Pole Dance - History

History

The use of a pole for exercise has been traced back at least eight hundred years to the traditional Indian sport of mallakhamb, which utilizes principles of endurance and strength using a wooden pole, wider in diameter than a modern standard pole. The Chinese pole, originating in India, uses two poles on which men would perform “gravity defying tricks” as they leap from pole to pole, at approximately twenty feet in the air.

In the 1920s, traveling circuses and sideshows would utilize pole dancing with a pole in the middle of a tent. Eventually the pole dancing moved from tents to bars, and combined with burlesque dance. Since the 1980s, the dance pole has increasingly been incorporated into striptease routines, and Go-Go or lap dancing, first in Canada and then in the United States.

In the 1990s, pole dancing commenced to be taught as an art and use in fitness exercises. Since then, pole dancing classes have become a popular form of recreational and competitive sport. K.T. Coates, a famed competitive pole dancer, and the International Pole Dancing Federation, are currently promoting a campaign to include competitive pole dance in the Olympics in 2016. Numerous competitions exist, including the World Pole Sport Championship, U.S. Pole Federation Championship, and the International Pole Masters Cup Championship.