Pole world charm

Gone are the days when pole dancing was synonymous with seedy, sex industry images.

These days, pole dancers are highly skilled competitors - part gymnasts, part contemporary dancers, part strength trainers - whose acrobatic moves are more likely to be found in Cirque Du Soleil shows than in a gentlemen's club.

See this for yourself at the fifth annual International Pole Championship tomorrow.

Held in Singapore for the first time, the competition will be at the National University of Singapore's University Cultural Centre Hall.

Organised by the International Pole Dance Fitness Association, the event has drawn 30 of the world's best pole dancers from 12 countries, including Australia, Finland, Japan, Singapore and the United States.

These finalists will vie for $45,000 worth of prizes, including training scholarships and professional sponsorship.

There are five competition divisions: men's, women's, women's disabled, doubles and masters. Contestants will be judged for their technique, originality and choreography.

International Pole Championship's Poland-born founder Anna Przeplasko says she decided to hold the competition in Singapore this year mainly because of pole dancing's increasing popularity here.

The performance art is taught in more than 10 dance studios and gyms around the island.

Says Ms Przeplasko, 38: "In an average week, there are 500 students practising pole dancing in Singapore, which is about six times more than when the competition started in 2008."

She moved here two years ago with her Australian-banker husband and is six months pregnant with their first child.

More than 1,000 people are expected to attend the event tomorrow night.

Only 200 tickets are still available to spectators. Some pole dancing workshops in conjunction with the championship sold out weeks ago.

DANIEL KOK

Mr Daniel Kok's interest in pole dancing was purely artistic, at first. Then he got hooked.

The visual artist-cum-choreographer, 37, was introduced to pole dance in 2007. Then, he had been choreographing a dance for the M1 Singapore Fringe Festival and wanted to include pole dance in his piece.

After watching a number of pole dances on YouTube, he contacted local instructor Suzie Wong and started classes with her. Last year, he became overall champion at the SG Pole Challenge 2012, organised by Acro Polates, a pole dance studio in Waterloo street.

Says Mr Kok, one of three Singaporean dancers at this year's International Pole Championships: "I find it challenging and fun. It's a clash between strength, flexibility and grace, and to turn it into a dance is very difficult."

He will compete in the men's division with six other contestants.

For Mr Kok, who has a fine arts degree from London's Goldsmiths College and a master's in dance from Berlin's InterUniversity Centre for Dance, pole dancing is an ideal way to explore the exchange between performer and spectator.

"I think what people want from the dancer and how the dancer gives it back to them as a performer is a very interesting artistic question," he says.

"Pole dancing is rapidly changing, turning away from the sleazy milieu towards a fitness aspect and, especially in the past few years, into a global movement," he adds. "Gymnasts are doing it, men and acrobats are doing it, so the idea of what we want from a pole dancer, what we want from the exchange, has also shifted."

Besides pole dance, his regular exercise routine includes swimming, running and cycling.

To prepare for the championship, he has been practising on the pole five or six days a week for the past three months. Each practice session lasts 11/2 to three hours.

"It's quite nerve racking to represent Singapore," he says. "The IPC is a big deal among the pole dance community. You literally have the world's best coming to Singapore

"The least I can do is not discredit myself and my country," says the bachelor.

His family, including his mum and sister, and best friends will be cheering him on at the competition. They are supportive of his dancing, he says, as they are used to him doing "weird" things.

Any negative or disparaging comments he gets from online commentators of his videos and articles do not faze him.

"As an artist, when people make vitriolic remarks, I actually get quite excited," he says.

"It shows that there is something to work with, room to explore pole dance as an artistic form and people's perceptions of it."

GRETA PONTARELLI

At 63 years old, Mrs Greta Pontarelli is the world's oldest competitive pole dancer.

The former gymnast and martial artist took up pole dancing in 2010, when her doctor told her she needed to strengthen her bones to ward off osteoporosis, which runs in her family. To do so, she could either lift weights or her own body.

The Californian signed up for pole dancing classes after watching related videos on YouTube. Although she could not even climb the pole in her first class, she immediately fell in love with it.

"I loved the artistry, the creativity and the fun of it," she recalls.

"When you're spinning on the pole, it feels like you are a kid spinning around or rolling down a hill. It gets the endorphins flowing and it feels euphoric. It makes you feel bigger than yourself," says the mother of two grown sons, whose retired hospital administrator husband fully supports her passion.

"There's a body-mind integration that comes with it."

Mrs Pontarelli will compete in the International Pole Championship's masters division, for dancers aged 50 years and above, where she will compete against two other dancers. For the record, the youngest competitor in the championship is Derick Pierson, 23, from the United States.

The sexagenarian practises about 11/2 to two hours a day, five days a week. Last year, she started entering in - and winning - pole competitions.

Her biggest challenge during training was developing strength and flexibility.

"Mentally, I was there. I always believed I could do it. But some things just seemed really hard and moves took longer for me to master," she says.

"I just had to keep working on it, while at the same time respecting and listening to my body and finding out what works for me. That's what's so beautiful about pole dancing. You can do it at any age and I'm so grateful for that."

She plans to continue pole dancing into her 80s.

"As you get older, your body just does not have the same flexibility and strength, but I really do believe that you can't let age limit your dreams," she says.

"If I don't get injured, I think I will keep going."

DEB ROACH

Ms Deb Roach, 31, was born with one arm. Cruelly taunted by schoolmates as a girl growing up outside Sydney, Australia, she suffered low self-esteem for years.

She turned her life around in her 20s, however, and started building her confidence through exercise and dance.

Six years ago, she became a professional personal trainer, yoga instructor and performance artist.

It was around that time that she went to, and was captivated by, a pole dancing performance.

The Australian attended her first pole dance class two days later, and has not looked back.

Her flexibility, strength and perseverance have helped her excel in pole dancing. She will be one of two competitors in the disabled division at the International Pole Championship tomorrow.

The other is Eri Kamimoto, 30, from Japan, who is deaf.

The International Pole Championship is the only event of its kind with a division for the physically challenged.

Ms Roach hopes more will open up in the future.

"People, especially people with disabilities, need to see what our bodies are capable of if we want it bad enough. It puts things in perspective," she says, adding that she hopes it will encourage more people with disabilities to challenge themselves.

"It's so important to do the things you're afraid of. To extend your own boundaries, you need to push past your limitations."

She won the Ultimate Pole Champion 2012 for the Disabled Division last year, finishing ahead of two other competitors.

Her biggest challenges in pole dancing have been to stop comparing herself to others and develop her own technique.

"It's a question of trial and error, and finding 'cheats'. I have different entries and exits into final poses, but I get into the same positions and same movements at the end of the day," she says.

One of her favourite moves is the twisted ballerina, which she says she can enter more quickly than other women, whose other hand often gets in the way.

"Having two hands to grasp a big metal object will always be more practical than one, but sometimes I get lucky," she says. In fact, the difficulty and diversity of the poses are why she enjoys pole dancing so much.

"There's so much innovation and ingenuity in the moves, there's something new in pole all the time," says Ms Roach, who is not married.

"Being able to express myself and showing that it's sexy as well as tough, I don't think there is anything else in this world that is like it."

vlydia@sph.com.sg

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