Kids Pole Dancing?

First off, can we not call it pole dancing? The reality is that we can’t erase decades of society believing and associating pole dancing with stripping and gentleman’s clubs. It’s often very hard for me to see why others are unable to re-program themselves and envision something differently. It’s very hard for a close minded person to understand how “pole dancing” could easily transition into an activity and form of exercise for kids.

Let me break it down for you – What makes pole dancing sexual in nature? Pasties?  Or maybe it’s the awesome flag move you just did one handed. I’m being scarcastic, of course.  Exotic dance mixed with pole tricks  and the removal of clothing has given it a bed rep. But what if you took out the removal of clothing and exotic dance? You’d have just tricks. Tricks/Stunts, whatever you want to call them, that are totally wicked! Kids go to playground all the time and swings on bars, horizontal or vertical – they don’t care. Kids are innocent, well – at least we’d like to think they start off that way. Kids don’t automatically assume that swinging on a pole is sexual, they may not even know about strippers unless you let them watch HBO. So what is the big deal?

I  love teaching kids and I would never teach them anything that I  would consider inappropriate. I have morals – although some people might not think so because I’m pole instructor (LOL).  I think that its important to protect their innocence. How fun would it be for a little kids to go to class and go down the fireman pole,  spin like tinkerbell and fly like superman? Can you see where I am going with this…..? AND – why couldn’t pole be mixed with other forms of dance like ballet or jazz?

Here is something that does concern me – Teenagers! For example, my 15 year old little sister came to my studio and learn a few spins, she loves it – BUT, here is the problem – that pic ended up on FaceBook and then all of her friends made stripper comments. Teens watch HBO, that must be it…. I don’t think they have a maturity level to not associate it with sexual content, in fact they may crave the want to be sexy and learn what the adults do. I have had parents ask me, can you do a birthday party for my teenage daughter and her group of 8 friends?  Uumm No mam, I can’t because crazy people will try and shut my studio down. I’m not here to train the next generation to skip college and become career strippers.  Teens are easily influenced.

My Conclusion to this topic is complex. Do I want to teach kids and teens “Pole Dancing.” Sure, I do. But let’s call it, Vertical Arts or VertiBar. Here’s an idea! – Call it Chinese Pole, like they do in the circus!

I wouldn’t even be surprised if gymnastic studios started to offer vertical bar within the next 20 years. Do I think its good timing to introduce pole dancing for kids to the general public? I’m not really sure… On one hand now is as good as a time as any and on the other hand, maybe it might be best to wait until Pole Dancing has been around a little longer as a mainsteam form of exercise. People have no idea that there are competitions all over the globe. People are still clueless. I’m not trying to negative, but in my lil ole town of RaChaCha, people really have no idea what to expect and its because they have no idea what to think, their imaginations allow them to think all sorts of crazy things. I think the pole community still has a lot of work ahead of it in order to truly introduce Kids “Pole Dancing”. But a good start, is change the name. You can’t change society over night, so lets start on somewhat of a clean slate and build up concept in a different way.