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Pole dance combines dance and acrobatics centered around a vertical pole. This performance art form takes place not only in gentleman's clubs as a form of erotic dance, but also as a mainstream form of fitness, practiced in gyms and dedicated dance studios. [1] Amateur and professional pole dancing competitions are held in countries around the world.
Pole dance requires significant muscular endurance, coordination, strength, flexibility, upper body and core stability, as well as sensuality. [2] As such, proper instruction and rigorous training are necessary to attain proficiency. [3] [4] Today, pole performances by exotic dancers range from basic spins and striptease in more intimate clubs to athletic moves such as climbs and body inversions in the "stage heavy" clubs of Las Vegas and Miami. Dancer Remy Redd at the King of Diamonds, for example, is famous for flipping herself upside down into a split and hanging from the ceiling. [5] Since the mid-2000s, promoters of pole dance fitness competitions have tried to change peoples' perception of pole dance to include pole fitness as a non-sexual form of dance and acrobatics and are trying to move pole into the Olympics as pole sports.
Pole dance is regarded as a form of exercise [6] which can be used as both an aerobic and anaerobic workout. Recognized schools and qualifications are now commonplace. [7]
The use of a pole for sports and exercise dates back at least 800 years to the traditional Indian sport of mallakhamb, [8] which employs endurance and strength principles with a wooden pole wider in diameter than a modern standard pole. The Chinese pole, dating back to the 12th century, uses two poles on which men would perform "gravity-defying tricks" as they leap from pole to pole, at approximately twenty feet in the air. [9]
Pole dance in America has its roots in the "Little Egypt" traveling sideshows of the 1890s, which featured sensual "Kouta Kouta" or "Hoochie Coochie" belly dances, [10] performed mostly by Ghawazi dancers making their first appearance in America. [11] In an era where women dressed modestly in corsets, the dancers, dressed in short skirts and richly adorned in jewelry, caused quite a stir. [12] [13] During the 1920s, dancers introduced pole by sensually gyrating on the wooden tent poles to attract crowds. [14]
The rock and roll invasion in the 1950s saw the introduction of the pole to a broader audience, with Elvis Presley's "Jailhouse Rock" movie and video in 1957. The video featured Presley's famous gyrating hips as well as numerous pole slides, grinds, and twirls. [15] Eventually, the pole dancing moved from tents to bars and combined with burlesque dance. Since the 1980s, pole dancing has incorporated athletic moves such as climbs, spins, and inversions into striptease routines, first in Canada and then in the United States. In the 1990s, pole dancing commenced being taught as art by Fawnia Mondey, a Canadian who moved to Las Vegas, US. She is known as the world's first pole dancing instructor. [16] Since then, pole dancing classes have become a popular form of recreational and competitive sport, practiced and performed in a variety of sexual, non-sexual, and athletic settings.
