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What made you start pole dancing?
Just curious as to how others decided they wanted to pole dance. For me, I went to a strip club when I was 21. all the girls there were not really “pole dancers” they did some moves around the pole and held onto the pole while they were dancing and they looked beautiful but they didn’t do spins or tricks. this was a topless club. by the second song they took most of their clothes off and then they were done. that was impressive enough, they were graceful and beautiful and creative. they chose slow sexy songs, r&b songs, etc. out of nowhere I hear Night Fever by the bee gees start playing.not a typical strip club song. this girl steps onto stage, runs to the pole and starts flying! I had never seen anything like this, didn’t even know it was possible to do that on the pole. she blew my mind. she was so busy flying around the pole she didn’t need to take her top off. she really looked like she was doing this for herself not for the customers. she looked so free. about 10 years later, I was watching that awful movie Dancing at the Blue Iguana. I love all the actresses in the movie even though the movie was sort of lame. I was amazed that these women had learned to do this for the movie. I watched several hours of the behind the scenes clips of all the ladies learning how to pole dance and the dedication they put into the movie. I was in awe. I took a private lesson and learned a few spins. there were no studios back then and it was hard to find someone to give lessons and it was expensive as hell. I got a pole after that one lesson and just did 3 or 4 spins till I moved and could not put the pole up in my condo I moved into. 5 or so years after that, I went through horrible spinal surgery and spend over a year very disabled and recovering from spinal cord damage. I was depressed and knew that as soon as I was able to start moving again I was going to do something amazing my life. I looked up pole dance studios in my area and was amazed that there were so many studios when just years earlier there was zero!!! I signed up 5months ago and my life is forever changed. Pole is helping me to get my strength and coordination back. I am no longer disabled, physically or mentally
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9 Replies
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great story, robin b.
i started pole dancing after years off from weight lifting. My parents have(at one time or another)both been competition body builders and after years of pumping iron exclusively then giving it up and having two kids, i found that my 27 year old body was slowly “fluffing up” and i knew i needed to get back in the Gym but not wanting to go back to pumping iron i started looking into aerial silks, after doing silks once i was hooked and silks transition into pole and i never looked back. It was so great to be able to use my strength and challenge myself with flex training because it was such a forigen concept to me coming from an iron background. Now I’m doing things that 300lb bodybuilders i know can’t do and getting respect and i finally feel sexy which is more priceless than i can even describe, coming from a girl who used just be the girl who could lift more than the boys.. -
I had just spilt with my bf at the time he had put me down soo much so I went on a local pole dance website because I really wanted to try it for fun but then also read that it builds confidence, which I seriously needed after being told I can’t wear this or that and soo on .. Thanks to my family I finally saw the light and got rid of him and went on to start pole and build my confidence. The pole community has been so great I do not regret ever starting pole it’s really helped me mentally and physically made me feel like me again 🙂
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Ever since I was little I use to play on the support poles in my basement. I never even knew what poling was at that time but I felt beautiful spinning around the pole and doing flag holds and such on it. What made me decide to start poling was seeing a video on youtube. I was incredibly out of shape at the time and feeling absolutely awful about myself. I needed something that would make me feel beautiful and delicate yet sexy and goddess like. Pole did exactly that, now to get back at it!
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I’ve always been at least slightly interested in pole dancing-because whenever I saw a free-standing pole on the street or in a nightclub, I knew I wanted to dance and express myself with it. It just looked so much fun in and of itself. A couple years ago-way before I started pole-One night my friends and I went to a club, there was a pole on a raised platform and I had so much fun dancing on it, even though at the time, I couldn’t do any tricks or spins or anything-it just felt liberating to do something so taboo.
Then, in April of this year I was sitting with my (now) ex-boyfriend and he randomly said, “Would you ever pole dance? Man, that would be so controversial if you did.” (I’m assuming he said that because he knows I’m a diehard feminist, and I’m very public about my opinions). He said it as a joke, but all of a sudden, a lightbulb flashed in my head, and I was like…”Yes…Yes, I would! That’s a great idea!” Two weeks later, I bought my first pole online, began an everyday stretch routine while it was shipping to my house, and started looking up beginner tutorials. I started taking classes soon after.
Even though I didn’t know much about pole, it looked physically demanding and I knew I would need to take it very seriously from the jump. Ever since then, I’ve found it to be the very same liberating art form I’ve always imagined it to be. I do think even though pole always looked fun and amazing, my reasons for doing it stemmed from wanting to do something I wasn’t supposed to do-as a woman.
