Pole Dancing

Pole dancing. What was the first thing that came into your mind when you read those words? Surprisingly enough, there really are more than just a few seedy answers to that question! For most people, if they hear the words "pole dancing" it immediately paints a very vivid imaginary picture inside their head. What the picture depicts is largely up to whatever the person's experiences have been up until that moment with pole dancing.

Probably the greatest proportion of men had an instantaneous picture of a scantily clad, sinuous exotic dancer winding herself around a shiny brass pole. Posing in a provocative manner and smiling prettily, the vision is nearly iconic for most males. Pleasant memories of evenings spent at the local gentlemen's establishment revisit them, and they cannot help but grin at the thought of it. They may have at some time or another even dated someone who worked in one of the clubs, and for them, recalling the history is a wonderful thing.

Probably the greatest proportion of women also had an instantaneous picture come into their minds when they read the words pole dancing, as well. But for them it's a completely different emotion, and that emotion is anger. There are really not a whole lot more combinations of words in the English language that will inspire the wrath of a girlfriend or wife more than those two words when they are uttered together. Those two words automatically make women suspicious, jealous and unreasonable. They may also have memories of pole dancers, but only in the sense that the dancers either took all of their spouses money, or possibly took their spouse entirely. Needless to say, that's not good memory making material.

But because only the greater proportion of each sex had these ideas, that means that there are also many other ideas, opinions and degrees of those pole dancer feelings. Some of those feelings come from the ones who are actually doing the pole dancing. Yes, it's a living. Some dancers just use the pole as a sort of vertical hand railing.But for some dancers, they also consider it a very physical form of artistic expression. Not every dancer performs the same routines, and not everyone does it well. It takes a graceful and well-coordinated dancer to make it look easy.

There are several theories about where pole dancing originated. I will address just two of them here: the theory that it came from a variation on Yoga excercises performed in India that used either ropes or poles, and the one in which it's supposed that pole dancing may have come from ancient pagan Maypole festivities. There are valid arguments for both theories. Without offending anyone, it is impossible to take sides., though I see more validity in the Maypole idea, as it's a fertility rite.

I will, however, choose to argue with the Oxford English Dictionary. It said that in 1992 the Chicago Tribune was the first to give the description of "erotic dance" to explain the words pole dance. The pole dance, and what I know of it, has been around since the 1970's, at the very least. I remember seeing go-go girls dancing around them, although clothed, since the time of Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In. I know pole dancing was around in the 1980's and 1990's because I saw it first hand. Though I can't attest to this fact through personal observation at this very moment, I wouldn't be wrong to suggest that in nearly every large city in the United States that somewhere, in at least one gentleman's club, that there is a pole dance or two going on right now.

Pole dancing has become big business in other avenues besides adult entertainment, as well. There are how-to tapes and DVDs that show how to pole dance for the great workout it provides. It's a great muscle toner, as well as strength trainer. If you think it's not, get a DVD and try it. You will soon find that the women who do it well and make it seem so effortless are really gymnasts in disguise!

Pole dancing has also become more of a main-stream entertainment. Many people, including celebrities, have chosen to put poles in their own homes. It may be the men's ideas, but I think some women finally got smart. If their spouses are going to give their money to their favorite pole dancer, why not let him spend it at home?