Pole politics

2005 was a confusing year for the feminist cause. On a national scale, the supposed bra-burners roared over a culture of sex, drugs and more sex brandishing aloft the piquant weapon that was Ariel Levy’s Female Chauvinist Pigs. The sub-title was, slightly less pithily, ‘women and the rise of raunch culture’. It begins: 'Meet the Female Chauvinist Pig – the new brand of “empowered woman” who wears the Playboy bunny as a talisman, bares all for Girls Gone Wild, pursues casual sex as if it were a sport, and embraces “raunch culture” wherever she finds it.’

In short, the products of the feminist generation like to pretend they’re as hardy as blokes in the more biological aspects of romance.

Sadly for Ariel Levy, England – and our university included - saw a massive rise in a new fad exercise – pole-dancing. If you were a Fresher in Warwick, you might have spotted innocent pastel leaflets advertising a fun new dance club. Warwick Exotic Dancers began as a casual exercise class run between the exec and a professional dancer.

When I joined up to Warwick’s new society, the only Ariel I knew did my washing. When I oh-so-playfully wrote for an e-zine declaring the unimpeachable health benefits of pole-dancing, somewhere above, Emmeline Pankhurst despaired.

2 years later, and I have become the very fuddy-duddy I originally sought to defy. Smug in my post-modern (synonym: non-existent) feminism, I would gather up my shorts and leather boots and sashay pole-wards. I got a dubious kick from the strained ‘...you do pole-dancing?’ and the lit-up eyes from my male friends. Because dance is a performance art. Any kind of dance. And any woman swinging around a pole imagines – however fleetingly, usually not that fleetingly – herself in front of admiring audience.

Which is, incidentally where the Warwick Exotic Dancers found themselves in 2007. In order to gain status as a society, the Warwick Exotic Dancers had to convince the resident Women’s Officer that this was quite definitely a non-spectator sport. They succeeded, and the women were left to eventually reach a semi-professional standard. There’s certainly nothing to be said against their dedication.

But, but. The constitution has now been amended to allow the society to give performances. How this one has slipped through the cogs is an astonishing display of Union bumbling. This is not merely performance in theory – 2 members of all the media societies were cordially invited to a gratuit performance. And the 2 that jumped at the chance in our biggest media society, RaW, were naturally men.

And what else was to be expected? Will they honestly persuade themselves that they are watching amateur athletes, displaying an acrobatic finesse to be admired as much for its difficulty as aesthetic beauty?

On one side of the media sphere, the university (with the Union’s support) bans The Sanctuary on campus.* Its justification is that the newspaper is run for profit. Why this is ethically more catastrophic than a group of intelligent women insulting themselves for the sake of entertainment is something only the skewed morals in the Ents office may explain to me.

I’m all in favour of free choice, and the society is of course free to do as it chooses. It is not free to choose how its audience thinks about its performers. Think for a minute ladies (gentlemen may find this one easier to answer) – what exactly do you like about pole-dancing? Really? What puts it above a nice game of table-tennis? Come off it, don’t tell me it’s ‘muscle tone’. It’s that little naughty thrill a woman apparently gets pretending to be, basically, a kind of sex worker. Because every kind of dance has a performance element in mind. I genuinely worry that a Warwick student could make an active choice to perform a pole-dance for an audience - it renders the intellect which got her here in the first place null and void.

*Actually this is a lie. The university is not banning the Sanctuary, it is merely exercising its right to remove it from its private property. Just to clear that up.

Right of reply: listen to the pole-dancers talk to Soapbox

Beardbook

The current target of my wrath is a technological development which has brought our society closer to a complete stripping of privacy. It has rendered us open to all kinds of invasive private censorship.

It is of course that scapegoat of all evils, Facebook.

A friendly SSLC representative informs me that my academic department has issues with Facebook. Namely groups created on them. Namely groups created specifically about lecturers. Apparently there are 16 related to the English department alone.

Out of sheer curiosity I attempted to track said 16 down. I also didn’t particularly fancy reading Frankenstein. By typing in ‘English literature’, only 1 student-created group in any way relevant to lecturers appeared. (Debating the resemblance between a tutor and Rasputin, incidentally). It’s a fun game – try it with your own department.

This leads me to conclude that some poor clerical munchkin (let’s call him Dobby) spent some small, yet irretrievable fraction of its lifetime constructing imaginative search terms in order to track down the other 15 groups. What were they?

