Honouring the Origins of Pole Dance
A Brief History of Modern Pole Dance
From evidence of Mallakhamb[1], traditional Indian wrestler’s pole, found on Chandraketugarh Bengal pottery dating back 4000 years ago[2], to Chinese pole, part of the Chinese circus repertoire dating back to the 12th century[3], the history of pole fitness as a traditional cultural activity in India, and a circus art that has achieved global recognition is well documented.
However, modern pole dance, as it practised in gyms and pole dance studios around the world, traces its roots back to the late 18th century “Hoochie Coochie” dance. In 1889 a colonial exhibition “Exposition Universelle” in Paris, in celebration of the industrial progress credited to colonisation by the French Empire, hosted attractions where a replica of a Javanese village and a “Street in Cairo” lined with cabarets featuring performances from Egyptian, Moroccan and Algerian dancers, drew thousands of people each day. A few years later, in 1893, show producer Sol Bloom invited Middle Eastern and Romani dancers from Paris to the United States to be part of the Chicago World Fair. Here, he set up a “Street in Cairo” where Syrian dancer Fahreda Mahzar, “Little Egypt”[4] and her troupe introduced dance du ventre, “belly dance” to the United States.[5] Performances featured Middle Eastern and Romani dancers who used the pole at the centre of the tent to climb, hold poses, and spin. This is credited as catalyst for the birth of “strip tease” burlesque, stripping, and pole dancing in America.
Belly dance, one of the oldest erotic dances in the world, was originally a fertility dance practiced in the temples of Ancient Egypt. The temple dancers’ ritual was sacred and linked to the fertility of the land and the Pharaoh. Dancing released a sacred energy which enabled the dancer to form a link with a deity, and act as a medium for the divine. The hip undulations, body waves and rolls that characterise erotic pole dance today are inspired by belly dance.
Since then, a fascination with the eroticisation and exoticisation of Black women and women of colour saw “Salomania” sweep through the capitals of Europe. Salomé, an 1893 play written by Oscar Wilde featuring Salomé and her famous Dance of the Seven Veils, was heavily influenced by orientalism.[6] White dancers began performing parodies of belly dance, donning exotic and skimpy costumes, adopting foreign music, and imitating the movement of Egyptian, Arab, Turkish, Persian, Hindu and Khmer dancers. These depictions were culturally inaccurate and did not respect the authenticity of the cultures they were appropriating. It encouraged audiences to objectify stereotype and fetishise unfamiliar cultures as a form of entertainment without developing respect or real appreciation for the people and cultures themselves.
Hence, “Exotic”, a contraction of the term “exotic dancers” has been used euphemistically to describe striptease and sensual erotic styles of pole dance that are performed in heels, with “Russian Exotic” being one of the best-known examples.
“Exotic Dance” vs “Low Flow” and “Basework”
“In the clurb, we all fam”
In modern discourse pole dance industry has been moving away from use of the word “Exotic” in reference to the sensual erotic style of pole dance performed in heels because of its colonial, orientalist and fetishist connotations. Many instead prefer “Heels”, “Low Flow” and “Basework” in reference to this style.
Why Does This Matter?
“Speak Valentina”
– “Ally!”
Pole dance is a microcosm of society, like queerness and sexuality, it’s innocent, yet in a social context, stigma attaches to it. While many recreational pole dancers are not strippers and do not undertake sex work, pole dance is often conflated with stripping, where it originates, a form of sex work[7] Sex work is still stigmatised and criminalised in many parts of the world.[8] The prevalence of whorephobia:[9] fear, hatred and stigmatisation of sex workers[10] sees pole dancers be sexualised, fetishised, objectified and even policed by being shadow-banned[11] on social media. Even the recognition of pole dance as a sport in 2017 for consideration for the Olympic Games. is often accompanied by rhetoric seeking to legitimise pole “sport” and “fitness” by dissociating pole from the shame attached to its roots in strip clubs.[12]
Whorephobia is a kind of misogyny[13] that occurs most insidiously in eurocentric cis-normative heteropatriarchal societies. It systemically targets strippers and sex workers, but collectively impacts all women, including Black women & women of colour, trans women and femmes. It might apply differently to each of us depending on our social class and ethnicity, but it affects us all just the same.
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 characterised by a passionate global community charged with joy, love, passion and empowerment. Pole fitness, sport and other forms of recreational pole are not “elevations” of pole dance, they are a celebration of its root in strip clubs and sex work, even when other seek to discredit it.
It is because of those who came before us that we enjoy pole dance as a craft in studios and around the world, and it is through us that others might come to discover it. That is why it is important to honour the history of pole dance.
[1] “Mallakhamb” derived from the word “malla” meaning wrestler and “khamb” meaning pole translates to “wrestlers pole”. “Traditional and Cultural Sport of Maharashtra” by Saloni Sisodiya and Ajeet Jaiswal, AFR Journals, 2024
[2]“History of Pole Dance” by Ivo Štrkljević, Lupit Pole
[3]“History of Pole Dance” by Ivo Štrkljević, Lupit Pole
[4] “Little Egypt” Suffragette City
[5]“The History of the Word ‘Exotic’” by Kitty Velour, Instagram 2021
[6] Orientalism is the imitation or depiction of aspects of the Eastern World (East Asia) or “Orient” by writers, designers, and artists from the Western world.
[7] “Sex Work: What is it? Is it legal?” 2023
[9]“Whorephobia affects all women” by Thierry Shaffauser, The Guardian, 2010
[10]“Not That Kind of Slut: Whorephobia in Sex-Positive Discourse” by Meghan Harms
[11]“What Instagram’s Pole Dance Shadowban Means For Ssocial Media”, Dr Carolina Hades, Blogger on Pole, 2019
[12]“Pole dancers eyeing Games participation, but soul of sport at risk” by Julien Pretot, 2024
[13]“Not That Kind of Slut: Whorephobia in Sex-Positive Discourse” by Meghan Harms
