A Friend's Understanding :)

I posted a "note" on facebook a while back in an attempt to test the waters in terms of opening up about my pole dancing to the scary world. It went over pretty well, except for one person who decided to bring up the stripper thing and got chemgoddess a little annoyed, lol. There was, however, one comment that stood out. This is from a really really great friend of mine, honestly my best friend aside from my boyfriend. I wanted to share this with you guys because it is a great example of a non-pole dancer that "gets it". It's so nice to have such a great friend who truly understands. I hope you all get to experience this. From Ian: "I've got to admit, I had a fairly uninformed view of pole dancing until recently. Of course, my experiences with pole-dancing have been with amateur women grinding or swinging around the pole. It’s not that I looked down upon it; I didn’t feel it was a “stain upon the fair white dress of the values of young American women” as so many do. It was just there. It just happened to be, at clubs, bars, skin joints and the like. Yah, it’s sexy! I’m not going to frown at a girl shakin’ her good genetic assets up there; I’m a hot-blooded male with several millennia of instinctual lizard-brain behavior that makes it so I can’t HELP but appreciate it. But I’d never seen what I would call “competitive pole dancing” until just recently. I’d seen some of Danielle’s earlier videos she’d been nice enough to tease me with, and I’d seen her do some of the techniques where I’d kind of cock my head to one side and wonder how the hell she was staying in midair like that. But I’d never really thought about it from a technical standpoint; the thought, practice, endurance, strength and skill required to get up about eight feet in the air on a smooth metal pole and NOT fall off and break your face wide open. It wasn’t until this past Saturday that I drove up to the Kickstand Pub outside of Columbus to hang out with some girls from Studio Veena at one of their “Pole Jams” and got to actually see what this stuff was all about. It’s hard to describe how impressive this stuff is without having it done in front of you so you can point to the performer and say: “See that? She’s grabbed the pole with her right hand, propped her right elbow into her side right by her kidney. That helps transfer her weight from vertical force to horizontal force, and she’s kind of locked in position without too much chest, arm or grip strain. Now she can concentrate her effort on keeping her torso straight. And that’s why she’s fucking ten feet in the air, upside down and sideways and NOT falling off and breaking her face wide open. Oh, and doesn’t she look damn good doing it, too?” But for four hours, the students from Studio Veena did some gnarly moves, and I wasn’t the only person in the bar with their head cocked to one side wondering how the hell a girl was staying in midair like that. Truly, it’s as much of an art as modern dance or performance dance, and can require just as much practice, strength and discipline. I’m not one to advocate being shy about your hobby, (but then again, I paint little toy figures as mine) I think it’s healthy because it cultivates physical well-being and mental confidence. I don’t think you’re going to change everyone’s opinion about it, though, which is a shame. All you can really do is be confident and unabashed, do what you want, and when someone tries to give you grief about it, calmly explain your views. If they still don’t get it, fuck ‘em. Let them suffocate in that narrow little mind of theirs."