History of Pole Comps

Though pole competitions are not the end goal for many of us who pole dance, we need to acknowledge that competitions can help a sport develop. In the world of pole, comps have assisted in legitimizing pole as a real sport, structured how pole should be judged (such as on a stationary pole and spin pole in competition), made participants take a hard look at the different sides of the sport (dance versus aerial) and pushed competitors to try trickier moves and more sophisticated sequences. This is what competition does to a sport: It pushes the sport to grow.

Hey, pole dancing is hard let’s make it a competition. 1990s- 2005

Though pole competitions are not the end goal for many of us who pole, it needs to be acknowledged that competitions can help a sport develop. For pole, comps have assisted in legitimizing pole as a real sport, structured how pole should be judged (such as on a stationary pole and spin pole in competition), made participants take a hard look at the different sides of the sport (dance versus aerial) and pushed competitors to try trickier moves and more sophisticated sequences. This is what competition does to a sport:it pushes the sport to grow.

If you weren’t poling in your basement or using poles during strip club off-hours in the early years let’s do a little recap on the origins of pole competitions. The first discussed competitions on the pole began in 1991 at the Deju Vu strip clubs, a franchise in the United States. The yearly competition was titled the Po’Lpymics (of course it was). At that point in time, the competition was less about hard moves and more about exotic dance.

Enter Pantera Blacksmith. She competed in the early 2000s and pioneered “challenging” pole moves. She put out a DVD tutorial on some of the harder moves she had perfected (shoulder mount, inside leg hang, brass monkey) and this was the first time most polers had seen these moves. If you saw this video in the early 2000s your mind was blown that someone could do these acrobatic moves on the pole and it was all you talked about with your pole friends for six months. Many of the first pole competitors were influenced by her use of demanding pole “tricks” and sequencing them together without breaks.

In Europe, the Miss Pole Dance Worlds competition was first held in 2005 in Amsterdam. This competition included Reiko Suemune(yes, the first known person to do the Reiko Splits) and Elena Gibson and there was a legendary controversy over first place. However, Miss Pole Dance Worlds went on to introduce the public and a future generation of polers to pole as a genuine sport and aided in launching the careers of Jenyne Butterfly and Felix Cane. Miss Pole Dance Worlds had spin offs in many countries all over the world including the UK and Canada. Miss Pole Dance Australia began in 2005 and helped push the athleticism of the sport to new levels and many notable Aussie pole dancers made a splash from the competition. Felix Canewon in 2006 and that propelled her into developing a feature role with Cirque du Soleil, for the show Zumanity. When Cirque Du Soleil took note of pole dancing, this was a moment of legitimizing pole as an aerial art equal to other aerial arts and acrobatic endeavors, further solidifying pole as a sport.

What is significant about these early competition years is that the world was introduced to pole as a sport that could be akin to gymnastics or ice skating. For the first time, the average person could see pole athletes creating moves that were on par with aerial and acrobatics. Whatever growing pains were faced in this time period, in the end didn’t matter, as people saw the future of the sport.

Is this a real sport? 2005 - 2015

US Pole Dance Federation (USPDF) Championship was first held in 2009 and won by Jenyne Butterfly, who also was noticed by Cirque Du Soleil and eventually developed her pole dance featured performance in the show One. The USPDF is still going strong with competitions held all over the U.S. During this time, many other organizations hopped on the bandwagon deciding to sanction pole competitions. This was a period of confusion in the sport. Not only were there multiple competitions claiming world champions, but judging at competitions was all over the place. Again, growing pains can lead to positive changes such as better divisions, better judging, better rules and allowing men’s categories in competitions too. Beginning in 2010, new moves were almost being created daily and keeping up with the changes was proving difficult from a judging perspective.