I saw no reason to follow the footsteps of the clerical munchkin, but I can only assume Dobby typed in the name of each and every lecturer, module and – shudder – novel which has any link to the English syllabus. My own minutes of research have mostly revealed much aesthetic appreciation of several tutors (including, bizarrely, their facial hair). This presumably means Dobby’s search terms will have also included ‘beard appreciation’ and ‘sex god’. I found nothing personally insulting as such, although there was the occasional grumble about modules, unsurprisingly. I did spend minutes on this, though. Irretrievable minutes.

Evidently the English department is not the only victim of such churlish behaviour. Dobby’s colleague over in the business school (let’s call him Kreacher) and other clerical munchkins across the arts subjects have similarly spent irretrievable minutes on the subject. Kreacher – like his department – is particularly efficient, and fans of pro-whisker groups and the like may expect impolite e-mails from him suggesting that you remove the textual manifestation of your beard-appreciation. If you don’t, Kreacher will tell your personal tutor. And the senior tutor. And another undergraduate bigwig. So nyah.

Quite what these brass hats will do about your beard-appreciation remains a fudged matter. Suggest therapy perhaps?

If on the other hand, you have taken the opposite stance and are particularly anti-beard, you should also refrain from commenting. Any expression of personal dislike on these groups is deemed, it appears, inappropriate. Inappropriate for what? Have a look in your undergraduate handbooks. There are rules forbidding you from plagiarism, cheating in exams and pushing deadlines. What I can’t find – and please e-mail me if you do – is the clause: ‘Students found expressing anti-barbigerous sentiments via Facebook will face disciplinary action.’ And they would use barbigerous. Just to be unnecessarily spiteful munchkins.

Because that is what this whole debate is – whether you’re the clerical munchkin or the creator of a group. Good lecturers are necessarily subject to scrutiny from their young observers. It’s the inevitable fascination with the mentor figure and frankly, an inevitable consequence of any form of teaching. Look at JD and Dr Cox. Our beard fantasies look positively healthy in comparison.

Facebook is exactly what it claims to be, and no more. Academic departments make fools of themselves and their students by taking this new form of social communication much too seriously. Attempting to police the groups simply shows a reactionary and worryingly suppressive attitude. Certainly derogatory groups are lamentable but ignore it, for crying out loud. Weren’t you taught that in the playground?

The moral of the story is: never assume your lecturers and tutors have personalities. Take no mark of their mannerisms, foibles or academic merits. In no way analyse them amongst yourselves, personally or physically. Analysis? What do you think you are – a student?

Low Key: Warwick battle of the bands

Heralded only by an Ents e-mail which clearly went straight to everyone’s junk folder, Bandsoc’s acoustic Battle of the Bands is just as important a test of a band’s ability as the main event.

Opening proceedings was solo guitarist and pianist Sarah Hacking-Brian. Impressively unfazed by first act nerves, Hacking-Brian played a 3 song-set moving from guitar to piano. She is talented vocally, combining a moodiness and quirkiness strongly reminiscent of Tori Amos. Perhaps her pensive singing was not fully complemented by full experimentation on either
instrument; repetitive chords formed the backdrop for the majority of her music and rendered doleful what ought to have been soulful.

Tuneful and moody follow-ups were pianist and vocalist combination George and Nikki. Opening with ‘Moonlight Song’, the pair gave a very strong performance although Nikki is clearly the more vocally talented of the two. The audience was particularly wowed by George’s innovative piano solos, and in spite of melancholy lyrics, this was a more upbeat set. Classic and confident, the music was very fitting for the Graduate Bar, but let down by a slight lyrical repetitiveness.

Where the first two acts relied on minimalism, The Frolics trundled onto the stage trailing clarinets, violas, double-stringed guitars and some kind of bongo thing in their wake. Sounding somewhere in between Broken Social Scene and the Rolling Stones in their Their Satanic Majesties Request days, The Frolics would not have been out of place in the ’69 Woodstock. Sterling performances from multi-talented clarinettist/violist Gemma Kappala-Ramsamy and drummer Cai Wingfield formed a chirpy, experimental backing to gravely, catchy vocals of Joseph Oldham. A trippy, mood-lifting performance with audience participation on a high. (Not literally, despite all appearances).

Toning the atmosphere down to minimalist again, one half of newcomers Dry Land performed a laid-back guitar set. This was the band’s first gig and is a promising indication of their electric performance in the fifth heat of Battle of the Bands. Unfortunately, the sound team were a little overenthusiastic after the loud psychedelics of The Frolics, and the careful intricacy of Rob Darnell’s guitarring were rather lost. Ian Thompson’s mellow, modulated vocals (well matched by layered chords and subtly stirring picking) rewarded careful listening, however. Further thought on the balance between vocals and guitarring, and more gig experience will give Dry Land the confidence they need for a fully rounded performance.

