Alexis Biggs hangs from the rope before putting her burned limbs back in place.
In front of her, one leg bent, the other straight and pointed to the side, the other hand raised proudly online called “beach babe”.
She then crosses her legs and hangs in the air with her left hand stroking her tight buttock in a motion known as “sitting”.
Her rhinestone earrings sparkled beneath her honey-colored hair. When the audience applauded, she fell to the floor and smiled shyly.
It’s great. But not for the reasons you might think. When Alexis was seven years old, her mother took her to a pole dancing class.
He is not alone. Girls in the UK are giving up traditional hobbies like horse clubs and ballet to join new trends. It has become so popular that the industry requires certain qualifications for children.
Research has shown that there isn’t a city in the UK that doesn’t offer adult pole dancing courses. With its popularity, many special courses for children have appeared.
Hundreds of young people across the country are taking pole dancing classes, or pole gymnastics, and the number is growing.
All the mothers who raised these children came from respectable families. They become careful and caring parents, seeing these lessons as a good way to stay healthy. But are they correct?
Emma Kenny, a child psychologist, said: ‘I feel worried and shocked when I hear mothers sending their daughters to school like this.
“I think it’s unethical to encourage young girls to use their bodies for sex. Pushing children to grow up before they have to is one of the best examples.”
Pole dancing has been synonymous with strip bars and dance clubs since the 1980s. But about ten years ago, it ceased to be a sanctuary of the red light district and entered ordinary life. A fun bachelorette party takes place in the classroom with a middle-aged woman looking for new ways to stay healthy.
It’s even billed as an Olympic sport of the future, with the International Pole Dance Federation announcing new rules last month (no ‘extremely sexually suggestive’ dance moves in the shows. contest) in the hope that it will be more ‘respected’.
Despite these efforts, it does not remove the sexual connotation. Teenage girls now learn pole dancing, that’s the scariest part.
Jean Heaton, Alexis’ mother, said: “It depends on what other people think, but for me, it’s not what other people think.
“It keeps him healthy, doesn’t it? It’s not like a strip club.”
We’re talking about JLN Pole Fitness – a studio in Wethoughton, Lancashire.
Playboy watches compete for space with Dirty Dancing and Fame posters. Blue disco lights hanging on the wall. Outside the eight columns hung a black silk ribbon, which was wrapped around the body and used as a support.
More and more pink – from the walls to the bright cotton balls to the glittering Alexis dress. Jen, 31, from Warrington, Cheshire, is a mother of three who has been here for six months with a daughter.
She signed her daughter up for modern dance classes at the studio, but Alexis found pole dancing more interesting. “I love it because you get to meet new people and learn new things,” says Alexis. – Mom, I bought a pole for Christmas decoration in the park.
One wondered what Jen’s neighbors on a quiet street were thinking as they grazed the yard of their three-bedroom family home.
Either way, Alexis loves the weekly classes for four-year-olds.
“We have a lot of four-year-olds,” says Remi Tomlinson, owner of JLN Fitness. – She can crawl backwards like big girls.
Jen, who divorced Alexis’ father Brendan, 33, a few years ago, insisted: “I want her to be healthy, but I’m not going to force her.”
But when her seven-year-old daughter invited her to learn pole dancing, was she afraid? “Not at all,” he said, adding that, somewhat surprisingly, he had never been involved in pornography.
What makes her daughter’s decision to pole dance all the more inappropriate is that, like most mothers, she prides herself on shielding Alexis from harmful influences. He considers the loss of virginity to be a social problem, preventing him from watching pop stars like Rihanna on TV.
“Children grow up fast. I see teenage girls leaving pole dancing in tiny clothes,” she said.
He was right. The 5-year-old’s horseshoe store, the toy store offers cosmetics, and a pampering party at the beauty salon offers manicures and mud masks for kids. Perhaps provocative dancing is an inevitable part of the bigger picture.
Studio owner Remi, 21, a former account manager for the Halifax Building Society, insists there is no cause for concern.
“We don’t teach girls how to undress. “You can’t compare going to a pole dance club with a pole dancing class. Those are two styles of pole dancing.
But Remy admits that his studio regularly has women dancing in the club.
Tabley admitted that Holly’s father was unimpressed. “She said she didn’t want her daughter to do something so despicable,” Tabley said. “But he came up with the idea after seeing Remy show him a few routines.”
“They come here because they don’t see the fitness side of the dance club,” he said.
But they don’t dress properly, don’t dance like in other places,” he said.
So the woman shared a studio with Holly Adlen, 9, who was in the same class as her mother, Tabley. The youngest there, the oldest is 64 years old.
Tabli, 32, started pole dancing two years ago. “It’s not outdated,” he said. – This is the child’s reaction.
She seems like a very devoted mother. She lives in a three-bedroom townhouse with her other daughter, Kobe, 11, who has autism and cerebral palsy. In addition to being Coby’s full-time carer, Tabley began her studies in Disability Nursing and Social Work at the University of Salford.
Within eight weeks of starting tabli pole dancing, Holly asked to join. “They wanted to try it because Mom did it,” Tabley said.
Holly’s father, who works for a recycling company, was not impressed, he admitted. “She said she didn’t want her daughter to do something so despicable,” Tabley said. “But he came up with the idea after seeing Remy show him a few routines.”
Six months later, Tabley bought a perch to sit on the kitchen table at his home in Oldham, Greater Manchester. Holly practices there with her school friends.
Lessons for adults cost £10 and children £6.50. I asked Holly why she liked pole dancing so much. “It makes me more confident. I want to be more flexible and be more known,” she said.
At school, Holly participated in hip-hop and netball and said it was important to stay in shape, saying “people die from being overweight”. Are they worried about their weight?
sometimes. “My mother said I had a roll,” he said, pinching his stomach.
Tabley – the beautiful woman who has lost two stones since pole dancing – smiles. He said: ‘Holly’s abs are way out of the exercise pole and I told her her biceps are like cotton candy.
She admits she doesn’t approve of Holly stealing high heels, but doesn’t think she set the opposite example: “I wouldn’t make Holly do anything.”
But when young girls start pole dancing, they become addicted. Ella Broom, 14, from Trowbridge, Wiltshire, has been doing the job for four years after seeing her mother start.
Her mother Sam, 33, a personal assistant who did pole dancing to lose weight after giving birth to Ella’s sister Ruby five years ago, said: “It’s not about girls trying to be women. .” “It’s for teenagers. It’s better than hanging out in the park doing nothing.”
“This is just column gymnastics. We have nothing to do with sexy strip clubs. It has nothing to do with sex sports.
In June, she started her own dance class for ages 13 to 16. He has eight teenage students and charges £5 a week for his lessons.
“Ella’s school let me put up posters,” Sam said. – I wish I could dance with a stick when I was a kid.
But Sam is against. “One of my daughter’s friends wasn’t allowed because her dad would go crazy,” she said. ‘but why? It’s just gymnastics. We are not affiliated with sexy strip clubs. It has nothing to do with sex.
“I’m thinking of opening a workshop for young girls. There’s a gap in the market. We have a perch in the living room and five-year-olds playing.”
Ella’s favorite pole dance move is the scorpion, in which she holds her scissors-like legs on a pole. He admits that kids at school are interpreting his choices in predictable ways.
“They think pole dancing is like strip dancing,” she said. “I should explain, it’s not. It’s about fitness.”
This reason is repeated like a mantra by all those involved in children’s pole dancing. I just wish I found it more appealing.