Posts Tagged ‘pole-dancing’
Pope evicts monks from Rome’s lap-dance monastery
It sounds like something out of Father Ted: a renowned monastery in Rome where monks staged concerts featuring a lap-dancer-turned-nun and opened a hotel with a 24-hour limousine service has been shut down by the pope.
As part of Benedict XVI’s crackdown on “loose living” within the Catholic church, 20 or so Cistercian monks are now being evicted from the monastery at the basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, which hosts some of the church’s holiest relics.
“An inquiry found evidence of liturgical and financial irregularities as well as lifestyles that were probably not in keeping with that of a monk,” said Father Ciro Benedettini, a Vatican spokesman. “The church remains open but the monks are awaiting transfer…”
The monks’ days have been numbered since 2009, when the Vatican sacked their flamboyant abbot, Father Simone Fioraso, a former fashion designer who built up a cult following among Rome’s fashionable aristocratic crowd as well as show business worshippers such as Madonna, who prayed at the church in 2008.
In 2009 Anna Nobili, a nightclub dancer who became a nun, was invited to perform her “holy dance” before an audience including archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, head of the Vatican’s cultural department. For her performance Nobili, who says she uses dance as a form of prayer, lies spread-eagled in front of the altar clutching a crucifix or twists and turns as in pole-dancing routines…
Sounds like a flock that seriously enjoyed experimenting with new ways to experience the rapture of holiness.
Or something like that.
British pole dancers lobby for recognition as Olympic sport
Natasha Wang just won the US Championship
Set up by Vertical Dance’s KT Coates, the ‘Get Pole Dance Accepted into the Olympics’ petition also has the backing of Labfitness, a fellow fitness firm…
‘After a great deal of feedback from the Pole Dance community, many of us have decided that its about time pole fitness is recognised as a competitive sport – and what better way for recognition than to be part of the 2012 Olympics held in London!’ reads the petition.
‘Like the horizontal bar, the vertical bar should have a place in international competitive sport,’ it continues.
Comparing pole dancing to the likes of gymnastics and figure-skating, the group point out that it’s ‘acrobatic, gymnastic, technical and takes a great deal of physical skill and strength to master, earning it a place in the greatest sporting event in the world’…
‘This is an international sport that both men, women and those that are on a low income can take part in, unlike sports such as horse riding, sailing and snow based sports.’
At the time I signed the petition, there was a total of 5,756 signatures. To add your signature to the list simply click here.
Woman sues fitness club for injury during pole dancing workout
A woman has filed a lawsuit alleging that a Manhattan gym left her hanging when she tried a new workout: pole-dancing.
Sue Ann Wee is seeking unspecified damages from the companies that run the Crunch fitness center chain.
Lawyer Nicholas Warywoda said Wee seriously hurt both her shoulders when she slid down a pole and fell onto the floor while taking a Crunch pole-dancing class in June…
Wee alleges that the gym chain didn’t supervise the pole-dancing class properly…
The steamy dance form has become increasingly popular as exercise in recent years.
I wonder how many pole-dancers ever sue the management if they fall off the pole while working?
Latest aerobic trend in China – pole dancing
Clad in knee-high leather boots, spandex shorts and a sports bra, Xiao Yan struck a pose two feet off the ground, her head glistening with sweat and her arms straining as she suspended herself from a vertical pole.
“Keeping your grip is the hardest part,” she said. “It’s really easy to slide downward.”
Xiao, 26, who works as a supermarket manager, is one of a growing number of women experimenting with China’s newest, and most controversial, fitness activity: pole dancing.
“I used to take a normal aerobics class, but it was boring and monotonous,” Xiao said. “So I tried out pole dancing. It’s a really social activity. I’ve met a lot of girls here who I’m now close friends with. And I like that it makes me feel sexy.”
A nightclub activity mostly considered the domain of strippers in the United States, pole dancing — but with clothes kept on — is nudging its way into the mainstream Chinese exercise market, with increasing numbers of gyms and dance schools offering classes.
Interesting article – not unlike the phenomenon of aerobic bellydancing in some American communities. Guys will still be unable to get their libido around much of this; but, it makes health sense.
