Pole dancing: for aficionados, it’s serious stuff

Jenyne Butterfly shows what a world-champion pole dancer looks like. No platforms, no sequins, no lingerie, no raunch; just really good (and seriously sexy!) stuff.

Yesterday, as part of my ongoing informal research into the world of a Mexican book I’m translating, I posted some videos of pole dancers in action. Apparently I’m not the only one impressed with the amount of effort and artistry the women put into it. The guys who frequent the bars where these dancers perform are like soccer hooligans in their dedication to the art, and they get pissed off when it doesn’t seem to get the respect it deserves from bar owners. Last year, things got to the point where a Mexican blog devoted to table dancing put out this call to arms:

How’s it going, dearest Tablefans, I’m writing with some inconformities with my adorable dancers, I’m upset now that on these latest visits to the “table”, we’ve run into lots of girls who are no longer using the pole for their performance, this is simply unacceptable, now they only grab onto it as if it were some vile post to lean on, some don’t even grab onto it at all, and the worst of all is that in some places there isn’t even a pole, what will happen to those marvellous movements in which they climb and hang suspended only by the strength of their legs, their abdomen, those impressive spins they do, the way things are going now we’ll only see those movements in fashionable fitness classes.

For this reason I want to invite all the table-dance bars to put more effort into their contracts or their support for the dancers, so there are lots of places where they can learn those movements, we the table-dance guide offer ourselves to help in the recruitment and selection of the dancers (we’re not fools you know).

But we’re doing it out of the love we have for the “tables”, in truth everything is an art, no matter if it’s painting, photography, cinema, etc., when a girl does a true and incredible performance she drives us crazy and makes us want to spend all our money on private dances, not to mention that we remember her moves for a long time, it affects us just like a masterpiece.

We of the Table-Dance Guide commit ourselves to keep looking for and spreading this marvellous art, we won’t rest until they get the recognition they deserve, we ask for your help dear table-fans, with your help it will be much easier, keep reading us.

Translation mine. Run-on sentences and comma splicing as in original.

Yes, that’s right…they actually go to see the dancing, and they’re not satisfied to simply see a girl lackadaisically dragging her ass around the pole without really using the thing (or just wagging it on a pole-less stage, worse luck).

That’s not to say they don’t drop a lot of cash in the back room of these brothel-like joints (which is what the owners are no doubt counting on them to do); they want to be given a reason, an incentive if you will, to go there, besides the obvious. Hence the emphasis on the “art of the pole”.

A good performance on the pole is more thrilling to watch than the rote bump-and-grid that any crack-addicted unfortunate can do (and a great many do). That stands to reason. And if, as this blogger asserts, guys are willing to fork out more cash for a good pole dance than they would have been otherwise, one would hope that the bar owners don’t just go on cheaping out, but give the girls a break, and hire some real talent.

After all, a lot of those ladies have families to support, and not just drug habits.