Penultimate act Jason Morgan bounced onto the stage with his guitar. Betraying an Irish lilt in his introduction, Morgan threatened to be another James Blunt wannabe. Certainly he blends a similar melodic melancholic sound, but his vocal confidence removes any dullness. His skill at guitarring and singing simultaneously, combined with a rhythmic interest quite difficult to achieve in an acoustic set made Morgan stand out. His guitarring is not to be faulted and is well-tailored for acoustic sessions.

If Morgan bounced onto the stage, the acoustic version of BOTB finalists Young and the Damned owned it. Like the Frolics, they provided an eclectic instrumental mix (was that a xylophone I saw in there?) although they provided a more frantic sound. Oozing stage charisma, the band radiated experience and enjoyment of their music. Citing The Killers, Depeche Mode and the Smiths as their influences, the acoustic trio consisted of talented pianist Jake Brookman, vocalist Patrick Carr and drummer Chaz Tomlinson. Fusing Futureheads-style vocal harmonics (that’s where any similarities end) with a sped-up take on the cheekiness of the Dirty Pretty Things, Young and the Damned were energetic and fully deserved their winning accolade.

Judges’ pick:

The Young and the Damned: http://www.myspace.com/youngandthedamned

Jason Morgan: http://www.jason-morgan.co.uk

Music review 2006

The Newcomers

In a peculiar hybrid of geek and cool, it seems like the techno-wizzes have had the last laugh in 2006. The intriguing Lily Allen (Alright, Still) and the slightly less intriguing Sandi Thom (Smile…It Confuses People) have jumped on the Internet bandwagon which boomed with the Arctic Monkeys. The phenomena of myspace/music combined with the possibility of broadcasting your own gigs on YouTube have sparked a boom in the Internet almost-industry.

Allen revels in the banality of everything; from her urban surroundings in ‘Ldn’ to the smiling cattiness of a former lover in ‘Not Big’. Allen infuses exceptionally bitchy London lyrics with soft vocals which, when live, are almost indistinguishable from her ska-influenced backing band. The nature of the music, comprising chiefly of skipping ska/reggae, allows the album to form a kind of ‘life soundtrack’ highly fitting with the current gritty perception of the real. (The Streets, The Hardest Way To Make An Easy Living; Plan B, Who Needs Actions When You Got Words).

Certainly on mainstream radio, Allen will have made regular summer listening alongside The Kooks. Despite earlier releases and the appearance of Inside In/Inside Out in January, it was only at the beginning of the festival season that this band moved markedly beyond the pages of NME and onto mainstream radio. Even the majority of Warwick’s scenesters failed to attend their early gig in the Student Union while only 6 months later, they played to a packed NME tent at the Carling festivals. Lacking the live frenetic energy of other such Warwick-loved bands the Subways, the Kooks’ success has not gone unquestioned. An unambitious mix of irresistibly sing-along tunes (‘Naïve’) with pleasant foot-tapping acoustic guitar (‘Ooh La’) makes this band a winner. Whether the Kooks are capable, as a band, of developing musically and innovatively remains to be seen.

The Fratellis provided the soundtrack to the shift between summer and autumn with Costello Music. The anti-Kooks camp will shun yet another skinny-jeaned ,big-haired NME favourite, and no doubt the Fratellis are characterised by the same themes. Yet both differ from the sexdrugsrocknroll of their blueprint, the Libertines, downplaying the world weariness in favour of youthful playfulness. What makes Costello Music so appealing is the constant undercutting of this youth with elements of 70’s city rock.

While Rihanna provides a fresher sound and versatility on the R&B scene than Beyoncé with A Girl Like Me (featuring the brilliant mashup of Softcell’s ‘Tainted Love’ in ‘S.O.S’ – a club favourite), 2006 has undoubtedly been the year of Indie glam. The less said about Kasabian’s Empire, the better.

The Sellouts

2006 saw a strawberries-and-pepper collaboration halfway through the year with Nelly Furtado’s joint effort with Timbaland, resulting in Loose. Like said combination of foodstuffs, the two complement each other surprisingly well. (No, really). Despite being one of the few strong female figures in popular/folk music without resorting to the mainstream machine of self-promotion, Furtado’s Folklore flopped in 2003. The result has been a move away from the ‘ethnic’ roots of Whoa, Nelly! towards a total embrace of the MTV culture, even featuring Justin Timberlake in the sexualised ‘Promiscuous’ video. While the relaxed panpipes of ‘All Good Things’ (featuring Coldplay frontman Chris Martin) offer a brief respite from the almost satirically inappropriate club beats of ‘Maneater’, Furtado has lost the musical innocence which characterised her earlier releases.

