Blackstage Pole: London Pole Dance Annual Show Trailer Revealed
Blackstage Pole's Instagram page features a series of trailers for the upcoming annual pole dancing show in London. Some of the performers on the reels are barefoot; others wear thick-soled heels. Some are inverted, others horizontal. But they all seem to exude an unspeakably powerful confidence.
Thirteen professionals from around the world will take the stage on April 6, symbolizing group founder Leila Davis' desire for diversity throughout the pole industry.
"There is a lack of representation of the BPOC demographic and a very negative white, non-sex-worker-allied polar narrative that erases transgender, plus-size, and non-binary polarities," says Davis, a cool professional dancer who has been performing for more than a decade alongside stars such as Snoop Dogg, Bruna Boy, and Shygirl. LGBTQ Nation. LGBTQ Nation.
Some literature suggests that pole dancing evolved from a 2,000-year-old Chinese movement, while others refer to African fertility dances. In any case, the dance style made its way into American traveling circuses before it became synonymous with sex workers and burlesque dancers in the 1950s.
Today, pole dancing has gone mainstream. It's now a common class at dance studios, and there are hundreds of instructional videos on YouTube for home learners. Jennifer Lopez's 2019 movie Liar helped highlight the strength and skill required to become a great pole dancer and sparked a wave of interest. There was even a push, albeit unsuccessful, to include pole in the 2024 Olympics.
But as it has grown in popularity, some in the community are concerned that its origins are being forgotten and "whitewashed" and that it is not staying true to its inclusive nature.
A spokesperson for Club Chrome, an Australian LGBTQIA+ pole dancing group, said, "Pole dancing grew primarily out of the labors of POC strippers, but the image of pole dancing (often re-branded as pole fitness) is glorified and has nothing to do with its roots as a sex worker." , said in a statement. "The same whitewashing and sex worker erasure is also present in cool spaces."
Destiny, a 23-year-old poll instructor, performer and stripper from Manchester, said she initially found the space inclusive after attending a local pole dancing class dedicated to people of color.
"I saw people like me and I was accepted. And then going deeper into the industry [I found] that it's actually not that inclusive," she says, explaining that many studios have a "female-only girl-power type atmosphere" that excludes anyone who isn't "heterosexual. Tall, smooth heterosexual white women.
Destiny says this in turn means that many of the competition lineups lack representation, with only one person of color or LGBTQ+ person. When it's fate, she wonders if she's wanted or trying to fill a quota.
Colleen Jolly, head of the International Pole Congress and founder of the International Pole Industry Association, recognizes that pole dancing businesses, events, competitions and other high-profile representations are often lagging indicators of what is actually happening in the industry.
But fate says the same thing about the studio. "I've worked and continue to work in studios where I'm one or the only person of color on the team, but haven't had the best of times there," she shares.
Jolly says that many pole businesses tend to focus first on survival. "For example, if the business owner doesn't have lived experience as a transgender person, they may not immediately understand how to support transgender people." She added that it may then be up to the individual to suggest changes. "I know it's not always easy, so if businesses and celebrities can create a space that encourages speaking up, that's a great first step towards greater inclusion."
Enter Blackstage Pole. Founded by Davis in 2020, this UK-based non-profit events company aims to focus and empower the creativity of pole dancers of color, as well as cool, transgender, disabled, low-income or sex workers.
"I want to give the communities I love and see a space that it deserves for all to love and see it. I want to decolonize the pole industry," Davis (stage name Cutie Whippingham) says on her website.
She later added, "This means that everyone should be allowed to pull the lever, there should be no rules, and there's no reason why it should be gender-specific or make people feel uncomfortable."
For four years Davis has been curating this idea, organizing events to showcase the talents of the professionals Blackstage Pole works with. This year marks the first time the exhibition has been supported by Arts Council England, officially recognizing it as an art form.
From more than 200 applicants, 13 people, including Destiny, were selected to make their debut at the event. A trans-Filipino performer, a Snoop Dogg accompanist who utilizes a steel pipe as a resource for sexual abuse survivors, and an American cool sex worker have all been shortlisted. Our continuing goal is to emphasize the true diversity of this art form, Davis said.
"It's a great place to show that we're here, we're in this neighborhood, and we're not going anywhere," Destiny said. She hopes that other showcase organizers will see the event and confront the talent in the industry that they have been choosing to ignore.
Davis says it has had an impact, explaining that for those who create harmful and exclusionary spaces, the presence of Blackstage Pole suggests that 'they can no longer escape punishment'.
Others in the industry are working to restore the diversity inherent in rods.
Destiny appeared on a show called Black Magic in October, which featured an all-black cast; Dirty Friday in the U.K. created space for sex workers, cool kids and people of color; and the Pole Dancing Stripper Movement competition was organized by sex workers to amplify their voices.
In Australia, the Chrome Club works to reposition diverse bodies as objects of desire in ways that are denied by the mainstream sex industry and require the pole dancing and coolie community to reconsider pole dancing as a legitimate art form and expression of diversity.
In the U.S., PoleCon has hosted the Cool Kids Showcase event and organized several panels for Cool Geeks, Sex Workers, Plus-Size Geeks, and BIPOC Geeks. "Additionally, starting this year, we added a contractual requirement for workshop leaders to use gender-neutral terminology when speaking to panels," Jolley shared.
Destiny says the industry in general is getting better, but there is always more that can be done to honor the legacy of Pole's origins and make it a more inclusive community today.
"I'd like to see people in the industry not just say that because it's cool or trendy, but actually try to make sure that their studios aren't racist or masturbatory, that they don't ostracize people because of their sexual orientation or race." Destiny said. "Either you become an ally or you don't."
繁體中文