Now, I’ve found even more things that sustain me-I’m learning so much about my body and fitness in general, I’m living out my dream of being a dedicated and disciplined dancer, I’ve found community, I’m getting stronger and more flexible, and I can express myself in a new way, it is political to me, etc. So I’m glad my ex casually joked around about it and planted that seed in my head 😉
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I was a gymnast when I was a child (ages 4-14) and I absolutely loved so many aspects of the sport. I loved the power that it takes to tumble. I loved (though was never good at) the grace and delicacy needed to successfully navigate the balance beam. The uneven bars were by far my favorite. I remember many nights I would stay late after my class to continue practicing and playing. Gymnastics was a lot of work, but I was good at it, which in turn made it a ton of fun.
Fast forward to October 2013 when my bestie booked a pole party for a friend’s birthday. That party was SO MUCH FUN and afterward, I was completely wiped out. Little did I know then that what we “learned” at this party was how to walk around the pole and two verrrrry basic transition moves. It was still fun as heck and used a bunch of muscles that haven’t seen any action in many many years.
Shortly after the pole party, my bestie enrolled in a proper course at a local pole studio and encouraged me to join her for a drop-in class. In that class I learned a short little routine and a few spins, but most of all, I learned that I could come to love pole as much as I once loved gymnastics.
My work schedule is not compatible with any of the class schedules at the studios in my area, so I am unable to enroll in any organized classes that build upon previous skills taught. This has forced me to begin a home practice which is not really going well. My current fitness level/physique/size/weight is nothing like my former gymnast self and I’m finding my overall lack of strength and flexibility to be highly frustrating. I am accustomed to nailing every trick I try (in my gymnastics days), so not even being able to do anything that resembles pole fitness has deflated my excitement for the sport.
That is what led me here to Studio Veena. I feel like I need to wipe away any/all expectations I had and start over…as the true beginner I am. I have to remember that the only thing that will get me to the level I strive to achieve is to get on my pole every day, following Veena’s method. The weight will come off; the strength and flexibility will return; the pole spins/tricks will follow and I will soon have the skill and confidence to shoot and post videos of myself here.
I feel so lucky to have found a community of pole dancers who come from all walks of life and all different fitness backgrounds. (I just know there has to be at least one other person here who was as beginner as I am.) I appreciate that the unique support system that only this community can offer. Thank you everyone, in advance, for being my inspiration, my support, and my friend.
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Haaaa…bachelorette party >_>
Okay, that’s not completely true. I was interested in Pole dancing before that, but… never really had the opportunity or the encouragement to try it! I had mentioned it in passing to a couple of friends, who, I suppose, took the idea and brought it up again for another friend’s bachelorette. There were only about four of us, but it was a blast, we all loved it… and we all decided to take lessons.
I have never been athletic as a kid, or even through my teenaged years, so getting into something like pole dancing would have struck me as incredibly strange… except I didn’t think of it as “fitness” at the time. I knew nothing about the Jade Split, the Handspring mount… heck, I knew nothing of inversions in any way when I started! While doing lessons, I took a vague interest in doing a little more research, and we went to a pole dancing competition at a local strip club…
I saw someone walk on the ceiling. I was blown away.
After that came internet research, more lessons, and I learned of the Jade Split. It became the move I wanted the most- to me, it defined the whole idea of “impossible,” and I wanted it.
Since then, local lessons died and I got my own pole, signed up with SV, and here I am. I’ve never been athletic… but Pole dancing has changed that. It changed my life in a way that I’ll always be thankful for! 🙂 -
Groupon! Buying Groupons gets me to do all sorts of things. I bought a Groupon to a local aerial studio for a two-hour workshop where we got to play on silks, lyra, corde lisse and pole. I really enjoyed the silks so I took one more class and promptly bought my own silks. I kept wanting to go back and try a pole class and several months later I finally did. In my first class we did some little knee spin and I was completely hooked. Bought a pole for home a few months after that. I now prefer the pole to silks but I plan to continue both.
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The lady that I buy skin care from told me about pole so I started watching videos. Honestly it was Jennyne Butterfly and Blondebird’s videos on youtube that got me hooked. I cant do what they do but it was so lovely. I then joined this site and have enjoyed every minute of it.
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My father was diagnosed with lung cancer Dec 2012 and my twin sister was his care giver day in and day out while she continued to care for her own family. She took her daughter to dance class and decided to take a class of her own, a pole class! She called me the second class was over, so excited! I thought I have to do this! My father died about 5 weeks later and I bought a pole.
I had my first lesson 3 weeks after buying my pole and fell a week after that breaking 3 ribs in my back! So, my love for this pole and for the idea of changing women’s lives in the small Mississippi town I live in inspired me to open my own studio. Sept. 13 2013 I opened Organic Gravity in Columbus , Ms.
Thank you Veena for paving the way!
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