Higher up on the mainstream machine is Beyoncé with the wonderfully entitled B’day (so called because the album was produced in a record three weeks, just before the singer’s birthday). With such a glaringly obvious publicity oversight, Beyoncé’s fans might wonder if she puts as little thought into her music. Well…yes and no. ‘Crazy In Love’ found Beyoncé the winning song formula of powerful diva vocals plus occasional guest rapper (Jay Z, who has returned from an official retirement lasting 2 years with Kingdom Come). Beyoncé has proved beyond all doubt that she has sterling abilities in both her vocal performance and showmanship, yet current mock-ballad release ‘Irreplaceable’ could easily have been a number from Survivor by Destiny’s Child. Coupled with the angry ‘Ring the Alarm’ (complete with fire alarm effects), this is nothing fans haven’t heard before. Previous album Dangerously In Love largely perfects Beyoncé’s established Independent Woman image, and fans who want more of the same will not be disappointed.

Rather darker in tone is Muse’s fifth album Black Holes And Revelations. Performing their most ambitious tour yet, Matt Bellamy and co. have perfected a seamless live act filled with musical fireworks to delight everyone from Indie ravers to metalheads. This all-inclusive sound is achieved by Bellamy experimenting with his earlier, endearingly geeky obsession with the electric and distortion sound effects first heard in Origin Of Symmetry. Black Holes is a more accessible album and Muse seem to have commendably retained their original fan base. However, a less chaotic sound is achieved at the expense of Bellamy’s blinding piano solos. Throughout the previous albums the classical and the electric intertwine to form the sound which is particularly unique to the band and perfected in Absolution. Black Holes may appeal to the thousands Muse will perform to in Wembley Arena, but it lacks the soul and depth the band is capable of achieving.

Improvers and Shakers

In the Spears/Aguilera teen pop playoff of 1999, it seemed like Britney had it all. Justin Timberlake, money, better hair and Justin Timberlake. With the dawn of 2007, it’s Aguilera who has established herself as the superior both in vocals and dignity. Moving from the awakening that is Christina Aguilera towards dodgy duets with Ricky Martin on Mi Refejo, Aguilera has stayed constant while the Latin American boom has faded like a badly-applied tan. Aguilera’s progress between the albums is so neatly divided it could be presented in boxes. From the gritty seduction of Stripped, Back to Basics is a vocally mature album, this time in the persona of a soul diva. Aguilera however, is not a soul diva and this starlet pose is not entirely convincing. It is nonetheless an impressive and jazzy effort from an artist finally established in herself. Moving entirely away from the jagged edges of 1998 debut Songs For Polar Bears is Snow Patrol’s Eyes Open. Maintaining the melodic melancholy of Final Straw, the band have constructed an exceptionally thoughtful and, on occasion, dark album. Their overt focus on sentimentality and a sound so subtle it is in danger of being bland weaken the album. Subtlety, however, is what characterises earlier, groundbreaking single ‘Run’ and the same compelling element in Eyes Open demands a second listen.

Warwick Sanctuary - Heating the Coconut

The word "coconut" is used as a mild derogatory slang word referring to a person of Latino, Filipino, or Indian subcontinent descent who emulates a white person (brown on the outside, white on the inside).

When even Wikipedia, that bastion of hastily assorted knowledge, picks up on a cultural in-joke around since the 80s, one wonders why there seems to be so little comment on the subject.

I have never heard either term applied to anyone other than someone of British Asian descent but, being a Coconut, clearly I don’t hang around with enough Latino and Filipino students. Warwick is full of coconuts. We’re everywhere. We scorned London, Leicester and Coventry for being too Indian. We’re a little intimidated by Cambridge, and we’ve learnt to accept that goddammit, there are no decent curry houses in Leamington Spa. We go to Millennium Balti, with its endearing Eurotrash music, in the knowledge that it’s like a scene from Goodness Gracious Me and eye the waiters with a mixture of sympathy and scorn. We even think up Westernized nicknames for ourselves for our caucasion fellows apparently incapable of coping with polysyllables (viz: ‘Dave’ for Devanand, ‘Dippy’ for Dipankar, and my own personal favourite, ‘Dan’ for Dhananjay).

