hello,
does anyone think that poledancinig should be considered a sport? i do....
*apologies if this topic has been posted before/or in the wrong place, i searched but i couldn't find one like it if i am wrong please correct me*
hello,
does anyone think that poledancinig should be considered a sport? i do....
*apologies if this topic has been posted before/or in the wrong place, i searched but i couldn't find one like it if i am wrong please correct me*





i think it should be a competitive olympic sport, part of the gymnastics category.





fucking oath (pardon my swearing).
I used to be a gymnast and the similarities became so apparent to me. So much athletism, grace, strength and stamina involved to do it well. some of the tricks are just acrobatic and amazing.
I just googled for the world pole dancing organisation/federation but i cant seem to find it. They are trying to make it into it's own sport. For example the misspoledance competitions dont allow any stripping during the routines.
There are many stereotypes about the industry that I work in. Sometimes they can be true but human beings are very diverse creatures and cannot be pigeon-holed into one category.
Some of the most effortlessly beautiful, kind, intelligent, successful, motivated, driven and ridiculously hilarious women that I have ever met have been dancers. I've met the best friends that I've ever had in this industry.



Did you see the YouTube video of the Chinese poledancing troupe?
Good poledancing is amazing and should be treated as a sport. But I do feel that it should at least be acknowledged that it's something "strippers" do. I call bullshit on poledancers who look down on strippers as "not understanding their art" or whatever when what they're doing is directly influenced by our job.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]





Yep. Like parallel or uneven bars. If there are choreographed routines and it requires a level of skill/talent/training that most people can't achieve, I see no reason why it shouldn't be considered a sport. I have seen such amazing work on the pole that I unequivocally agree.





there's more than one kind of pole-dancing. the fact that non-sexually oriented pole-dance has evolved from stripping-based pole-dance doesn't make the forms identical, same as how it isn't bellydancing when women borrow bellydance moves for airdancing in clubs.
although the evolution of using the pole for any kind of dance, stripper-like or gymnast-like, is extremely interesting, especially since the pole was originally meant only to simulate a streetlight pole.





There are many stereotypes about the industry that I work in. Sometimes they can be true but human beings are very diverse creatures and cannot be pigeon-holed into one category.
Some of the most effortlessly beautiful, kind, intelligent, successful, motivated, driven and ridiculously hilarious women that I have ever met have been dancers. I've met the best friends that I've ever had in this industry.





That's probably reactionary, like some modern bellydancers wanting to distance bellydance from any whiff of sexualized/"exotic" dance.




i dont think so. i mean i think pole dancing can and should be up there with competitive dancing, like it already kind of is. but in my opinion it's not a sport. there's no rules/regulations. no points scoring, no teams, or..whatever.
i mean yeah, definitely it can be made into some kind of competitive organization like dance contests...cheerleading competitions... but if anything, to me, it's dancing..and dancing, even competitive dancing, is not a sport. i dont know. i played basketball all my life..boxed for 4 years, and got into some muay thai and mixed martial arts. to me boxing/muay thai/mma aren't even really sports. they're competitive martial arts. i do a pretty good amount of pole tricks too, and i dont ever feel like ive just played a sport after i get off stage..coming from an athlete at least.
blah i dont know. i just dont think dancing of any kind, as skillful and strenuous as it is, is a sport. its dance. an expressive art. dont chew me out.





Fuck rules, points, teams, scoring--all that bullshit is what utterly ruined 'Sports' for me for most of my formative years. I still despise and abhor any and all televised 'sports'--except a little boxing now and then--as a result.
Most formalized 'Sports' are patently absurd, when viewed objectively. Groups of guys running back and forth like idiots, or packs of dogs maybe, chasing balls, hitting them with sticks, or trying to get the balls into or over nets, or between sticks. Sometimes they even hit balls with nets on sticks, over other nets stretched between sticks. Whatever...
Who fucking cares?
For me it's definitely a sport--it's certainly not dance or anything sexually oriented. I am still excited about trying Chinese Pole, hopefully I will someday.
I'm not fucking with you, I understand where you are coming from, and the majority of traditional 'Sports Fans' would probably agree with you more than with me. But I don't care what they think, lol.
Sport is what you make it. If you find something that is physically challenging, that requires unusual strength, dexterity, flexibility, etc., in my mind you have found yourself a Sport.
You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Free your mind, and your ass will follow.
George Clinton
______________________________________
I definitely consider pole dancing a sport. I also consider other types of dancing sports as well.





I think Pole-dancing is only a sport if it is competetive.
That said, I hate when girls who pole dance but aren't strippers are so bitchy about pole dancing being connected to stripping. I have a friend who practices pole-dancing but who also disparages actual strippers. Pole dancing among average women became commonplace because of strippers. Even if it didn't originate with strippers it became well known because of strippers.
BTW, my friend who is so mean about it doesn't know that I'm a stripper.