K.T. Coates, a famed competitive pole dancer, and the International Pole Sports Federation, are currently promoting a campaign to include competitive pole dance in the Olympics and an application was made to the International Olympic Committee to recognise pole as a sport in September 2016. [17] Numerous competitions exist, including the World Pole Sport Championship, U.S. Pole Federation Championship, Pole Art, Miss Pole Dance America, and the International Pole Masters Cup Championship. [18]
There are various dance pole types to suit different performance situations. Dance poles may be permanent or portable, have different sizes, have spinning and static modes, have different coatings, or be made from different materials. [19]
The standard dance pole typically consists of a hollow chrome, steel, or brass pole with a circular cross-section, running from floor to ceiling. Affixing at the ceiling gives more stability but is not always realized, especially at nightclubs with higher roofs or at transportable devices. [19] Dance poles that are permanent are fixed to the ceiling supported by a beam located in the roof, and they are set to the floor by different brackets and bearings. Portable poles are attached to a base or a mobile stage and do not need to be attached to the ceiling. These poles can easily be removed, dismantled, and fit into cases for transport. [19]
Poles come in a variety of diameters – 50 mm, 48 mm, 45 mm, 42 mm, 40 mm and 38 mm. The diameter used normally depends on personal preferences and what the pole will be used for—e.g., competitions or studio use. [20] [21] In the United States, the diameter is usually 50 mm (2 inches), or the now more popular 45 mm (1.75 inches), allowing it to be gripped comfortably with one hand. [20] In Asia, the diameter is usually 45 mm or less. [22] In Australia a 38 mm pole is popular. [20]
Poles come in various materials and coatings, each of which possesses its own properties, advantages, and disadvantages. The materials poles are made of are brass, titanium–gold, stainless steel and chrome. [19] The brass and titanium–gold poles are gold in colour and are used to enhance the grip between the pole and the dancer, and are normally used by more advanced dancers. The stainless steel poles are not as popular as the other types as they do not have the finest grip; however, they are used by dancers with sensitive skin. The chrome poles are silver in colour and are most popular amongst beginners. The finishes some dance poles may possess are silicone sleeves and powder coatings. Silicone sleeves can provide maximum grip, although there are safety precautions dancers must consider before using silicone sleeves. These measures may include a great amount of clothing worn by the dancer or performing only static moves. Poles that are coated in powder provide improved friction and grip for dancers. [23] [24]
Dance poles may have two different modes, spinning and static. In the spinning mode, the pole uses ball bearings to spin. This mode can be used to complete more experienced pole moves, make moves easier to complete, and add a more dramatic effect to the move. Most spinning poles can also be fixed to the static mode where the pole cannot rotate. The static mode is regularly used when pole dancing is first taught to beginners. [19]
Products such as chalk or alcohol-silica solutions may be used to help "stick" to the pole. Competitions may limit which products performers use. [25]
There are now poles available for use in clubs that provide visual effects. These poles are made with clear plastics and contain water, glitter, and unique reflective materials, which stand out when used in conjunction with strobe lighting, as well as lighting hidden in their base joists. However, these poles are not favorable to a dancer wanting to achieve better pole tricks as they bend slightly and tend to create a friction burn when slid down with any speed.
Pole dancing has gained popularity as a form of exercise with increased awareness of the benefits to general strength and fitness. These forms of exercise increase core and general body strength by using the body itself as resistance while toning the body as a whole. A typical pole dance exercise regimen in class begins with strength training, dance-based moves, squats, push-ups, and sit-ups and gradually works its way up to the spins, climbs and inversions which are the métier of the exercise. Pole dancing is also generally reported by its schools to be empowering for women in terms of building self-confidence, in terms of which its erotic components are still the subject of some controversy. [26]
A growing number of men are incorporating pole dancing into their fitness programmes. [27] In Australia, the UK and the US, dance studios are beginning to offer classes just for men. And in China, 2007's National Pole Dancing competition was won by a man. Dance instructor Zhang Peng, 23, beat a host of women dancers to the top prize. [28]
Since 2003,[ further explanation needed ] pole dancing has been transitioning from an exotic performance to a recreational activity. Pole dancing as a sport differs from pole dancing as a recreation as recreational pole dancing is undertaken mainly for enjoyment rather than fitness. Whilst undertaking pole class, students will learn a variety of different ways to use the pole to execute spins, tricks, climbs, hangs, drops and flips. [29] [30]
Pole dance competitions began in the United States with the Deja Vu chain of strip clubs in 1991 with an event called the Po'Lympics, which was held annually throughout the decade. [31] These competitions led to the creation of numerous other competitions that followed, both in the strip club industry and fitness.
