Regarding the letter “Pole dancing debases yoga,” (April 30) in response to Kylie Mendonca’s article about the Yoga Centre (“Move your body,” April 16), Mendonca reported that yoga was being made more accessible, not by offering pole dancing, but through the Yoga Centre’s new Yoga Therapy programs, as people with chronic pain, illness, disease, and injury find a typical yoga class in this town is not possible due to their condition. The fact that the Yoga Centre has chosen to offer pole-dancing classes is no different from my choice to offer various forms of movement weekly, including women’s ecstatic dance, aikido (martial art), gyrotonics and gyrokinesis, as well as various forms of yoga: pregnancy, intro to yoga, vinyasa yoga, beginner yoga, and yoga therapy.

Pole dancing in studios today is a movement form, instructed and presented as a Pole fitness activity. Just as gymnastics use horizontal bars or aerial dancers wrap themselves in fabric into beautiful shapes, pole dancing has transformed itself and empowers women to hold their body weight, and improve strength, balance, and body mechanics. There are national and international sport competitions and pole dancing is up for approval for the Olympics. I was raised in San Luis Obispo and being a local business owner consider it a gift and opportunity to provide people a safe place where they can attain their ideal health, both mentally and physically. It would be out of the question that I would offer a program that would debase yoga and its tradition or “perpetuate the culture of pornography” or “objectify women”.

Layton » It’s like gymnastics, said pole fitness competitor Becca Butcher.

But instead of a balancing beam or parallel bars, there’s a pole.

And it was that last feature that stirred a slight controversy over whether Saturday’s Pole Fetish 2009 competition should be canceled.

Davis County owns the Davis Conference Center, where the event was held, and several weeks ago, county commissioners were concerned the performances might be closer to “adult entertainment.”

But the private contractor that manages and books events at the center met with Pole Fetish 2009 promoters and the event continued.

“They felt comfortable in allowing it to go forward,”

Nichole Smith competing in Pole Fetish 2009 Saturday at the Davis Convention Center. The competition was billed as Utah’s first pole fitness competition. (Trent Nelson/The Salt Lake Tribune)

said Commissioner Bret Millburn. “Hopefully, it is what it is.”

And that’s an amazing way to tone your body, said Butcher, a mother of two who has also studied martial arts for about 20 years.

“Hopefully, tonight will break a lot of misconceptions,” she said .

Her family is very religious, she said, and her father, mother, brother and sister-in-law came to the event because they support her and “see it for what it is.”

Ogden’s Adult Dance & Fitness, along with Studio Soiree in Salt Lake City, sponsored the event — the first of its kind in Utah, said Meagan Burroughs, owner of the Ogden studio. She hopes pole fitness will become an Olympic sport.

Burroughs teaches pole fitness along with ballroom, hip-hop and other dancing.

“They always come back,” she said of people who take the pole aerobics workout. “I’ve never had someone go into a program and think they were stripping.”

And there were a few ground rules for Pole Fetish 2009:

“We don’t want any catcalling. We don’t want any tips,” the night’s hostess, Debra White, told the audience. “Let’s keep this clean and have fun.”

Performers were required to keep on the same clothes from start to finish, as well as wear something that covered breasts and buttocks. Most performers wore shorts and sports bras. Footwear varied from nothing to ballet slippers and even plastic platforms.

West Jordan resident Susan Hintze had associated poles with more exotic activities, but changed her perspective after taking pole fitness classes. She came to Pole Fetish 2009 to cheer on her instructor.

“I’ve gained such a respect for the beauty of movement and self-expression.”

This is one of my favorite quotes, “Not all pole dancers strip and not all strippers pole dance“. It is so true. Just because you’ve seen a stripper doesn’t mean you’ve seen a pole fitness dancer. The two are not the same and for some people, it is just too hard to comprehend. Maybe it’s because they don’t really want to understand why millions of people are fascinated with this dance/gymnastics style. Most assume that the women who participate in fitness pole dancing are uneducated, drug abuser, low IQ, sexual deviants.

Let me tell you the facts about some of the 20 competitors in this weekends pole competition: We have 6 school teachers. Six! Two ladies with masters degrees, four with bachelors degrees, a scientist, a martial arts instructor, fitness instructors, mothers, wives, gymnasts, a military wife, a life coach, a film director, an author, equestrian competitor, and five women who own their own business. These women are not mindless or senseless. If these types of women are embracing pole fitness, there is no reason why any woman regarless of religion, background, or marital status shouldn’t be able to get in shape with a vertical pole or at least accept it and those who practice it.
I genuinly ache inside when a woman snubs her nose at the pole. You have no idea how it will change your life if you just give it the opportunity. Your body will transform, your mind will evolve, and your relationships will thrive with your new found confidence and self worth. Don’t knock it until you’ve tried or seen it. I will put my pole against the treadmill any day!

