Edinburgh Pole Dancing Society Gains PDC Approval
Congratulations to Edinburgh Pole Dancing Society who are our first official approved university pole society. To gain approval the university club/society must have all of its instructors registered with the PDC.
EPDS currently has 3 pole instructors who are all approved with 3 star status. The instructors are Abi Diack, Adelina Rakhimova and Maria Goncheva.
Edinburgh Pole Dancing Society was first established in 2010Íž
what started as a fairly niche and small society has quickly grown. Today, we have over 250 
members, and we hope to attract even more in the future. We have had a truly successful year, with the society gaining a greatly improved reputation not only in the pole dancing community, but within the University as well. All of our instructors have completed several PDC approved instructor training courses, which means that we are a PDC approved society. Our instructors are passionate about pole, and are continually striving to learn and complete more training so that they can teach to the best of their ability.
"We are dedicated to improving our students abilities so they can reach their goals and improve both their strength and flexibility."
PDC approved 3 star pole dancing instructor Maria Goncheva pictured right.
Our student union body, EUSA (Edinburgh University Students’ Association) provides us with rooms suitable to put up our poles and this helps us immensely in the smooth running of our society. This year, we were fortunate enough to receive £500 funding from EUSA, which enabled us to purchase a new XPole Stage Lite. This has allowed us to expand our classes and we are now able to offer at least 8 classes per week. We are dedicated to improving our students abilities so they can 
reach their goals and improve both their strength and flexibility. This has resulted in a number of our students competing in various different competitions.
2015/16 EPDC member Christian Diprose pictured left and EPDC competition team pictured right.
This year, for the second time, Edinburgh Pole Dancing Society competed in the Inter University Pole Dancing Competition, held in Warwick. All our performers did us proud, with Christina Katan placing third in the Advanced category. Overall we placed 8th, a tremendous achievement for 
the only Scottish University at this competition.
This year we also helped create and took part in the first Scottish University Pole Competition, along with Glasgow and Dundee. Again our dancers did us proud, placing top in Intermediate, Advanced and Group, second in Beginners, and placing first overall. Not only have we had success in competitions, we have also taken part in charity events, such as the Edinburgh Rag Revue, where our current CoPresidents Bethany and Lisa competed amongst various other talented acts and went on to win top prize.
2015/16 President Lisa Marquand and Co-President Bethany Hayes pictured left and PDC approved 3 star pole dancing instructor Adelina Rakhimova picture right.
We all know that there is still a stigma attached to pole dancing, however as a society we have been fortunate enough to not come across too much negativity. People seem to be much more open minded, and we are pleased to have the highest number of male members we’ve ever had this year. We try to change people's misconceptions by encouraging individuals to attend our taster sessions where they gain a true appreciation for the strength and dedication pole dancing requires. We are delighted that we are now officially a PDC approved society and we hope that this will spark further interest into our society.