Rather cruelly, we shun the company of Indian soc; a society chiefly run by what we snootily term freshies. Wikipedia again comes to my rescue: The term is commonly used when immigrants from a foreign nation have not yet assimilated the host nation's culture, language, and behaviour. [They] tend to be identified by their fashion, social preferences, behaviour towards others, and — perhaps most commonly and distinctively — their accents.

Yes, to say the least. Goodness Gracious Me picked up on and hyperbolised the ridiculous habits of our parents, instilling us second generation coconuts with the fear of becoming anything like them. What simple, harmless entertainment it is to imitate the Bombay accent and paint it as an indication of stupidity. Unfortunately, we rather shot ourselves in the foot by portraying ourselves and our parents in this fashion to the Western side of the world, because it results in arrant tripe like Bride and Prejudice. Oh dear God. No one really dances around in synchronisation at Indian weddings in belly-revealing outfits. The less said about Lloyd Webber’s Bollywood Dreams, the better.

In spite of this, there is one event – hosted by our Union – which does much to combine these two breeds at Warwick. It is called Heat and takes place on arbitrary Fridays. Laughingly, it describes itself an ‘international’ music event. Lies. I’ve never heard them play anything but bhangra past 11 o’ clock. Whatever the coconuts might pretend, a very small bit of them longs to be part of that noisy melee of Asian people smoking sheesha. Thus they sidle along to Heat, hidden under a hat, cast off their skinny jeans and admit that they know the words to every song from Dil Se. Albeit in a horrendous accent. So lost are the coconuts in their pretence that they perpetrate their own clichés. Indiansoc ought to set up a charity: Heating the Coconut – helping coconuts become a little browner on the inside. All donations to be given in rupees.

Warwick Boar - Warwick on University Challenge

The Warwick team competing in last night’s ‘University Challenge’ thrashed Emmanuel College, Cambridge in what may transpire to be Warwick’s most promising performance yet.

Legendarily, Warwick University has always fared badly on the quiz show, scores even dropping into minus figures for interruptions. The Boar can reveal, however, that this year’s team looks to set significantly higher standards for any successors.

The team consisted of four students: Daisy Christodoulou, finalist English student and captain; Rory Gill, finalist English literature and Italian; Prakash Patel, MOAC PhD and Harold Wyber, a third year economist.

None of the four students had met before qualifying for ‘University Challenge’, but their captain Daisy claims that the team’s strength lay in how well they got on. ‘Last February, the sports officer organised a quiz based on questions set by University Challenge and the top four got into the team. We all knew what we would have to face, and I’d say we all contributed equally, especially in that first match.’

Jeremy Paxman, the long-time host of the quiz, is famous for his quickfire style of questioning and alleged favouritism of his own university, Cambridge. ‘In terms of favouritism, it wasn’t all that noticeable. He has a slightly patronising manner, but we learnt not to be phased by it,’ Daisy commented. ‘It wasn’t like we were an Oxbridge college with loads of pressure because of any previous history of having done well – we haven’t had an amazing record on the show. It’s the pressure of being on television which you can’t prepare for.’ The Warwick team’s initial struggle to answer starter questions reflects the intense pressure before the cameras. Despite this, the team’s performance swiftly picked up, and they acquitted themselves admirably.

University Challenge begins with 28 teams competing in the first round knock-out. Thereafter the 14 victorious teams as well as the 4 highest scoring losing teams progress into the next round. Although this first performance is a hopeful indication of future matches, the team captain insists that the most enjoyable times during filming were not about the glory. ‘You have to remember it’s just a game, and there are no prizes at the end of it. We got to socialise with other teams, and we got to go out and celebrate afterwards. We all got on really well – you go to have fun, and the best aspect was the team.’

This relaxed attitude stood the team in good stead in their first round, and Monday’s clear-cut victory against Emmanuel College is indicative that it will continue to do so.

Warwick Boar - 3 Years Wasted

A high percentage of lecturers throughout the country believe that further education is a sell-out. The results of a survey, to be published next week, reveal that 77 per cent of academics consider that higher education now prioritises targets, not the joy of learning once associated with it. Other symptoms of this academic devaluation include a relaxation of required standards, loss of intellectual excitement, and a creeping de-personalisation as the education system becomes more bureaucratic.