Meagan Burroughs
Ogden

The secret behind Britney Spears’ fit body has been revealed –

pole dancing.

The 27-year-old star has installed an eight-foot metal pole in her 1,100 pound-a-night penthouse suite at London’s posh Dorchester hotel, when her Circus world tour begins its UK leg.

“Britney has a huge fan base in the UK and really wants her shows here to be a hit,” the Mirror quoted a source as saying.

“Pole-dancing is an excellent cardio and fat-burning workout, and Britney has had private classes in her studio gym in LA.

“She wants to keep up her exercise regime on tour. Luckily, the hotel was happy to accommodate her needs.

“She can swing around her pole while watching TV or listening to music. Climbing up it requires real core strength. It really is hard work.

“In addition, she’ll have a treadmill and stepper brought to her suite, as well as a sit-up machine. By the time Britney takes to the stage, her six-pack of old will be back!” the source added.

Source: The times of India

I am writing with reference to your article in the Skegness Standard about the pole dancing club. I am in full support of it. It is a totally different thing to lap dancing, which some people seem to get it confused wit. I have been pole dancing for two years and have reached my grade 13. I do not work in a club but do it for pole fitness and fun. It is not recognised by any governing body at the moment due to no-one connecting it to fitness/exercise. I know of a few schoolgirls that take lessons also, because it is good pole dancing exercise and not something that is seedy and bad for children. We wear shorts and vest tops.

I understand from your article that there are no windows in the building anyway, so I cannot see the problem with having a children’s room attached next door.
I think it would be a good thing for Ingoldmells. A new attraction which would bring in more custom. The majority of people are sensible and would not be offended by it.
I have noticed more and more pubs having poles fitted recently, so that customers can dance round them even if they have not had lessons and do not know the correct way to use them. They are there for fun too.
MELISSA ALLEN
Southview Leisure Park
Skegness

Source: skegness standard

The high heel shoe on the sign at Stiletto’s isn’t just part of the fitness pole center’s logo.

At Stiletto’s, women learn “pole fitness,” using a stripper’s pole as the basis for a workout. And yes, all members are required to wear stiletto heels during each workout.

Nicole Moak, 30, opened the aerobics center last year in Port Neches because she said she felt women needed a new way to work out.

Beginners start by wearing 4½-inch stiletto heels, Moak said, and when they feel comfortable enough they move to 6 inches.

All of Moak’s classes are one-on-one by appointment only, and twice a month she said she hosts parties where all members can come together and show off their moves.

Women work out in a room painted deep red, on a stage in front of a mirror. Two exercise poles are on the stage.

A one-hour session can burn up to 350 calories, she said, and women do all of the exercise moves on their tiptoes which helps build core muscles.

When she first opened in April 2008, Moak said some members of the community expressed their discontent with her business – which is located next door to the Port Neches Chamber of Commerce. The opposition since has died down, she said.

Tom Ivicevic, spokesman for the Aerobics and Fitness Association of America, said fitness pole is a popular workout and is an excellent exercise to strengthen arm and core muscles.

Ivicevic said Crunch – a gym in Los Angeles that many celebrities go to – teaches pole fitness classes.

Moak said she first discovered pole fitness in Dallas, where she took a day-long class with a large group of women. The group broke for lunch and she said many of the women did not return, possibly because they did not feel comfortable exercising in a large group.

That’s why she said her classes are one-on-one.

Moak said her students are women of all shapes and sizes, and even of all ages. She’s taught girls as young as 17 and as old as 67, she said.

“It’s not raunchy,” she said. “It’s a great pole dance fitness program and it makes you feel good about yourself.”

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Sandy Shepard pole dances in San Francisco. She says it helps her feel empowered.

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Greatest accomplishment: Doing a “layout” – climb the removable pole, brace one foot behind the other, and then flip so you’re hanging upside down, basically holding on with one foot and your knees. It takes killer abs.

Gear you can’t live without: Comfortable 6-inch heels from Foot Worship in San Francisco. You can pole dance in the same ratty gym clothes that you use for playing soccer or doing the treadmill. But you put those shoes on, and EVERYTHING changes.

Where you train: S Factor San Francisco, and at home, on my own portable pole.

Best time to train: In the morning. I’m more alert then, and pole aerobics work out can be tricky. There is so much coordination involved that I want to be sure that I am at my most present.

Biggest misperception about your sport: That it’s all about sex and we’re bimbos. Most women I pole dance with don’t do it for anyone but themselves. And almost all of us are professionals. You never know what someone does when they take off their three-piece suit or medical scrubs.

Advice you’d give a rookie: Sometimes the “beginner” moves are harder than more advanced ones. Also, since pole dancing involves strength, flexibility and killer abs, it will make you do weights and yoga or you won’t to be able to do a “spinning snake” or “flying angel” like all your pole grrrlfriends!

Source: San Francisco Chronicle