Friday Fun: Pole Dancing Comics

You know pole dancing has gone mainstream when comics on the subject are no longer necessarily strip club related...

Have a great weekend!!

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Pole Dance Fitness World International Ultimate Champion Official World Championship Cup

After winning The Ultimate Champion title in IPC 2012 in Hong Kong, Oona Kivelä commented that there are so many world championships in pole dancing that it will soon be like boxing. Oona talked me through the different world championships that currently exist and also shared some ideas with me on how the division might better serve the pole dancing community.

The Official World Pole Sport & Fitness Championships

The Official World Pole Sport & Fitness Championships have been held annually since 2009 (in Jamaica), when Felix Cane took the title, Jenyne Butterfly placed second and Alesia Vazmitsel was third. According to the event website, 2010 (Zürich) and 2011 (Budapest) competitor bios and results are coming soon. No rush, guys! (The results can be found here.)

The website also says, in CAPS and in bold: WORLD POLE SPORT FITNESS IS STRICTLY A SPORT FITNESS EVENT. The organisers are also vocal about making pole dancing an Olympic sport in the future. However, looking at the winning performances it seems that an entertaining, even nightclubby style is favoured. The choreographies are long, 5-6 minutes, and many contestants were high heels and use props. This genre is very popular around the world and perhaps pole dancing enthusiast want to see the same style in competitions that they do at home or at their local pole studio. But high heels and the Olympics, why don’t I see the connection?

Oona attended this event in 2010 but was cut in the semifinals. In her Pole Spin Magazine close-up Oona tells us that according to the judges she should have smiled more. She never got any official judging scores, though. Oona, naturally, went barefoot. There are both “sport” and “fitness” in the name of the event, after all. I would have kept my Jimmy Choo’s for the after party, too.

Pole World Cup

Pole World Cup was organised for the first time in Rio de Janeiro in 2011. The organizer was the Brazilian Pole Dance Federation FBPOLE. The winner was our very own Oona Kivelä, followed by Rafaela Montanaro and Anastasia Skukhtorova.

 

I couldn't find a proper logo for the competition. The site was in Portuguese, though...

Ideally, world cup competitions should be held around the world and the contestants of the ultimate world championship would be from the various cups. The Brazilian world cup could definitely be one of them. In addition there should be one in Europe and maybe one in Australia.

International Pole Championship

IPC, organised by the International Pole Dance Fitness Association IPDFA, has been held four times since 2008. The locations have been Manila, Tokyo twice and now Hong Kong in 2012, all in Asia. In my opinion, IPC is closest to what World Championships should be, image-wise. But even they make one bad mistake and that is ignoring the potential of social media. After the competition, the results should be online immediately, and videos of the performances the following day at the latest. IPDFA doesn’t seem to be able to do it themselves, nor do they allow anyone else to do it. Poleranking would have videos of all the performances in Hong Kong 2012, but IPDFA banned Poleranking from publishing them. I’ve seen them, and there were some amazing performances there… Maybe the rest of the world will get to see them soon.

Whether pole dancing should try to make it to the Olympics is another discussion altogether. I think it’s quite early for that discussion as the pole dancing community can’t even seem to agree on World Championships. Moreover, at this stage the discussion should be about getting pole dancing to the World Games. It might not be a bad option to never “make it” to the Olympics and stay in the World Games instead.

If we absolutely cannot agree on this World Championships issue and end up having five different world champions each year, like boxing, can we at least agree that there will never be separate weight classes in pole dancing?

Please come to Poleranking to discuss this topic!

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Friday fun: Pole Dancing is Prohibited

In Taiwan, pole dancing must be a real problem. The sign says "pole dancing is prohibited".

This sign on Swedish trains tries to warn you about the doors closing quickly. But it's not just me who sees a pole dancer instead. Making pictographs is no easy task!

This Chinese sign apparently doesn't actually prohibit pole dancing. I don't know what is forbidden here.

This sign might be fictive but at least it's clear.

Sometimes 10 words say more than one picture

Have a nice weekend and remember to flash your skills only where's it is appropriate!

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Poleranking is here, and I am there!

When I started blogging about pole dancing just two months ago I decided to do so in English. I wanted to reach out to all pole dancers around the world and let them know what it's like to practise pole dancing here in Helsinki. To be honest, I did hope that someone would ask my blog to be featured at a popular pole dancing site or something. I mean, if I could even find a pole dancing site that didn't send a strong stripper-vibe. And I did. Or they found me. 