A wide range of amateur and professional competitions are held in many countries worldwide. They are strictly non-nude and focus on pole dance as an athletic and artistic form of dance and fitness. The first "Miss Pole Dance World" competition was held in November 2005 in Amsterdam and Elena Gibson from the UK won the championship. The following day Elena was disqualified by the organizer John Benner amongst much controversy and the title went to the runner up Reiko Suemune from Japan. [32]
A group of advocates pushed for pole dance to be represented as a test event in the 2012 London Olympics. [33] [34] However, since this was a relatively new trend, there was no standardized scoring for competitions and technique descriptions vary among clubs in different regions at that time. [35]
To overcome this, in 2009 the International Pole Sports Federation was founded to turn pole dance into a sport, pole sport. The IPSF has since then created rules and regulations to govern pole sports, such as a code of points, policies regarding health and safety, and certification for sports officials. [36] National federations work with the IPSF on implementing these standards in national pole sports competitions. National pole sports federations associated with the IPSF now exist in multiple continents, [37] from Africa to Asia, and other federations are in the process of creating a structured plan to become endorsed by the IPSF. The IPSF each year arrange the World Pole Championships to which each country with an associated national pole sports federation sends their top pole dancers. IPSF is again working on getting the sport recognized and to become an Olympic Sport. [38]
In 1993, in Madonna's world tour The Girlie Show, dancer Carrie Ann Inaba performed on a tall go-go pole as an intro to the show. This was followed by Madonna's performance of "Erotica".
Pole dancing, which has been featured on Desperate Housewives and The View , [39] like other exercise trends has its share of celebrity following. Jennifer Love Hewitt had a short pole dancing stint in an episode of Ghost Whisperer . Actress Sheila Kelley was so taken with the sport, which she learned while preparing for her role in Dancing at the Blue Iguana , that she launched her pole-based exercise program. [40]
In January 2009, Felix Cane (Miss Pole Dance World champion 2009 and 2010) joined Cirque Du Soleil's Zumanity show in Las Vegas, promoted on The Tyra Banks Show in 2010. [41] [42]
Rima Fakih's victory at Miss USA 2010, including the fact that she had won a pole-dancing competition three years earlier, attracted media attention. [43]
Taiwanese pop singer Jolin Tsai showed her pole dancing skills in the music videos of "Agent J" and "Beast". She also gave a double pole-dancing live performance during her Myself World Tour in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
Pole dance has its own media, the magazines Pole Spin and Vertical. [44]
Pole dance is also the main subject of a webcomic titled Pole Dancing Adventures [45] created by artist Leen Isabel.
In the video game Bayonetta , the titular character uses pole dancing to advance to the next area or combat her foes. In the ending credit to the game, she is seen dancing on the pole. [46] If you get a platinum award, you'll hear her say, "I should have been a pole dancer".
Pole dancing has been incorporated in the performances of some K-Pop idols. Ga-In of the Brown Eyed Girls included a few shots of her pole dancing in the music video of her 2012 solo single "피어나 (Bloom)". [47] Girl group After School used pole dancing extensively as part of the dance routine for their 2013 song "첫사랑 (First Love)". [48]
Rihanna's hit single from 2013 "Pour it up" featured Professional Pole Dancer Nicole "The Pole" Williams. [49] Nicole also danced to Bruno Mars' "Gorilla" at the MTV EMAs 2013. [50]
Pole dancing is referenced in the fighting game Persona 4 Arena Ultimax by the fighter Shadow Rise: The Scandalous Superstar Idol whenever she wins a fight. One of her animations is where she strips her clothes off and twirls on a pole like a pole dancer, which could also reference how Rise's dungeon in the first Persona 4 game is a strip club.
In 2015, Celebrity Health & Fitness magazine reported "royal bodyguards" as saying that Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge took pole dancing lessons to lose weight after giving birth to Prince George in 2013. [51]
In 2016, The Daily Dot [52] ran a story which covered the attempt by some pole dancers to distance themselves from strippers, with their story "Strippers Talk Back to the hashtag #Notastripper". The story utilized the hashtag "yes a stripper" to support the origins of pole dance. On the social media platform Instagram, some pole dancers try to differentiate between their exercise method and the technique's origin by using "not a stripper" as a hashtag. The hashtag can be viewed as derogatory, and pole dancing strippers utilize "yes a stripper" as a defense against the denigration of their dance style, which was created and is used in strip clubs.
