Why I Pole Dance - Part One of the Story

I've been reading some blog posts lately about dancing, and pole, and it got me thinking about why I love pole dancing, and why I want to instruct.

I was first exposed to pole two years ago. A friend of a friend gave me a ride home, and we talked about how much we loved dance, she mentioned she was taking a pole dance class at Polejunkies studio, and that was that. I spent about two or three months watching pole on youtube and when my Irish dance classes ended for the summer, I signed up.

Given that I had been taking dance classes since I was 11, and was pretty good at moving my body, I figured it would be fun and easy to learn this new style of dance. I was half right - it was definitely fun. I was completely shocked to find out how hard that first spin was. And that was how my addiction was born - the challenge of getting something I knew I was good at. Or would be once I taught my body how to move in this new way and built some strength up.

But that's not what drew me to pole. What drew me was the image of a powerful, sexy, strong woman expressing her creativity, sensuality, and joy of movement through dance. The pole tricks, for me, are just a means to an end. They look impressive, and I get excited when I get a new move, but I don't feel I've actually gotten it until I can incorporate it in my dancing.

So I pole dance because I love the challenge, I pole dance because I love moving just for the joy of it, and I love pole dance for the potential to bring out my sensual side - which is not something I've put into practise a lot, but that I am working on. And in thinking about working on it, I thought 'wouldn't it be great if I could take a class on this?'. Unfortunately, there isn't one available at Polejunkies. They do a 'pole fluff' workshop (the sexy, sensual moves of pole dance?), which I plan to take next time it runs, but it's not really what I was thinking of. The name paints a picture of the sexy part being lighter - fun, but insubstantial, almost belittling it as being 'the easy stuff'. And I feel my sensual side to be anything but insubstantial, and it is definitely not easy for me to open up and put my sexuality on display through dance - after all, I've spent a lot of time in my life convincing other people that I'm a 'good girl' and good girls save their sensual side for behind closed doors with the proper person, right?

But I've put that part of myself aside and I'm learning, and I figure that if I want a class like this, maybe some of my fellow students would also be interested in one. And that's how I started thinking about becoming a pole instructor. But I'll save the why's of that for another post.