And the winners are...

If I wasn't already homesick for the City of Lights, this just did me in: last weekend, Paris hosted the latest international pole dance competition, Pole Theater Paris. And with the shotty internet connections which are endemic to Aarhus, I could hardly even stream more than a performance or two. Thank goodness for youtube.

If you aren't in the loop, the pole community has yet to come to a uniform consensus on how to categorize and judge their competitors, but they're working on it. Poleranking, which aims to bring together the international pole community, offers these categories: Pro and Semi-Pro, based on skill level, and in addition to an overall winner in each category, there are prizes for art, drama, comedy, and classique. This leaves space to acknowledge some very different performance styles, from those who perform vertical ballet/gymnastics to those who tell a story through their costume, music, and choreography, to those who adhere to pole's origins in the strip clubs ("pole classique"). Pole studios don't generally specialize in any one of these categories, leaving each athlete to develop his or her own style. You may even find, as I have, that one studio is home to several instructors with very different performance styles.

I'm excited to give a couple shout-outs to some of the winners from last weekend. First of all, Louise, who frequents my studio here in Aarhus, BPoleFit, took the Pro Category Pole Art award with this performance.

And secondly, one of my very first instructors from back in Paris won Semi-Pro Pole Classique with this beautifully racy performance.

It doesn't take long to notice this performance is more stereotypical "pole dance." Frankly, that doesn't make it any less of an accomplishment or an art. Deciding it isn't your style (or mine) shouldn't open the floodgates to moral judgment. This performance is an integral part, the heart even, of the larger pole community that exists today. A lot of controversy has built up over #notastripper, a popular tag polers like to use when sharing their photos and videos. This sentiment is problematic as it furthers the stigmatization of sex workers and denies the very origins of the sport itself. It's important to recognize, and certainly not ostracize, the women who helped found this sport. I'm not going to take too much time to hash out this topic, but if you're curious, feel free to check out what the Daily Dot has to say on the topic. 

Pole dance: a brief history

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 fun :)

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.

A snowy championship weekend

If you know me or you follow this blog, you've probably realized that pole dancing is not just restricted to night clubs, but it also a sport. And, where first comes sport, next comes championships. And that's what happened in Denmark (and not for the first time) this past weekend.

My friends and I ventured down to what the Jutlanders call "Sweden" (a proper Danish insult), and what the rest of us would call Denmark's capital city. And, from our front row vantage point, the competition was way more exciting than YouTube. Still, it's worth a share. The highlight of the night was the guy who literally backflipped off the pole. None of us had ever seen anything like it.

Bjarke Hellden Pole DM 2015

And of course, our own lovely instructor put on quite the performance too! Another girl in our studio took second overall. It's worth checking out if you've never seen a pole choreography before.

By the time the excitement was over, we emerged from the theater to discover that the light dusting that had begun outside had sped past "charming": there would be no getting home that night.

Snowed in at the Danish pole championships

But a snowed in camp-out in Copenhagen with your pole girls isn't the worst way to spend a Saturday night. And after all that fun, I got to come home to this guy discovering the cold white stuff.

An extra weekend highlight: Mars learned about snow.

Hoops!

My new studio offers a wide range of classes beyond just pole dancing. It's been a great opportunity to twist, turn, and test my fear of falling. After a few months of learning the ropes, I'm pleased to share some images of the exciting new challenge that is hoop class. :)

Hoops!

A balancing act

Lately I've been learning some neat tricks in my new pole dancing studio. It's been particularly challenging as this school emphasizes different positions, so I'm still in a transitional period. I'm finally beginning to stabilize in this new position: the one-handed handstand. We start by putting one hand on the floor and one on the pole, then we flip upside-down and catch the pole with one leg. Pretty cool, huh?

Ta da!

Look Ma, No Hands!

Still loving my new sport.

My new favorite sport

I've finally gotten my hands on my first piece of bragging material. I picked up pole dancing last fall after having been curious for years, and my only regret is not having started sooner. You better believe I checked that Aarhus has a pole dancing school before I accepted that job offer!