Poles Apart – Pole Dancings’ Identity Crisis

I’ll start this post with a quote from the Vertical Dance Olympic petition:

“After a great deal of feed back from the Pole Dance community many of us have decided that its about time pole fitness is recognised as a competitive sport and what better way for recognition, then to be part of the 2012 Olympics held in London!
Like the horizontal bar, the vertical bar should have a place in international competitive sport. We believe that like Rhythmic Gymnastic, the Horizontal Bar and Figure Skating, Pole Dance/Vertical Dance is acrobatic, gymnastic, technical and takes a great deal of physical skill and strength to master, earning it a place in the greatest sporting event in the world.”

But Pole Dancing has a problem. And it’s not one that’s going to be solved by adding it to the Olympic roster. Ever since Pole Dancing emerged as a fun and interesting way to get fit in the early naughties, debate has raged between two camps. In one corner, we have the gymnasts, who argue that pole dancing isn’t sexy or erotic, it’s is a gymnastic sport using strength and agility to perform amazing feats on a vertical bar.
I agree.
And in the other corner, we have the dancers, who argue that pole dance is a dance form, therefore it can and should be sexy, erotic or non acrobatic, (should the dancer choose), and most of all, technical, interesting and aesthetically pleasing.
I also agree.

Unfortunately there’s a fierce current running through the pole dancing community that risks stripping (no pun intended) the form of its original allure as it strives to make it respectable and gain international recognition. In a bid to create a main stream sport, it seems to me that ‘dancing’ in pole dancing has been forgotten. Instead the desexualising of pole dance has resulted in many students learning nothing more than gymnastics, but without the grace and fluidity that most gymnasts train for years to achieve.

It has long been the case that gymnasts will take ballet classes alongside their sport in order to create better lines, enhance creativity and more. I wish pole dancers would apply this same level of hard work and commitment to the enhancing of their art form. Many of the worlds’ best competitive pole dancers are ex ballet dancers and possess a technical dance background that gives them an excellent edge on the circuit. So why is it, then, that most advanced students of all major pole dancing schools can perform an excellent butterfly or superman, but are unable to point their toes and extend correctly?

The answer to pole dancing problems lies with the industry itself. In order to gain recognition from an Olympic recognised body, such as the Gymnastics Association, pole dance needs to split into two camps and devise stringent and transparent methods for assessment of the skills needed.

For those people who fall into the first camp, and want to see gymnastic pole enter the Olympics – this means focusing on delivering short, technically difficult acrobatic routines (much the same as gymnastics) with each move marked and scored on the basis of difficulty and execution (noting body position, correct rotations, repetitions, pauses, balance checks etc).

For the dancers, pole dance needs to fall under an accredited syllabus that focus on performance and artistic interpretation, perhaps using a system similar to ballet to name and focus the techniques for various moves, but more importantly to give students a dance foundation. This syllabus needs to separate from the acrobatic moves, much as pointe work is separated in ballet.

Once the international pole dancing community has realised that pole dance does not have to be only a display of acrobatic skill, or that non acrobatic pole dance can be a valid art form, then they can start to lobby for the recognition they require.

More pole dance theatre is needed to move forward in any meaningful sense as a dance form. Some companies are pioneering this approach, mixing Chinese pole and international dance together with traditional pole techniques.

Gymnasts, - stop obsessing over those dancers not performing advanced tricks and start creating a standardised scoring system.

It’s time for pole dancers to divide and unite, and find out who they really are.