Pole art popularity outstrips its origins
By Mikaela Conley
(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times / April 22, 2013)
Sergia Anderson climbed high up a pole as Bjork‘s “Hyperballad” blasted through Circus Disco, a West Hollywood nightclub. Spinning and twirling, legs straight and toes pointed, she hung perpendicular to the ceiling, holding the pole with just her hands. Anderson then dropped quickly, catching herself just inches above the floor.
The crowd gasped, then applauded.
So goes the National Aerial Pole Art championship, in which 10 amateur pole dancers and 11 professionals competed on April 7. The stage included two floor-to-ceiling poles — one that spun and one static — against a glittery backdrop for competitors. Receiving the biggest applause was Greta Pontarelli, a 62-year-old amateur competitor, as she held herself, still and taut, upside down on the static pole.
Anderson, a 30-year-old competitor and owner of the Vertitude pole fitness studio in Woodland Hills, began dancing when she was 4, but it wasn’t until she discovered pole at 27 that she found an art that spoke to her.
What was once a dance that was synonymous with strip clubs, pole art has become an underground community that is finding its way into mainstream dance, fitness, art and culture.