POLE DANCING, AN OLYMPIC SPORT OR HOBBY?
The team behind The Art of Poledancing recounts their experience with pole dancing.
Music: http://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music
The attraction to pole dancing over the past decade has seen women and men perform routines on a competitive level for prizes, not tips. The International Pole Sports Federation wants pole dancing to become more than just a hidden late night attraction and are working towards positive exposure for the sport by petitioning for their entry into the world’s most respected athletic competition, the Olympics.
Undoubtedly there is a stigma towards people that pole dance. The most dominant and long-standing culture harming the possibility of pole breaking into the Olympic competitive arena is its association with strip clubs. This negative stereotype is an attitude held by most who are unaware of the fitness side to pole dancing; the thought of women who wear little to no clothing, grinding up and down a pole in a dimly lit underground for tips.
Although the widely-held belief of pole seems to incriminate those who partake in pole as someone lesser than a professional swimmer. However the degree of fitness and core strength needed to maneuver seamlessly around a poll needs to be credited for.
Whilst the fitness aspect of pole may be compromised by the strip joint culture it is associated with, when come to think of it pole is not far from sports like swimming and gymnastics. All require high levels of fitness and skill acquisition, and the bare bodies that are on display are also similar. The only difference is that pole dancing is sexy in the way its executed, but this should not discourage pole from entering the Olympics or simply acknowledged as a sport.
The International Pole Sports Federation wants to banish this misconception and make known the physical strength needed to perform routines on a pole, but to do it gracefully also shows the level of fitness required in maintaining such poise whilst using every muscle to stay afloat.
Students from The University of Technology wanted to see what pole dancing was about, and talk with the instructor of how attitudes towards the sport are ill informed and where they see the future of pole.
A video interview with Dee Heath, the owner and instructor of World of Pole.
Music: http://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music
The students’ found a new respect towards pole after partaking in a class. They saw the recreational but more importantly the competitive side to pole by experiencing the level of fitness and strength required.