I love Aerial Dance and the community of amazing women that they support. Unfortunately there always seems to be people that don’t understand what it’s all about.
When I first started at Aerial Dance I was ashamed to tell people what I was doing. I was afraid to admit that I danced on a pole for fitness. Unfortunately, that meant I didn’t take a lot of pictures. Eventually I was brave enough to take some and post them, and I was surprised at the positive response I got! People are often so amazed by moves that we often think are easy! I even recently had someone compare me to Pink!
Sadly there is also a negative side to people’s reaction. When I first started pole I dealt with my best friend joking about me “training to be a stripper.” This past year I actually had to report someone at work for making the workplace super uncomfortable for me. He had seen a picture on my Facebook and had assumed that meant he could ask me some rather inappropriate questions. Some people also seem to instantly try to degrade you for being in your shorty shorts and sports bra on a pole, but they don’t understand the reason for it. I truly believe that if most of the people who are very anti-pole would try it they would realize that they like it!
I can only hope that it becomes more and more acceptable in the years to come! Just remember for everyone out there who may try to put you down for doing what you love, there is someone watching what you are doing and thinking that it’s amazing and beautiful!