The study highlights the emergence of several problems. The controversy over Tony Blair’s push for a higher university attendance amongst young people has led to pressured universities lowering their entry standards in order to fulfil quota requirements. Increased spending on the expansion of higher education during recent years has also meant academia is becoming increasingly administrative. Finally, the introduction of top-up fees (of which Warwick was a strong proponent) could potentially reduce the concept of a degree to a commodity with quantifiable objectives and outcomes. Sarah Raffel, in her second year of Politics, disagrees. “It all depends on what you want from your degree. I don’t think it is a quantifiable commodity – perhaps some international students very much want their money’s worth, but it’s always going to be more about the uni experience as a whole for the home students.”

Within the organization of Warwick University is the Centre for Academic Practice (CAP); one example of the administrative measures taken to reach acceptable targets. CAP provides "support for lecturers on development issues in teaching and learning, research and academic management and leadership”. It is this introduction of such legalistic, corporate bodies which academics claim has de-personalised higher education. Senior lecturers are offered “management development” courses in keeping with Warwick’s increasingly corporate structure.

One academic source criticised the negative effect of CAP on teaching morale and the student-tutor relationship. This latter is further diminished by the university’s attitude that “all students are possible litigants”. Similarly, several lecturers have commented on “the Warwick brand” which the university has perfected as it has expanded in size. “The standard Warwick degree is a 2,1. It’s the ‘Warwick package’ and makes for a good brand name. We’re more modern than Oxbridge, but there’s little sense of heterogeneity”. Part of this branding involves a cheapening of the Warwick degree as the university churns out standard graduates tailored for the job market. Some such as Joe Bond, a second-year M.O.R.S.E. student, remain optimistic however. “It’s true that there are more people in higher education, but degrees from institutions like Warwick are always going to be worth a lot.”

Some academics have commented that the problems of higher education do not rest only with the universities, but the Blair ideology, in which the marketplace is a “determinant of the curriculum”.

Undergrad by day, pole-dancer by night

Yes, this is exactly what you think it is. It is not, as perhaps the media-cynical reader might suppose, a provocative title heading an article which in fact transpires to be a badly-disguised pun on the latest expedition to the Arctic Circle.

Up and down the country, a small but significant revolution in exercise is occurring. Pole-dancing may not rival the celebrity-starred popularity of yoga just yet, but it’s certainly making its mark.

I took lessons with Liz Dixon of Pole-Positions to find out why. Leather boots (to prevent friction on your legs) in hand, I sidled furtively to a room advertised on a leaflet posted through my door. Like some clandestine, arcane witchcraft society, therein stood a small circle of nervous women. And in the middle of this gathering? The shiny necessity to this unusual sport – a pole.

Sexy walk

Liz herself, a stoic, experienced and motivating instructor, assured us that her pole-dancing classes were popular with students and housewives alike, both of whom wished to boost their own confidence, as well as tone their physiques. The First Lesson First things first – the Sexy Walk. To build self-confidence and put those high heeled boots to good use, we started off learning to walk in an exaggeratedly seductive fashion.

Exaggeration is the key word here. Envisaging you were Kate Moss in that White Stripes video also helped (although the mirror opposite gave something of a reality check). The right walk, though it initially made us feel slightly silly, was essential – there was no point approaching the pole as though it had teeth.

Once we had the walk conquered, the next stage was the Fireman, so-called for self-explanatory reasons. It was a simple move which required us to Sexy Walk (oh yes) around the pole to gather momentum, before jumping onto the pole and sliding down with both knees. And so began pole-dancing… The Image Pole-dancing is breaking away from its image of sleazy strip-joints in the city. Men and women alike are finding out that it is a fun and sensual form of exercise available to them in a safe and welcoming environment.

Camaraderie

Companies, such as Pole Positions, are springing up with the express purpose of offering pole-dancing as a keep-fit alternative for everyone – students, housewives and even men! Pole dancing takes endurance and co-ordination, as well as the sensuality which comes chiefly with practice and growing assurance within the environment. The pole itself is constructed of a lightweight metal and held in place by threading – meaning that much of the pressure of a pole-dancer’s weight is put on the ceiling and floor, and not on the pole itself. Just for Fun As the course moved on, there grew a feeling of camaraderie within the class as we all encouraged and complimented each other.

A course such as this is perfect for those who are shy and wish to boost their self-confidence – whether on the dance floor or for themselves. Whether you choose to let the information slip is up to you entirely… Courses with Pole Positions are available in Leamington Spa, Coventry and, more recently, Hemel Hempstead. Each one hour lesson costs £15, and the course runs over six weeks; more details can be found here.

Listen to Soapbox on the radio: Pole-dancing