{"id":2707,"date":"2012-03-12T12:33:52","date_gmt":"2012-03-12T19:33:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=2707"},"modified":"2012-03-19T14:18:03","modified_gmt":"2012-03-19T21:18:03","slug":"web-exclusive-pole-dancing-not-just-for-strippers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2012\/03\/12\/web-exclusive-pole-dancing-not-just-for-strippers\/","title":{"rendered":"Pole dancing not just for strippers"},"content":{"rendered":"

When most people think of pole dancing they visualize half-naked women swinging around on poles and getting paid for it.<\/p>\n

This stigma surrounding pole dancing can be hard to shake off, as most people still consider it to be a purely erotic form of entertainment. But with the rise in popularity of pole dancing as exercise, and with more and more pole-dance classes popping up in Victoria, it\u2019s possible for anyone to enjoy this intense workout. Even your mom could be a pole dancer (sorry for the imagery).<\/p>\n

\u201cYoung women are starting to think of it more as fitness; men immediately associate it with strippers,\u201d says Kristy Craig, a pole-dance instructor at Twisted Grip in Duncan. \u201cI find that the older generation thinks that it\u2019s stripping, but they\u2019re confused because they kind of understand that it\u2019s a new thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Kristy Craig of Duncan's Twisted Grip (photo provided).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What pole-dance instructors like Craig are seeing are women who are joining the classes simply for fitness reasons. Dealing with the stigma can be a bit frustrating for participants, but for some, the enjoyment and fitness factors are worth the weird looks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a lot of people sort of roll their eyes or look shocked when I told them I was taking pole dancing; some people are less supportive of the image it has attached to it,\u201d says Kaitlan O\u2019Hare, a university transfer student at Camosun. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t really bother me too much, though; I\u2019m doing it more for fitness than anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no doubt that stripping and pole dancing are related. The difference is that pole dancing is more about the sensuality of the body, the grace of the movements, and skill; stripping is more sexually driven and targeted at men. But the stripping stigma is fading as the form of fitness becomes more prevalent and accessible for all women.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re two different things,\u201d explains Craig. \u201cYes, stripping is definitely where it came from, but pole fitness is where it\u2019s going. And if you Google or research pole-dancing classes to any degree you\u2019ll find that it has nothing to do with stripping anymore. So I encourage people to maybe do some research before they call us strippers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stigma or not, pole dancing is an intriguing way to get those 60 minutes of exercise a day. Plus, you get to look hot and feel good while doing it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I see most is women coming in here being timid,\u201d says Craig, \u201cand leaving here as fierce, conquering-the-world women.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When most people think of pole dancing they visualize half-naked women swinging around on poles and getting paid for it. This stigma surrounding pole dancing can be hard to shake off, as most people still consider it to be a purely erotic form of entertainment. But with the rise in popularity of pole dancing as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2724,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","category-webexclusive"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2707"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2790,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2707\/revisions\/2790"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}