Olympics Asked to Add Pole Dancing

Last year I was told, “You need a party bus to get people to the School Choice rally.” My response was, “Please tell me you are not talking about a bus with a pole in it.” Now people want dancers, not just pole vaulters, to have poles at the Olympics.

“No, these are old school buses painted purple with the back cleared out for a DJ,” said Brandt Lewis, the best school choice advocate in New Orleans. A few weeks later we were driving through housing projects picking up parents and children who dressed out in their Sunday best to dance their way to our rally of a couple of thousand.

Having never been on one of those other party buses, I was happy that the concept could be turned into something wholesome that did not entail a lack of modesty.

Advocates of pole dancing as a sport are hard at work to convince Olympic organizers that pole dancing – like party buses – can be a wholesome activity.

While petitions to add pole dancing have been reported on in Salon and ESPN the past couple of years, the Wall Street Journal reports that organizers are adding dress codes and rules to try to elevate pole dancing to an athletic event with none of the Burlesque connotations.

By banning the removal of any items of clothing, banning any dancing “in an overtly erotic manner” such as the “gluteal dance”, the Wall Street Journal reports organizers are hopeful that the athleticism needed to dance on a pole will win out over the strip-club model.