Pole Dancing and all Its Unsexiness

Istarted my affair with pole while I was an exchange student in Philadelphia. It was born out of necessity. Back in the Philippines, I never had any problems meeting and befriending many female friends. But in Philly, it was different. Being in business school, the m-to-f ratio was slightly skewed at 1:3, and further, the international exchange female students who do want to go out and socialize are close to none. Conversations would go like this: Me: Hey want to go out tonight? The Italians want to go to this beer garden. Looked interesting. Her: Sounds great! But maybe I’ll stay in and study. If I can’t make it, how about we go to church together instead in the morning? Me: Sure... Not that I’m complaining, although the thought that my international friend would ever find beer garden and church as tantamount was rather quirky. Desperate for some female friends, I bingesigned up myself for activities where I believe would give me ample opportunity to meet other women: yoga, salsa, and now, pole dancing. When I signed up for pole classes, I had this fantasy in my head that I would emerge as a sexy siren after a class or two. I was so wrong. The first classes were painfully awkward, funny, weird, and so totally un-sexy. I was told to turn and bend in ways that didn’t seem natural to me. I could not walk right after the first few classes. There was nothing sexy or natural about hanging in a pole upside down. I felt more like a skewered meat than a sultry seducer. That was not the worst of it. No one told you about the infamous “pole burns.” The inflammation is caused by frequent contact with the metal pole, causing frequent friction tears on the skin. My then flawless legs now had bruises, burns and sores in odd places. Such were the severity that I couldn’t wear shorts anymore, or people would ask me in a pitiful voice, “Are you okay?”, mistaking me for some victim of domestic abuse. Awkward. You initially thought that pole dancers wear skimpy clothes to be cute, but the sports bra and boy shorts (and even the stripper heels) serve a more functional purpose: skin exposure is required to grip the pole. Metal needs exposed skin in the legs, arms, thighs and stomach so you donÕt skid! Your skin does toughen with time, and you later on get accustomed to the pain. There was nothing more satisfying when you finally pull off a trick that you couldnÕt fathom you could ever do a few classes ago. Pole is, bar none, the hardest activity I have tried, a combination of dance, yoga, gymnastics and ballet — all of which are not easy fitness activities on their own, mind you! Even though pole has been growing in popularity the past few years — in fact, some have been pushing pole fitness to become an Olympic sport — there will always be stigma attached to the sport. We can give that credit to the shady bars with poles and dancing women who don’t know what to do with those poles. Yup, there will still be folks who puerilely refer it as “stripper’s class.” This is why the pole dancing tribe is very close and tight-knit, and pole baes who fight those negative stereotypes; pole gals who would support and cheer on each other for the passion of the vertical bar. This community certainly helped me cope emotionally. When I went back to the Philippines, I was thrilled to have found the pole community to be thriving in Manila (Beast House in Ortigas) and steadily growing in Cebu, thanks to Phil (Pole Sphinx in IT Park). There’s just something so empowering about this athletic form, a unique expression of beauty and strength. And I wish more people would know more about that side of this form.

Rachel Arandilla is a lifelong learner, perennial traveler and has a fascination (obsession?) with stories. She is an author of an upcoming book “Postcards from Elsewhere” and founder of Story Nights: Cebu.