POLARISE /ˈPƏƱLƏRɅꞮZ/ verb: divide or cause to divide into two sharply contrasting groups or sets of opinions or beliefs.

Pole dancing, pole sport, pole fitness. An art form. With a long history, pole’s recent popularisation still polarises people based upon its associated preconceptions.

Having its roots in ancient Indian and Chinese traditional sports utilising a pole to perform gymnastics, wrestling and yoga poses. The early 20th century saw the introduction of pole dancing in circuses; with the tent’s middle pole being used by travelling dancers to attract crowds. Progressing into the 80s, pole dancing began incorporating more athletic and sensual moves such as tricks and burlesque.

As schools began opening in the 90s to teach pole dancing as a fitness and art form, it diverged into a sport and recreational activity. Most performers and competitors nowadays include a variety of spinning and static moves, inverts and drops on the pole, in combination with floorwork such as dancing, contortions and callisthenics.

Pole with Val was started by Val Dance in 2018 after 8 years of training and performing pole in Dunedin. Gaining her pole skills at the same time as earning multiple degrees, Val has imparted her skills to a new generation of polers with a unique method of teaching that pushes students to master moves in a more cerebral way which has seen marked improvements in both beginners and experienced polers to her studio.

Having organised charity performances and fundraisers in the past, Pole with Val presents our first student showcase, illustrating the varied backgrounds of our students and pole styles.

Venue is R18

Pole Party, 1 Liverpool St, Dunedin, Otago
FRI 22 – March
07:00pm
$18.00 – $20.00
GET TICKETS* 
*Fees may apply

Polarise, performed by Pole with Val dance school was very clearly a first show and also the first performance by several of the students. As such, it’s difficult to review individuals or even affect the show itself.

Briefly, the performers demonstrated skill and strength, many of them also grace and creative choreography.The show itself was a celebration of what they have been learning and practicing and as such was engaging.The audience appeared to be made up largely of friends and family who were vocal in their support for the performers.

The performance began outside the building with the audience watching a demonstration through the barred windows. Once inside the studio, the audience was invited to search on the floor to watch and listen to a history of pole dancing.

This is where there seemed to develop two layers to the evening.

The narrative began by explaining that what we were about to watch is known as ‘pole sport’ and is about to become an Olympic event, before we were taken back 800 years to India and China, where the first known version of the artform was about strength, agility and showmanship. Then we came to the 1920s, when the ‘hoochie coochie girls’, took it to the circus and the burlesque clubs, morphing it into the sexualised performance most people these days associate with pole dancing.

And here is where an element of defensiveness began to creep in. We were taken upstairs to Stilettos for several dances before returning to the basement studio for the final ones, (including a very beautiful finale by Val, the studio owner/manager.

Each of the performances was introduced with a very heavy emphasis on the academic success and degrees of each individual. It began to feel very othering of those sex workers who dance (and work and train incredibly hard) for a living – we do it for fun, or for sports, but we’re not like them. As the show progressed, I came back to the first part watching through the windows and the implied voyeurism of that perspective, reminiscent of a peep show, and I couldn’t determine how that fitted with the message I was receiving throughout the rest of the show.

I applaud the performersfor their courage in taking to the public stage, and Val for bringing the ‘sports’ aspect of pole dancing to the public view and I’m also looking forward to seeing the calibre of international performers (athletes?) on the Olympic stage, but I was confused. If this is a sport, how and why do I review it? If it’s dance, why so defensive?

Theatre , Dance-theatre ,

2 hrs incl. interval