Pole Dancing Championship

 

 

Scottish Ballet quoted it in their recent Festival show. Companies like Insaan have been working with the dancers as part of large projects. Confusion is Sex features them as part of the freaky atmosphere. It might still list itself as "sport/keep fit" on Facebook, but pole-dancing is steadily moving away from its night club associations towards mainstream performance.

 

That the afternoon was a competition doesn't exclude it from being art. The bursts of action did not necessarily compare to the complex choreography or artistry of other dance events but the emphasis is still on stringing together a series of complex moves for wild applause. What was on show was an art form that is struggling towards an identity, taking on influences from aerobics, striptease, burlesque and aerialism.

 

Musicality is not really at the heart of pole-dancing. At times, the tunes are just a back-beat and despite the odd competitor miming along, there was no sense of theme. The vogue-like posing, though, evinced a medium ripe for creative exploitation, and not just to signify sauciness.

 

The glamorous costumes and feats of upper arm and leg strength aim for the spectacular show-stopping prowess, but the potential for emotional communication is obvious. The male and female competitors demonstrated their skill and power, rarely evoking stereotypes of eroticism. Like Highland Dancing, here is an art that wants a Michael Flatley or Ashley Page to pull it out of the shadows.