give a timeline on when the Chinese form became influential.