Lets just go for a laugh!

We get this a lot as studio owners. One of the main reasons our classes get bookings is that women want to try out pole dancing for a laugh. It saddens me.

What exactly are they going to laugh at? Themselves? For trying to be `sexy` and failing? What a shame they would even go to that thought. Who taught them that?

To laugh at the class content? This saddens me too. What is so funny about learning a style of dance that came from an environment that would not exist without women? What is there to laugh at?

So, we can go super deep with all of this. I'm sure you know we could. About why female sexuality and sensuality is not taken as seriously as it should. About how it's not common practice for young women to learn about their own sexuality in healthy ways, let alone how to harness the power of the feminine and use it solely for themselves.

So yes, I guess I'm saddened, but unfortunately not surprised that some women would laugh at themselves for `trying to be sexy` at a pole class.

But if we choose to make a living, teaching others a dance form that came from sex workers, then isn't it our responsibility, alongside a fireman spin and a fan-kick to teach our clients the art of the sex work dancer? 

Feeling lost with this idea?

This is what is missing from the art. This is what was lost when pole dance became pole fitness.

And here is the disclaimer: Yes it's fine to prefer tricksy gymnastic style pole over dance. Of course its fine. I'm not suggesting its not. But something did get lost. And for the women who do not prefer gymnastics over dance then we need to find it again and include it so its as normal as that fireman spin and fan-kick.

So what was lost?

What was lost are those things only someone with experience of the art of the sex worker can teach. And none of them come with REPs credits!

Also, I get the impression some times that women choose a pole class for the easy way out to get fit. Everyone knows now that pole is not as easy as it looks, so I do not mean easy skill wise. I mean that again, pole dance is something you don't really have to take seriously. Because its a sexy form of dancing (anything sexy is not taken seriously) and because it came from `those` clubs (same same).

Now, if when pole was taken from the clubs by our stripper studio owner pioneers and was never ever seen as a form or fitness or weight loss. Then how would it have grown instead?

If that happened, I still think we would have the same comps as we do now. I don't see why gymnastic pole would not have grown the same way, I don't think it would have been affected.

But I think our sexy comps would not have had to wait as long as they did. (But maybe they would have had to compete with the already established club comps, and would our well known pole winners have gotten slayed by strippers? Worth a think...)

There are some studios out there now that focus on freedom of movement, finding your sensual style, body positive self love and harnessing the powerful feminine, while not in the least bit shying away from the overtly sexual nature of this art. But imagine where we would be now if this was the case from 2005?

Imagine if you could attend a tricks class and a sensual movement class, in the same week, and if that was the norm, from 2005?

If you could imagine that those teaching sensual dance focused as much on harnessing your own sexuality and what to do with it and how and why as much as they do on clockwork leg loops?

I think, the realisation of exactly how overtly sexual the strip club environment is, needs to be remembered and brought into the studio. And if you had a flicker of uneasiness with that thought then why?

What is so bad about female sexuality?

What is so bad about female sexuality used in that way?

It's ancient. It used to be worshipped and taught in temples. Before it got changed into `how to please your man`.

I feel sad when I see the surprise in students faces when I explain that dancing for your man at home is not about moving solely to make him happy. It's about showing the Goddess that you are and (hopefully, ideally) him glowing while witnessing it. (When I say Goddess I am being far from fluffy. Choose Kali if you like, just know how powerful your sexual movement is when its 100% yours, for you).

This I believe, is the responsibility of a pole dance instructor, if you choose to make a living teaching something that comes from the strip club. No matter how many expensive brand boots or strappy garter shorts you own, if you're teaching women something that needs their sexuality to be a part of it. That's one hell of a responsibility and should be taken seriously. So that this mindset can filter down to our students, and they will no longer laugh at themselves, or pole dancing, or female sexual expression, or the Club.

This article was written by PDC Approved 4 star pole dancing instructor Jamie Taylor.

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