The Poleranking site wasn't even open when they contacted me but I already liked them on Facebook - They are almost always the fastest and often only source for up-to-date information on international pole dancing competitions. I didn't have to think about it for very long, of course I wanted to join the prestigious ranks of Poleranking featured bloggers - along with the likes of Aerial Amy and Michelle Shimmy.

Poleranking.com opens today for those who requested an invite, and on Tuesday, May 1, to anyone who is interested in pole dancing! Poleranking is also giving out five sets of Tracey Simmonds' Comprehensive Guide to Pole Dance DVD-trilogies - I already have them and I can recommend them to anyone who has a pole at home but doesn't have the chance to attend as many lessons as they'd like.  If you got interested, you should watch the Poleranking Facebook-page for info on the contest!

See you there!

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PowerPole-classes with Oona Kivelä

I told you before we're spoiled rotten here in Helsinki. Envy me all you want but I'm still going to tell you about the Powerpole-classes I've attended at Gymi in Kamppi, Helsinki with none other than Oona Kivelä.

I often hear people disregarding a pole dancer's competition success with "oh, but (s)he's a former gymnast/ ballet dancer/ whatever". As if doing other sports was somehow unfair to those contestants who only practise on the pole. Let me give a free piece of advice to all aspiring pole superstars: Do other stuff as well.

In this video you can see how Oona Kivelä trains. Most of it is shot at Gymi Kamppi so you can also see glimpses of the equipment that is available to all Gymi-goers.

I've only had the chance to attend twice so far (thanks Oona for letting me join mid-season!) but I've already realised what a difference some ancillary training can make. Some of the moves in PowerPole are, as the name suggests, pole moves - but not necessarily on the pole. Practising ayeshas on wall bars and hanging in a gemini on a parallel bar makes you pay attention to details in the move that you cannot necessarily see on a pole when you're worrying about grip among other things. We've also practised handstands, headstands and some basic moves on an aerial ring.

I've been way too busy and sweaty to bother with a camera, but take a look a this cool collage from Gymi's gallery.

I'm so glad Oona and her associate have realised that this stuff shouldn't be only for kids!

Olen käynyt nyt kahdesti Oona Kivelän PowerPole-tunneilla Kampin Gymillä ja voin suositella tunteja lämpimästi oheistreeniksi kaikille tankotanssijoille!

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Friday fun: Pole dancing fails Top10 video

This post shouldn't really be labeled Friday fun at all. This post should be called "Yes, there is a difference between those cheap stripper poles and real pole dancing poles. Watch the video and find out what it is."

What next, aerial hoop on a hula hoop? Curtains used as aerial silks?

...Although I could sympathise with number four. Happens to the best of us. That's why there's no ceiling lamp in my living room.

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Ladies please! Try not to annoy men so much.

I previously wrote about the unavoidable "so you're a stripper?" issue and was happy to conclude that these misconceptions don't seem to be a problem here in Scandinavia. Recently I've read quite a few other pole dancing blogs and it seems that my fellow pole dancers in other parts of the world don't have it so easy. Maybe wearing high heels on the pole has something to do with it, maybe other countries have more skilled striptease artists than Finland, I don't know. One thing I know is that no matter what sport women decide to do, certain type of men always have something to say about it.

"Kathrine Switzer was the first woman to run the Boston Marathon as a numbered entry. She entered and completed the race in 1967, five years before women were officially allowed to compete in it. She registered under the gender-neutral ‘K. V. Switzer’. Race official Jock Semple attempted to remove her from the race, and is noted to have shouted, ‘Get the hell out of my race and give me those numbers.’ However, Switzer’s boyfriend, who was running with her, shoved Semple aside and sent him flying. The photographs taken of the incident made world headlines.” (source)

Zhang Shan, shown here at the 2005 10th National Games in China, was the first woman to win Olympic Gold in a mixed-gender shooting event, in 1992. Then 24-year-old Shan won Gold in a mixed-gender Skeet shooting event, becoming the first woman ever to win a shooting event that included both men and women. After this, the International Shooting Union made a ruling which barred women from shooting against men. (source) I hardly have to speculate here why this ruling was made.

My point is this: Keep on rocking the poles, ladies! Strippers do it, circus artists do it, you can be both or neither. Some men will never be happy with whatever it is that women decide to do. As for the women who judge you: Ask them to join you for a lesson. You know they'll be hooked.

Tankotanssiblogeja lukiessa olen huomannut, että kaikkialla maailmassa ei olla yhtä suvaitsevaisia tankotanssin suhteen kuin Suomessa. Toisaalta, kivinen on ollut naismaratoonareiden ja kilpa-ampujienkin tie...

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