There is no area of pole dancing that causes more controversy than this one, with both sides of the argument shouting just as loud as the other and having just as valid opinions. Dancing in your heels and booty shaking versus pure sport and the possibility of a space in the Olympics. Everyone who's ever touched a pole in their life has something to say about it, and rightly so.
Here's mine.
For starters, I can understand why pole dancers, pole athletes want to see pole dancing as an Olympic sport some time in the not-too-distant future. I think it's perfectly fine to want validation for what you do; to shut up anyone who wants to say "Are you a stripper?" or "You can dance on my pole any time!" before they even get started. But I also think that cutting off one entire side of such a huge and varied community of pole dancers to achieve this is not the way to go.
It's very easy to just push away the sexy side of pole dancing and act like it doesn't exist; to pretend that pole dancing's only ancestor is the Indian Mallakhamb, traditionally performed from 800 years ago solely by men, but I think that is naive. Half of the spins and moves you know today were crafted in clubs by strippers. Pole dancing would never have found its way to a mainstream audience without them. I don't agree in the slightest with just covering my eyes to that and pretending that it never happened, because that invalidates everything they did, and invalidates the pole dancers who aren't strippers, but still love the sexy side of pole dancing.
And then there are the pole athletes; the best of the best whose names you know immediately and as soon as you hear them you can picture them already in your head doing something crazy. The ones who love to body roll and dance in their skyscraper heels and look absolutely amazing while they're doing it. Michelle Shimmy. Alethea Austin. The ones you never see without their heels on like Cleo the Hurricane and Felix Cane. It would be silly to suggest that these dancers are any less valid than purely strength or dance and gymnastics based polers like Sarah Scott, Anastasia Skukhtorova or Bendy Kate.
So that leaves me in a middle ground. I personally don't dance sexy, but that's simply because intentionally dancing sexy doesn't make me feel sexy. I'm not very good at it, so it makes me feel a bit silly. If it does for you, then more power to you, I'm sure you look fabulous. But it doesn't do it for me. Crazy moves and new tricks are what make me feel good. That's what's so great about pole: whatever style makes you feel good, you can do it. That's what it's all about. Feeling confident, feeling empowered and feeling comfortable in your own skin.
As for the Olympics, I just don't want to see it watered down to a point where everyone's different styles are unrecognizable. I don't want to see the creativity vanish in favor of standing on a podium thinking that finally, finally you've escaped that stripper stigma. Because it's not a stigma, it's where your sport came from and no matter how hard you try to deny it, that's not going to go away. It's also nothing to be ashamed of. Strippers aren't ashamed, so why are you ashamed of them?
I don't want to see "you must do these moves" and "you must wear this" and "you must not accidentally flash your upper thigh" because that's not the pole dancing I fell in love with. I fell in love with an art that could be whatever I wanted it to be; I fell in love with being able to learn something different from every pole dancer I came across. I fell in love with the community.
Some people do want that. Some people want rules and restrictions for a truly fair competition. Some people want to be in the Olympics. Some people want the world to see how amazing they are after they've pushed for something for so long that's gone mostly under the radar. And that's okay. Why wouldn't you want to prove yourself to the world and stand up with the gymnasts and dancers and athletes?
But you don't have to compete. You can pole dance your entire life and just do it for fun, so why does it even matter? It matters to me because I don't want the only style of pole dancing that the world takes notice of to be the purely athletic side. If pole dancing is to become an Olympic sport, I want it in all its glory so that every dancer, no matter how they choose to dance, can have a shot at it. I want people to see everything and make a choice for themselves whether it's for them or not. I don't want it to exclude people, because never once in the pole dancing community have I felt excluded. I have always felt welcomed and I think everyone should have that feeling.
I guess the bottom line is pretty obvious when it comes down to it. Dance how you want. Push for pole dancing to be an Olympic sport if you want. Dance in your heels in a club if you want. But don't forget we all have something in common in that we love pole dancing, and we should all get to show the world how awesome we are one day. Simple, right?
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