Here is a weekly update of what I am thinking about and discovering.
Should Pole Dance be an Olympic Sport?
Although it has been confirmed that pole dance requires a significant amount of athleticism, Weaving (2020) presents a very passionate argument against pole dance being included as part of the Olympic games because of the stigma that is attached to the practice. Weaving posits “we cannot divorce pole sport from the stripping culture of exotic and erotic sexual connotations” (p.524). Whilst I disagree with that statement, and could prove it with my research, but choose not to, because I absolutely embrace that side of the practice, I absolutely agree that pole dance should not be included as an Olympic sport. Here are two reasons why.
Firstly, the people pushing for this to happen are trying to dissolve the history of the practice and are attempting to validate pole dance by only acknowledging it for its physical feats. To include pole dance in the Olympic games would remove everything I love about it — the artistry, the creativity, the experimentation, the sometimes very raw sex appeal and how the presence of the pole, when brought into theatrical spaces, can speak so much about the performer before she begins to move. Plus, I like to see and explore the contemporary element of floor work with intention towards the pole. This would not be an option in a restrictive competitive setting, such as the Olympics.
Secondly, to bring focus to the already objectifying nature of pole dance (and dance in general), I believe that it would be much more harmful for the female to perform with the pole to score points from judges, “in a space that been founded on sexism” (p.535), than it would be for a woman to dance in a sexually expressive way for an hour at an erotic pole class. What I am saying is that when a woman dances with the pole for points, she is no more or less objectified than a woman who is dancing for the satisfaction of a (fe)male gaze. It is simply just a reconfiguration of objectification, but if the dancer is given a space with no rules, no points to score, no gaze to fulfil, that is when the objectification can begin to flip into liberation. – I will be talking about this in depth in future.
A question to ask
If I could only work 2 hours per week on x project, what would I do? – this question, posed by Tim Ferriss is useful for narrowing down the most important tasks at hand and is very effective at eliminating procrastination. I have a series of 2 hours work circuits that I attend to. I will admit, sometimes I lose the 2 hours thing and start to drown, but when I revisit it, I feel lighter. This works for refining choreography by the way.
A Quote I am pondering
“… the artist’s hands frame the question and, then, post the question … the hands being the subject of art are also the subject of a question … the question “What is the subject of art?” is thus a self-conscious reflection of the hands of the artist exploring their subjective boundaries, identities, and voices, consciously and unconsciously framing their own inherent intentions.” Swarts, D. A (2017)
Something I have read
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/23/business/cell-phone-addiction.html
If you spend too much time on your phone, even in the company of others, take a look at this article I read about digital dieting. The author articulates how too much time with technology affected his attention span, levels of anxiety felt, and his ability to be present.
Rowena x
References
Weaving, C. (2020) Sliding Up and Down a Golden Glory Pole: Pole Dancing and the Olympic Games, Sport, Ethics and Philosophy, 14:4, 525-536, DOI: 10.1080/17511321.2020.1764089
Swarts, D. A (2017) critique of Doubt: Questioning the Questioning Method as a Means of Obtaining Knowledge (p.43)