Let's face it: calling yourself a pole dancer still raises a few eyebrows today. But with pole athletes competing in national and international competitions, and studios popping up across the globe, it's clearly moved beyond the confines of the strip club. So how did pole expand from the red light district to the fitness studio?
Pole dancing has a colorful history which long predates its presence in gentlemen's clubs. Historically, traditional gymnastic-like performances on a pole were performed in both China and India since at least the 12th century, though in both cases this was a men's sport. The Chinese art looked more or less like today's cirque du soleil (performed on sticky poles), and the Indian art, mallakhamb, (performed on wooden poles) was originally developed as cross-training for wrestlers to develop speed, stamina, and agility. Mallakhamb was revived in the 19th century, and youtube offers a wealth of examples, like this one.
It should come as no surprise that cultures across Europe and Africa have also incorporated poles, as phallic symbols, into various fertility dances, perhaps the best-known of which is the maypole dance.
Most sources agree that modern western pole dance began around the turn of the twentieth century. One source traces its origins to the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago, in which Egyptian women performed a sensual, hip-gyrating dance called the "hoochie cooch." This style of performance was soon incorporated into traveling circuses as a regular sideshow act by the 1920s, performed around the pole that held up the side tent, which soon became a prop. From there, pole dancing was incorporated into the burlesque scene in the 1950s. A woman by the name of Belle Jangles performed the first recorded pole dance in a strip joint in Oregon called the Mugwump in 1968, but it wasn't until the 1980s that pole hit the strip club scene in full force across the US and Canada.
Just about every source I came across seemed to agree that the turning point in pole came in 1994, when Fawnia Deitrich opened the world's first exotic dance school in Canada, focusing on pole dance and fitness. From here, things snowballed. Pole studios began opening and classes were soon offered across the US, Canada, Europe, and Australia. Two decades later, you can read up on this history in official-sounding websites like United Pole Artists and the International Pole Dance Fitness Association. General news sources like mic.com even report on it. There is even a new movement led by KT Coates as an Olympic sport. Personally, I think this video from the International Pole Sports Federation does the best job summing up pole as I know and love it.
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| Pole fun :) |
It should come as no surprise that cultures across Europe and Africa have also incorporated poles, as phallic symbols, into various fertility dances, perhaps the best-known of which is the maypole dance.
Most sources agree that modern western pole dance began around the turn of the twentieth century. One source traces its origins to the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago, in which Egyptian women performed a sensual, hip-gyrating dance called the "hoochie cooch." This style of performance was soon incorporated into traveling circuses as a regular sideshow act by the 1920s, performed around the pole that held up the side tent, which soon became a prop. From there, pole dancing was incorporated into the burlesque scene in the 1950s. A woman by the name of Belle Jangles performed the first recorded pole dance in a strip joint in Oregon called the Mugwump in 1968, but it wasn't until the 1980s that pole hit the strip club scene in full force across the US and Canada.
Just about every source I came across seemed to agree that the turning point in pole came in 1994, when Fawnia Deitrich opened the world's first exotic dance school in Canada, focusing on pole dance and fitness. From here, things snowballed. Pole studios began opening and classes were soon offered across the US, Canada, Europe, and Australia. Two decades later, you can read up on this history in official-sounding websites like United Pole Artists and the International Pole Dance Fitness Association. General news sources like mic.com even report on it. There is even a new movement led by KT Coates as an Olympic sport. Personally, I think this video from the International Pole Sports Federation does the best job summing up pole as I know and love it.
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