POLE GOLD - OUR OLYMPIC DREAM

With the London Games well underway, the topic of pole dance as an Olympic sport is hotter than the GB men’s diving team (*swoon*)

Everyone, from pole schools to clothing manufacturers, is weighing in and the attitude is unanimous – it’s only a matter of time before we’re there. And in some cases, it’s a travesty that pole gold isn’t already being awarded in Queen Lizzie's hood.

But has pole dance evolved enough in the eyes of those outside the industry, or is this a case of running before we can air walk?

Any of us who has ever touched a pole are aware of the physical strength it takes to be a successful pole dancer and those of us who have performed professionally, competed or simply pushed our skills for whatever reason, are aware of the mental strength and focus that’s required to truly be the best. Injury, sacrifice and coping with failure are also a part of pushing our bodies to its very limits and standing out as champions of what we do.  

But the question at the forefront of my mind whenever this debate kicks off is who judges the best from the worst in the world of pole dancing? Without a universal system in place for judging skills and performance, and with a competition in existence for every ‘style’, it seems a premature move to debut pole to the world when it feels as if we’re only just now beginning to crack the code of unifying competitive pole, even at a national level.

The tired argument of what style of pole dance is more valid is just that. Every pole dancer knows it’s not about what you wear on your feet, but how you execute skills combined with the je ne sais quoi you bring that separates the good from the amazing. As an industry, it’s time for us to come together and fight the stereotyped perceptions of the uninitiated and push forward. There’s no question that pole pushes the human body as much as, and sometimes more than, many Olympic sports. We don’t need to bother entering into artistic gymnastics comparisons or the argument that there’s already one style of pole in the Olympics (in vault form, granted)…



Is it just me, or does Tatiana's bod look as fit as a pole dancer?!



Perceptions of pole from outside the pole industry need to be informed. As I’m sure Aussies Kerri Pottharst and Natalie Cook fought to define beach volleyball beyond rolling around in the sand in bikinis, potential Olympic competitors need to decide what image we want to project to the world – I mean, what is a pole dancer?



Showing skin clearly doesn't bother the IOC and is integral to many sports. In beach vollyball, it's written in the rules...



Perhaps that’s not even the name we want. Do we become defined by masters of our apparatus, the Vertical Bar? What are the skills that would be judgeable at a competitive level and will these be different for male and female competitors? Will it be an artistic discipline with judgeable dance elements or be strictly skills based? And now for the question that will launch pole dance civil war – STATIC or SPINNING? BRASS or CHROME? 38, 45 OR 50mm?????

Man, I would love to be a fly on the wall at that round table discussion (and for the record – spinning, brass, 38 J)

The bottom line is obviously that there are still so many questions to be answered and parameters to be defined with taking pole competition to the world and the average Jolene watching the Olympics with her kiddies. With every pole comp we have the opportunity to inch closer to our Olympic goal, but with a new comp popping up more regularly that McDonald’s restaurants and each with it’s own set of rules, I can’t help but feel that we drifting further away…

That being said, we should all be proud to be a part of an industry that has successfully survived infancy, childhood and that is now entering adolescence. It’s a period of mood swings, defiance, striving to fit in and lots of attitude, but I’ve no doubt that on the other side of this phase the pole dance industry will emerge as clearly-defined and with it’s own identity, filled with a generation’s worth of young champions.

The parallels between pole and gym are obvious.

And if it does end up at the Olympics, I’ll be there with the Aussie flags painted on my cheeks screaming, “Oi, Oi, Oi!!”with the rest of us.

And who knows? With the eldest 2012 gymnastics competitor representing at 39 years – I might even find myself on the winner’s podium one day…okay, please stop laughing.



Dream It, Breathe It, BE IT!!