Yeah I don't get that...
What you should do is kick her ass on the pole one day and then tell her, haha!
Also it should be said that I have seen a few really impressive pole dancers (as in on a stripclub stage) who made it both an art form and a highly sexual one, at that. But usually I am more impressed from an athletic point of view, having done a bit of playing myself.
You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Free your mind, and your ass will follow.
George Clinton
______________________________________
I feel that pole-dancing is not a sport. Most athletes would not work around all that smoke lol. It is in my opinion an art.....And most artists starve.
Hmm. Is it just me that thinks you can't have pole dancing as an olympic sport AND maintain the stripper roots? Like I think you could definitely have the "vertical bar" as a gymnastic category; but the shake and shimmy is what makes gymnastics look retarded, in my opinion.
I have taught that the sky in all its zones is mortal and its substance was formed by a process of birth



Pole dancing has 3 dimensions..
Art
Dance
Sport/Fitness
Note I placed sport and fitness together...
It is part of active living in the sport sense.
As a sport, there are competitions, rules and regulations involved...as well as a correct way to do it (body safety).
As a dance, performed in a studio or on stage, for personal empowerment or profit.
As an art...as in Chinese pole or non-nude..PUBLICLY accepted performances.
I teach all styles. NOT all people who pole outside the exotic industry knock the nude aspect.
They DO know where it came from...the do accept it..and they are thankful that they are able to partake in it without the nudity. Not everyone can do the job of a dancer...contrary to what some believe.
Most of the women will definitely set you straight if you ask if they are an exotic entertainer...but they dont knock it...NOTE I said MOST...there are some who do...and those people should be shot!
I sit on both sides of the fence in this...industry and non industry...I deal with them all.
One thing I will say...I have learned more about and on the pole since I have been off stage, than I ever did on stage. But that doesnt say I dont appreciate where I first learned it.
www.polejunkies.com
Come Find the Junkie Within!





To me it seems athletic, but not a sport. An athletic skill. I think the same thing of figure skating and dressage too, though. Maybe even gymnastics. They are very skilled athletes, but the idea of making a competitive sport with subjective judging...I know there are objective criteria, but ehhh...So much nepotism and politics. I know dressage is just a joke at the Olympics sometimes...and that whole cute Canadian figure skater thing.
I can't argue for my position, because I can totally see the other side of it. But that's just how I feel (and I feel this way about my sport too...even though I would totally go to the Olympics first chance I got, if I ever could). I will say that poledancing is a sport if golf is a sport. So it depends on what one means by 'sport'. I think the golf-like sports deserve monetary rewards, but maybe not Olympics...maybe that would get confusing.





I suppose it depends on your definition of 'sport'. Just as whether pole dancing could be considered Art under certain circumstances would depend on your definition of Art.
According to my definition, pole dancing could be both a sport and an art form, on or off the stripclub stage. Though depending on the atmosphere of the club, it can be pretty tough to pull it off.
I know I have witnessed what I would unhesitatingly describe as genuinely artistic pole dancing performances, in the clubs. And I have witnessed genuinely impressive feats of athletic skill in the clubs. A very few times they were the same performance.
But I have a more liberal definition of 'sport' in mind than a lot of people would.
You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Free your mind, and your ass will follow.
George Clinton
______________________________________
Ive only seen ONE girl on a pole that I would consider it an Art. She was so beautiful and graceful. When my guy and I watched the winner of Miss Pole Dance Australia 2006 we were amazed but then both said Mia is better than her. This girl is AMAZING. She was a gymnist from age 4+, tiny and does moves that slide into eachother. Shes the one who got me practicing and learning moves. Taught me a few that I know.
Lots of girls are really fast and do the same few moves over and over. THAT drives me nuts. I dont know many but I do a lot of floor work inbetween so break it up. Everytime I start at a new club girls are always coming up to me telling me I do great stage shows. I wish I could videotape it... but then Id probably critique it to hell and never do the moves again....





I think the women who actually do it properly and regularly are definitely athletes. When you just use the pole as a prop, something to hold you up while you're shaking your ass, or for little tricks when you don't have good form (I'm guilty of all three), it's not a sport. So I think Alena Downs is doing pole dancing as a sport. But I'm not. A lot of girls get on the pole for a little bit while they're dancing, but rarely do they use their muscles in such a purposeful and graceful way, ya know?





Yeah I figure by now I have worked with about 2,000 dancers (high turnover in Daytona). I have seen maybe a dozen dancers that were truly artists on the pole, and you might have more stringent requirements than I do.
I have seen many more pole dancers whose routines required the strength, dexterity, and skill I would say qualify them as athletes, and therefore would qualify what they were doing to be considered a sport, in my mind.
It's easier for me to think of it as a sport since most of what I have done has been at home, with no audience at all. And it tends to be pretty difficult, it's definitely a workout type activity.
You must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star.
Friedrich Nietzsche
Free your mind, and your ass will follow.
George Clinton
______________________________________
I am going to take a poledance class with a local stripper, for the athletic aspect of it. When I was dancing, I kept my poletricks to the 3 that I knew, because I had a good idea of how to do them without hurting myself.
I still hurt myself a few times though, particularly my iliopsoas (hip flexor) from certain inverted slides into the splits. The injury was due to not being properly warmed up, and it took a long time to heal.
So yes, it has a great athletic component to it. Many aerialists use similar moves. But as far as the sexual/stripclub component, I don't think its smart money to do a lot of pole tricks unless you are very knowledgeable, strong, athletic, sober, etc.
"Have you ever been to American wedding? Where is the vodka, where's marinated herring?" - GB
"And do the cats give a shit? No, they do not. Why? Because they're cats."-from The Onion
Originally Posted by Mia M
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