Angelina Jolie and Demi Moore have been known to have a spin; supermodel Kate Moss even performed the seductive art for a White Stripes music video. Although many people associate it with exotic dancing, stripping and even men's clubs, pole dancing - in which women may wrap themselves around a pole and gyrate - may be the most misunderstood of all dance forms, its adherents claim. It can be dancing gymnastics, admittedly sensual, but it's a real workout and more interesting than the treadmill.
The Internet is filled with wholesome pole dancing Websites that extol its health and exercise benefits, as well as other things. It has cleaned up its act, as it were, somewhat like belly dancing, which is all the rage and quite respectable. Now, Shanghai has joined many other international cities offering pole dancing as a form of exercise or dance rather than erotic titillation.
Jacqueline Davis has been performing pole dancing for the past five years and recently has started teaching classes. Although most people stereotype pole dancing as a form of striptease, "it does not have to be like that at all," the 24-year-old explains. "Often when I say I am a pole dancer, the initial reaction is shock but then I explain that it is actually quite athletic, acrobatic and an art form in itself.
It has become a dance form in its own right; in fact most dances like belly dancing or salsa have similar erotic moves such as the hip roll, except for tap dancing perhaps," she giggles. Having started pole dancing at 19, Davis worked as a professional pole dancer in clubs in her native Adelaide, Australia, and competed in Australia's first Miss Pole Dance competition in 2006. "I started because I was working as an exotic dancer and saw girls up on the poles and thought I want to do that.
I taught myself by copying them and once I got better than them, I began to make up my own moves," she says. Angelina Jolie and Demi Moore have been known to have a spin; supermodel Kate Moss even performed the seductive art for a White Stripes music video.
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