Pole dancing as an Olympic sport?

[Heath]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...sj_share_tweet

There are terms a pole-dancing judge just doesn't use at the World Pole Sports Championships.

"Spatchcock," for instance.

That's what pole dancers usually call the maneuver Liza Szabo worked into her routine at the contest held here in July?a move that evokes a chicken splayed for roasting. But the old name wouldn't do for this venue.

Here, her move was officially the "FM10," and for good reason: The meet's organizers want to reform pole dancing into a sport respectable enough to go to the Olympics.

So they've written a rule book that gives code names to compulsory moves, specifies scoring methodology and bans pole-dancing staples such as removable articles of clothing. And they'd like people to call their event "pole sports" now.

"We're trying to be stricter here and become respected as a sport," said Florenza Pizanis, 43, a pole-dancing coach in Dortmund, Germany, and head of the International Pole Sports Federation's technical committee, which wrote the rules and applied them for the first time at the London championships.

Among the written regulations: no dancing "in an overtly erotic manner"?banned, for example, is "gluteal dance"?and no "hats, canes and anything that is not considered attached to the costume."

Regulation is the latest advance in pole dancing's evolution from strip-club staple toward serious sport. The pole has already won some global respect in recent decades, and organizations have formed in various regions to press its cause.

The federation, based in a London suburb, seeks to raise the bar by meticulously codifying competition.

Some dancers worry that regimentation may take some fun out of it. In a traditional pole dance, "you can perform a lot more, you can have a lot more fun, you can be a little more crazy," said Lisette Krol, a 27-year-old from Dublin, Ireland, who competed in London but also dances in venues that don't involve disrobing but do let dancers express more sensuality.

[fogfever]

nice idea

[mikesinner]

If walking is a sport then anything is possible.

[AsianDivaGirlsWebDude]

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