The 2019 film Hustlers brought positive attention to the sport. Focused on the lives of strippers in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, the film cast members of the New York stripping community, including rap icon Cardi B and Lizzo. [53] Jennifer Lopez performed intricate routines in the film—notably to Fiona Apple's "Criminal"—and went on to pole dance in the 2020 Super Bowl. After the release of the film and Lopez's subsequent interviews, pole dancing studios nationwide saw a surge in registrations. [54]
In 2019, English musician FKA Twigs released a music video to her single "Cellophane" which includes Twigs pole dancing. [55]
Pole dance figures heavily in the STARZ television series P-Valley .
The English singer Piri took up pole fitness while at Lancaster University, and performed it on stage as part of Froge.tour. [56]
Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" and "doubles". Badminton is often played as a casual outdoor activity in a yard or on a beach; professional games are played on a rectangular indoor court. Points are scored by striking the shuttlecock with the racquet and landing it within the other team's half of the court, within the set boundaries.
Cross-country skiing is a form of skiing whereby skiers traverse snow-covered terrain without use of ski lifts or other assistance. Cross-country skiing is widely practiced as a sport and recreational activity; however, some still use it as a means of travel. Variants of cross-country skiing are adapted to a range of terrain which spans unimproved, sometimes mountainous terrain to groomed courses that are specifically designed for the sport.
Gymnastics is a type of sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, artistry and endurance. The movements involved in gymnastics contribute to the development of the arms, legs, shoulders, back, chest, and abdominal muscle groups. Gymnastics evolved from exercises used by the ancient Greeks that included skills for mounting and dismounting a horse, and from circus performance skills.
Table tennis is a racket sport derived from tennis but distinguished by its playing surface being atop a stationary table, rather than the court on which players stand. Either individually or in teams of two, players take alternating turns returning a light, hollow ball over the table's net onto the opposing half of the court using small rackets until they fail to do so, which results in a point for the opponent. Play is fast, requiring quick reaction and constant attention, and is characterized by an emphasis on spin, which can affect the ball's trajectory more than in other ball sports.
Rhythmic gymnastics is a sport in which gymnasts perform individually or in groups on a floor with an apparatus: hoop, ball, clubs, ribbon and rope. The sport combines elements of gymnastics, dance and calisthenics; gymnasts must be strong, flexible, agile, dexterous and coordinated. Rhythmic gymnastics is governed by the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG), which first recognized it as a sport in 1963. At the international level, rhythmic gymnastics is a women-only sport.
Nordic walking is a Finnish-origin total-body version of walking that can be done both by non-athletes as a health-promoting physical activity and by athletes as a sport. The activity is performed with specially designed walking poles similar to ski poles.
A barbell is a piece of exercise equipment used in weight training, bodybuilding, weightlifting, powerlifting and strongman, consisting of a long bar, usually with weights attached at each end.
Indian clubs, or meels, are a type of exercise equipment used to present resistance in movement to develop strength and mobility. They consist of juggling-club shaped wooden clubs of varying sizes and weights, which are swung in certain patterns as part of a strength exercise program. They can range in weight from a few pounds each to special clubs that can weigh as much as up to 100 pounds. They were used in carefully choreographed routines in which the clubs were swung in unison by a group of exercisers, led by an instructor, the way it is still practiced in Varzesh-e Bastani in Iran and similar to 21st-century aerobics or zumba classes. The routines would vary according to the group's ability along with the weights of the clubs being used. When the 19th-century British colonists came across exercising clubs in India, they named them Indian clubs.
In weight training, a kettlebell is a cast-iron or cast-steel ball with a handle attached to the top, resembling a cannonball with a handle. It is used to perform a range of exercises; primarily ballistic exercises that combine cardiovascular, strength and mobility training. Kettlebells are the primary equipment used in the strength sport of kettlebell lifting.
Exercise equipment is any apparatus or device used during physical activity to enhance the strength or conditioning effects of that exercise by providing either fixed or adjustable amounts of resistance, or to otherwise enhance the experience or outcome of an exercise routine.
