Stephanie Babines just wanted to open a pole dance aerobics studio in Adams Township, Pennsylvania.
After spending $10,000 remodeling an old children’s clothing store in Adams Township, Stephanie was denied a Certificate of Occupancy by the city. “Pole Aerobics” sounded a lot like “adult business” to them - even though Stephanie is an accredited pole instructor, classes are taught fully clothed, and there are no spectators allowed.
A recent report documented how the craze has even spread to China. But while a repressive country like China allows dance studios to teach pole dancing, the defendants in this small Butler County town have misapplied their zoning code to deny Ms. Babines her right to teach this new combination of
art and sport to interested adult women.
Good luck Stephanie in your fight for exercise freedom!
After originally deciding that pole-dancing had lost its strip club cache, Cardiff council in Wales decided not to allow children under 16 to sign up for pole-dancing classes.
In a statement, a council spokesman apologised for any offence caused and said no children under 16 had signed up to do the classes.
“It was planned in a context of dance, choreography and exercise opportunities within part of a council programme,†he said.
“These taster sessions have been fully subscribed and have, in effect, been self-regulated as all the participants are over 16 years of age. We clearly misjudged the age range issue and it has been a salutary lesson.â€
Michelle L’amour wants to teach women how to dance. Sexy dance. Sexy aerobics dance.
She offers a combination get-in-shape and get-hot class all in one.
“You’re going to have to look at that wall like it’s the sexiest thing you’ve ever seen,” advises Michelle L’amour as she teaches burlesque dancing, which is striptease-style dancing with more fanfare and less nudity. Picture Colin Farrell (or the person of your choice) at the other end of the room and ravish him with a sultry, come-hither look, she advises. And wearing high heels or a feather boa never hurts.
“I really like making women feel sexy,” says L’amour, who holds the title of Miss Exotic World, the equivalent of Miss America for exotic dancers.
Ariel Levy wrote “Female Chauvinist Pigs” after discovering that new found “raunch culture” had replaced sensuality with sexuality and elevated porn above pleasure. In the book, Levy notes a number of porn culture influences including strip-club inspired aerobics classes and aerobic pole dancing.
“It actually makes perfect sense when we think about it,” writes Levy. “Raunch culture is not essentially progressive, it is essentially commercial. By going to strip clubs and flashing on spring break and ogling our Olympians in Playboy, it’s not as though we are embracing something liberal — this isn’t Free Love.”
Raunch culture, she says, is “about endlessly reiterating one particular — and particularly commercial — shorthand for sexiness.”
Just blaming men misses the bigger picture, Levy says. The women’s movement has empowered women and provided myriad choices, she points out. Sexuality is a complex business, yet “somehow, we [women] have accepted as fact the myth that sexiness needs to be divorced from the everyday experience of being ourselves.”
Pole dancing has been featured on the Oprah Winfrey show, vouched for by Teri Hatcher of Desperate Housewives, and has swept through the US, Europe and the rest of the world like wildfire.
And now, its reached Edmond, Oklahoma.
“We worked for eight months to make (pole dancing) an exercise,” said Laura Rahhal, owner of Nothing But Class. “All of the moves are everything you’ve done in a gym - (you) just haven’t used a pole.”
The classes definitely provide a total body workout to all those participating.
“You would be amazed at how much strength it takes to do a workout like this,” said Shana Briggs, an instructor at the gym. “And besides the fitness benefits, it gives women such a good feeling personally. It definitely increases self-esteem.”
