The calendar is littered with days assigned to celebrate and acknowledge certain things - World Aids Day, International Womens Day, National No Smoking Day and now... International Pole Dancing Day. There will be free classes throughout the UK and an attempt to set a World Record for highest number of synchronised pole dances featuring 30 poles and 30 girls.
Pole dancing could be all about female empowerment and fresh, funky, sensual exercise for women. It could also be all about women dancing for money while wearing very little clothing and simulating sex acts with an inanimate free-standing or fixed vertical pole, and taking home their earnings in their underwear as paid to them by their almost exclusively male audiences.
There are those who are horrified by the idea of devoting a day to the dance form that is mainly women humping and grinding against a pole. Then there are those who quite like the idea of twirling about in time to club music, looking sexy and getting fit and into shape at the same time. Then there are those who just want to watch.
Delightful or degrading, disciplined or depraved, its still dance and its quite difficult and it's having its day tomorrow. Head to Trafik on Old Street tomorrow night for the London set of free classes, starting at 6.30pm and check out the Polestars website (International Pole Dancing Day organisers) for more details about the world record attempt.
International Pole Dancing Day, Thursday 7 September. Free classes at Trafik, 331 Old Street, EC1, from 6.30pm - free, no booking necessary. World record attempt location TBC - check the Polestars website here for more details.