"Hoochie Coochie Man" is a blues standard written by Willie Dixon and first recorded by Muddy Waters in 1954. The song makes reference to hoodoo folk magic elements and makes novel use of a stop-time musical arrangement. It became one of Waters' most popular and identifiable songs and helped secure Dixon's role as Chess Records' chief songwriter.
Mallakhamba, or mallakhamb is a traditional sport, originating from the Indian subcontinent, in which a group of gymnasts perform aerial yoga and gymnastic postures using wrestling grips in concert with a stationary vertical pole. The word "mallakhamb" also refers to the pole used in the sport. The pole is usually made from sheesham polished with castor oil. Other popular versions of mallakhamba are practiced using a cane or a rope instead of a pole. The origins of pole dancing can be traced back to the sport of mallakhamba.
The International Pole Dance Fitness Association (IPDFA) promotes pole dancing as a form of fitness exercise. The organisation acts as a supervisory body for the sport and annually organizes the International Pole Championship (IPC). It has a database of pole dancing studios and instructors around the world and also trains/accredits instructors.
Ski ballet is a form of ballet performed on skis. It is very similar to figure skating, combining spins, jumps, and flips in a two-minute routine choreographed to music. It was part of the professional freestyle skiing tours of the 1970s and 1980s and then an official FIS and Olympic discipline until the year 2000. Ski ballet became known as Acroski in the 1990s in an effort to legitimize its place among the competitive ski community, especially to the FIS. It is no longer a part of competitive freestyle skiing.
Competitive cross-country skiing encompasses a variety of race formats and course lengths. Rules of cross-country skiing are sanctioned by the International Ski Federation and by various national organizations. International competitions include the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships, the FIS Cross-Country World Cup, and at the Winter Olympic Games. Such races occur over homologated, groomed courses designed to support classic (in-track) and freestyle events, where the skiers may employ skate skiing. It also encompasses cross-country ski marathon events, sanctioned by the Worldloppet Ski Federation, and cross-country ski orienteering events, sanctioned by the International Orienteering Federation. Related forms of competition are biathlon, where competitors race on cross-country skis and stop to shoot at targets with rifles, and paralympic cross-country skiing that allows athletes with disabilities to compete at cross-country skiing with adaptive equipment.
Pole sports, or poling, merges dance and acrobatics using a vertical metal pole. Athletes climb up, spin from, hang off, flip onto, jump off, and invert on poles. Poling requires agility, strength, balance, endurance, and flexibility. A 2017 study of 52 female pole dancers indicated that pole-dance fitness improves strength and posture. Poling can serve as a form of cardiorespiratory exercise and can improve muscle strength and flexibility. Pole-sports athletes include men and women of a variety of ages and physical abilities, including para-athletes, who perform alone or with others.
The International Pole Sports Federation (IPSF) is a not-for-profit global organization that has been recognized as an Observer Member by the Global Association of International Sports Federations (GAISF) as the international governing body for pole sports. It is also a member of The Association for International Sport for All (TAFISA). The IPSF is the umbrella organization for national pole federations and hosts the annual World Pole Championships.
The American Pole League (APL) represents pole and aerial athletes in the United States. The APL is the officially recognized federation representing the United States in the International Pole Sports Federation (IPSF), which is the international governing body for pole sports. The American Pole League holds a yearly national championship, and qualifying athletes go on to compete at the international level in the annual World Pole Sports Championships hosted by the IPSF. The American Pole League's stated mission and vision involve raising the profile of pole sports and supporting pole athletes, coaches, and judges.
Physical training has been present in some human societies throughout history. Usually, people trained to prepare for physical competition or display, to improve physical, emotional and mental health, and to look attractive. The activity took a variety of different forms but quick dynamic exercises were favoured over slow or more static ones. For example, running, jumping, wrestling, gymnastics and throwing heavy stones are mentioned frequently in historical sources and emphasised as being highly effective training-methods. Notably, they are also forms of exercise which are readily achievable for most people to some extent or another.