A Beginner’s Guide to Pole Wear: For Queer People
Pole wear comes in a variety of styles, from sports bras to crop tops, tank tops and even swimwear.[2] Like pole dance shorts, they are usually made of stretchy material, which allows for optimal grip, easy movement and maximum comfort during your performance.
It is often said that the more advanced you become, the less you wear. This may be true because as you progress, you often require more skin on the pole for optimal grip in the hip, back and even shoulders.
My pro tip for pole wear is that when learning inverts in high waist pole bottoms, please encourage students to roll down the waistband of their bottoms so that they can grip the pole with the skin on the hip. The hip is a critical grip point that needs to be conditioned and students often struggle with inverts because their high waist bottoms interfere with their hip grip point.
Honouring the Origins of Pole Dance
Pole dance is a means of cultural expression that bears the rich history of “Little Egypt”, strippers, abolitionists, sufraggettes, scientists and so many others who come before us. Our own bodies imbue it with the stories of who we are and where we have come from. As students, and especially as instructors, we are custodians of this craft. Its culture and history become our own.
It is because of who we all are, not in spite of it that pole dance is …