Not A History, But An Introduction to Pole Dancing for Men

This particular entry has taken me forever to work on. I guess it's a little overwhelming to find such great male pole dancers/artists/athletes, and then choose which to reference for this post.

Let's start with what most of us know when we hear the words "male" and "pole dancing." For someone completely new to pole dancing, you may very well have limited references, relying mostly on mainstream media. I'm guessing that the most televised demonstration of male pole dancing would have to come from Season 6 of America's Got Talent, in 2011: Steven Retchless.

Now let me first start off by saying, nothing he just did was easy, and he did it in heels on top of that. Retchless presented a mix of strength, agility, flexibility, and grace. I commend him for presenting something new to a show that gets a lot of viewership. That alone was a brave step in the right direction towards the awareness of pole fitness and dancing. I would like to, however, make a statement to those of you who are new to pole, which is: YOU DO NOT HAVE TO WEAR HEELS to pole dance. Heels are completely a personalized style, and nothing required for what you may want to do... neither are the shiny hot pants.

Before you click that BACK button, Steven also does routines without heels, just sayin:

Amazing, isn't he?

Let me repeat: HEELS ARE OPTIONAL, NOT REQUIRED!


How about we find something older than 2011. Here is a video of Dave Kahl, the Male Division Ultimate Pole Champion, at the International Pole Dance Fitness Championship - Tokyo 2009:

Notice the different styles between Retchless and Kahl. That's the amazing thing about pole dancing: it's so dynamic in the sense that you get to mold it to your own personality.


On that note, I leave you with one final video for this post, my personal favorite, Josiah "BAd AZZ" Grant:

 He's definitely a force to be reckoned with. Expect me to post more of his work in the future.

There are so many amazing and brilliant pole dancers/artists/athletes around, and I this post can only go for so long. I know I've left out some amazing people, but trust me, I'll definitely be writing about them in the future.

A Long Brief History of Pole Dancing

I really love how mysteriously unknown the history of pole dancing is. Google it now and you'll see the same theories, without any documented proof. So here's my loose interpretation of what I've read on the internet.

The more amusing theory is that it started with the Maypole. Yes, that thing you see at most Renaissance festivals these days. The revelers dance and prance around a pole holding ribbons as they intertwine each other. (There are other sources that say ribbons were added later in centuries, but it's not important for the topic here.) In the defense of whichever historian concluded that as being the start of pole dancing, they are technically correct if you want to be literal about it. But that theory just bores me.

Another theory is pole dancing originated from the traveling circus. If you've ever seen that movie Carnivàle that was on HBO for two seasons, you'd see that just how scandalous the traveling circus was back in the day. The traveling circuses would have these tents for the exotic dancers to perform their art in front of of the horny townsfolk men. God bless artistic improvisation, because some dancer(s) thought they'd turn it up a notch and dance around the center pole of the tent, that held it up. Well, I guess that caught on, because pole started to work themselves into strip clubs and the like. Now that's the type of history I want to read about!

Now, there are some sources that say the fitness aspect originated from India, where men used a tall pole to display their physical abilities; something called Mallastambha. To me it looks like and Indian Cirque du Soleil act. Look it up, because I'm too tried to, and it really isn't as interesting as the whole circus-tent-pole story.

To be honest, the popularity and growth of interest for pole dancing has claims to many originators. Take your pick on what you feel is the birth of mainstream pole dancing/fitness. Regardless, it's in the media even more these days, and there's no stopping the surge of popularity of the sport/art.

In the next blog, I'll try discuss the origin of Men on the pole.

The Introduction

So you want to know more about Pole Dancing, Pole Fitness and/or Pole Arts?

I created this blog for the men (and maybe women) who didn't have a place to find the answers to their questions about pole. The sport has been around for quite some time now, but it's still working through its debut on mainstream media. I have only been doing pole dancing/fitness since January of 2011, and I consider myself still an amateur at best. Thankfully, the "internetwebs" provided me an opportunity to look within the virtual cracks, to find a fascinating world that not many men are aware of.

The stigma behind the the art of pole is rampant in many communities today. The interest, if there is any, seems to cater to the female demographic, more so than men. The resources for a male's interest in pole is still in low supply. I feel this has caused a hindrance for pole fitness/dance hopefuls who just want a chance at the experience.

My objective for this blog:

• To provide a resource site for men who are interested in pole, but don't know where to start
• To provide a safe place, free of judgement (with the exception of harmless joking)
• To provide and educational platform for your pole experience to grow
• To provide inspiration and words of encouragement to enhance your interest in pole

Whatever you can get out of this site, I hope will enrich your pole journey, and I welcome the lessons and experiences you can pass on to me.

(I also created this blog to better my writing skills, as you may find to be amateur and well.)


Don't be ashamed to ask questions; it's one of the best tools we have to grow.