You want the truth about exotic dancing? There is so much misdirection, misinformation, and misunderstanding about exotic dancing As I have experience with both environments; having worked both in gentlemen’s clubs and as an instructor in a pole dancing studio teaching pole dancing for fitness to beginners, I feel qualified to at the very least to tell it like it really is, not how people who have never even seen a pole outside of a movie theater, think it is like. You want the truth behind exotic dancing? Can you handle the truth? Exotic dancing can include, pole dancing, burlesque, lap dancing, table dancing, and go go dancing. When most people think exotic dance they think Strippers. Yes exotic dance is often performed by strippers either in an established club or  for parties and strip-o-grams. You may not even be aware that exotic dance has evolved and that there is a whole new world of exotic dance. It is taught for fitness, for entertainment, and for competition. Pole dancing has regulatory federations for gymnastic or fitness competition, there are regional, national, international, and even world championship pole dance competitions with some of the elite dancers in the sport. Women from ages 18 to 80 are buying poles, taking classes or lessons, and are letting go of their inhibitions as they learn the art of exotic dance.

Now since I am going to give it to ya with all the bark on it, I want you to simply come with an open mind and the understanding that strippers, dancers, performers of any type are people just like you. Dancers are not prostitutes or even loose women, if they were what would be the point of learning all of the fancy schmantsy (and in many cases dangerous) pole tricks. Guys tell stupid stories and even stupider guys want to believe them when they say that they had some stripper who gave it up or whatever in the club.

Here’s a little secret for every guy that has ever heard such a story from one of his buddies or even told one himself. Here it goes are you ready? All strip clubs are wired with infrared cameras and microphones so unless the club owner is looking to lose his license, business and his freedom, he is not letting his girls get it popping like that up in his club okay? Don’t believe the hype! Besides do you know how many people you would have to pay off to get away with something like that with eyes on you every minute? So you can dispense with the fairytale that the girls working in clubs are anything but the talented professionals than they are. It may not be a profession you approve of but that is fine different strokes for different folks. Don’t however get the idea that dancers are anything but who they are, women at work in a demanding and often difficult line of work.
In most clubs the girls are independent contractors, with no hourly wage and no benefits. The dancers work for cash tips and money from private dances. Not only does the club not pay the dancers for working in the club, they actually charge the dancers fees for working in their club. It usually breaks down something like this.
The house gets:
$10-15 dollar stage fee
$15 ea. from a minimum of 5 lap/private dances
$5   ea. For drinks that they get the customers to buy
(if you fall short of this quota the difference must be paid out of the dancers tips either that night or the next night that she works)
Then after the house gets their $115 dollars, the dancers are required to “tip out” the bouncers, doormen, and DJ. No they are not the dancers employees, they are the clubs employees, but the dancers still get to pay them. Often the guys working the door or the bar make more money than the girls who do the dancing and who are the main attraction because every girl has to pay them every night! The tip schedule normally breaks down something like this.
10% of your earnings to the DJ
5% to the bartender, bouncers, and doorman
and additional tips if they actually lifted a finger to do anything for you that night.

Exotic Dancing as a sport is an intricate, beautiful, and fun activity. It requires the use of every single muscle in your body and works each one through it’s entire range of motion. If you can strip back images of seedy dark strip clubs and observe the sport of pole dancing, you will be absolutely amazed at the talent, strength, and commitment that it takes to be good enough to compete at a national or international level. The things that you see pole dancers do, both men and women, appear to defy gravity. If you watch the 2009 & 2010 Ms. Poledance World Competition routines of Ms. Felix Cane (winner) and the American Champion who was her runner up Jenyne Butterfly on YouTube, you will, quite possibly, gain a whole new respect and understanding of the sport. Most of the competitions do not have huge purses, normally $2000-$10000 for winning in your category for pros and quite a shade less than that for the amateur competitors who have not won, earned, or bought their pro card in their Federation or Group.

Felix cane 2009 Championship routine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCECAMrFmBQ
I’ll bet you weren’t even aware that there are national and even international competitions and champions. If you watch the vertical ballet of professional pole dancers as the competitors spin, twirl, drop, do release moves and tricks that appear to not only defy but to reverse the flow of gravity, you may then realize that pole dancing for fitness is truly a sport.
If you were unaware of the level of international interest and professional competitions, here is a fun fact that may bowl you right over; a petition was circulated on the web and in studios all over the world until the requisite signatures were gathered to submit pole fitness as a prospective new sport to the IOC (International Olympic Committee), who seriously considered adding it as a gymnastics event for the summer Olympics. In the end it was rejected, but how much more validation does one need that pole dancing is a valid and emerging new sport. If you take the time to get informed on the sport as something you’re interested in learning or as a topic of conversation, if you have at least sampled what the sport is about and what is going on, you can go ahead and hate on pole dancers with impunity and look smart and worldly at the same time because you have actually taken a look at the world of competitive and professional pole dancing. Rather than speaking from a position of ignorance and fear of the unknown.
I will wrap up this little informational article by saying, I love both pole dancing and watching videos, exhibitions, and world class performances. I love where the sport is going. I like to teach others and watch them get strong, and fit, empowered, and feeling sexy in their skin. I have known and seen women of various ages who wanted to learn to work out on a pole. Some for hubby’s or boyfriends, most just for an alternative to whatever fitness regimen they have been using and have grown bored of.

Pole dancing is a great way to improve your strength (no matter how strong or out of shape you may be), your flexibility, balance, hand eye coordination, body image, body movement, and to get in touch with your feline feminine inner self. There is no way that you can learn to pole dance and not feel more vital, more sexy, and more confident in your feminine powers. You may or may not begin enjoying the sport with the intention of becoming good enough to compete regionally, nationally, or internationally, but most of the girls who get to the advanced moves and floor routines can walk into a contest in any gentlemen’s club (in this case the clothes, or at least the top will probably have to come off) and walk away with the 1st or 2nd place prize. I used to make the lions share of my money when I still worked in clubs winning contests and participating in fitness exhibitions. Most local strip clubs and all of the chains like Deja Vu or Spearmint Rhino have contests which are open call, normally $500-$1000 1st prizes and $200-400 for 2nd and the contests are usually held every week or once a month. The winner is also offered a job working in the club.