Pole dance is normalized with the rising popularity of pole fitness
By Ayse Kelce
Pole fitness is becoming more popular each year with new studios opening all around the world. The obstacle for the trend to grow in the beginning was the controversy of pole dance being associated with stripping. Yet, with more pole dance and fitness studios determined to show the world that pole fitness is more than that, and highly physically challenging in fact; more people are intrigued to give it a chance.
“It [pole fitness] is definitely a lot more common now. People are a lot more open to it. It is not as big of a taboo anymore, and people are more understanding that it is a form of fitness. It requires take physical endurance and cardio,” said Ashley Fox, co-owner of Foxy Fitness & Pole.
Foxy Fitness & Pole is a black-owned pole studio that has been around since 2011. Fox started planning to turn her passion into a business while she was a student at the Fashion Institute of Technology, with the encouragement of the other co-owner, Virgil Avery.
At the age of 32, Fox now co-owns two Foxy Fitness & Pole studios in New York and New Jersey. She has been competing in national and international fitness pole competitions, and had won several titles including American Pole League Champion in 2019.
“When I started, a lot of people would ask about the exotic style, like it would be the focus; but now, they are more understanding of the competition aspect and fitness aspects of it,” Fox said about the progress of pole fitness.
Even in the history of her own studio, they did not accept male students up until 2019. With the rise of the pole fitness trend, the studio started having co-ed Sundays. Fox explained that in the beginning, they had to consider that the majority of the people who were interested in pole were women. “But now, we would love to help men grow in pole fitness as well,” she added.
Fox was also featured in Calvin Klein’s Performance Line campaign, while the famous model Bella Hadid was the face of the campaign. Fox admitted that the hardest part of the campaign was to perform with the pole tricks with leggings since pole dance and fitness usually requires bare legs to stick and easily hold onto the pole. “It was such a great display of pole and the athletic aspects of it,” she said.
As pole’s popularity rose, more productions started including pole dance and fitness. Some Foxy Fitness Pole’s instructors and students appeared in the Hustlers movie which had famous stars like Jennifer Lopez and Cardi B. They also performed on the concert stages with Snoop Dog, as a part of his tour in 2019.
Around 200 to 300 students visit Fox’s studio monthly, increasing as more people feel comfortable with the idea of pole as a fitness. “It is not the most popular fitness out there right now, but it is getting there,” Fox said.
