Leaders

Monday, February 2, 2009

Pole dancing distracts students

Anyone who says that they wouldn't get distracted by a pole-dancing tutorial during their lunch break is outright lying.

And this was exactly the result of a risque display during a health drive at a London school.

Apparently, the school hired 32-year-old Sam Reemer, owner of the pole-dancing company "The Art of Dance," to display modern fitness pole dancing as a part of the schools health drive. Unfortunately for the school, the 1000-something teens were more inclined to take videos and pictures with their cell phones than absorb the exercise lesson.

The Sun paraphrased Reemer as saying "pole dancing is appropriate for young teenagers at school as it is a mix of dance moves and gymnastics and is excellent for fitness."

Similar workout programs like "Flirty Girl Fitness" and "pole-aerobic" classes are becoming increasing popular in the USA. But is the price of good fitness coming at the sacrifice of a moral standard? Is there a morality price attached to good health?

All I really know is I wish we had pole dancers displaying techniques during lunchtime. It would have been an incentive for me not to sneak off campus everyday.


School holds pole dance class
By: Vince Soodin, The Sun

Gawping teenagers watched a busty brunette give a pole dance lesson during their school lunch break.

A packed crowd of around 1,000 teenage students – aged 14 to 19 – saw the saucy display as part of a health drive.

Students videoed the dances on their mobiles.

A row has now erupted at South Devon College in Paignton after the demonstration prompted a wave of complaints from teachers.

The demo – held in a public area of the school – was run by Sam Remmer of pole dancing company The Art of Dance.

The 32-year-old said she was invited as part of the school’s Be Healthy Week.

But returning to the college two days later for the second demonstration she was told to move inside the sports hall and away from the main public area as there had been “a number of complaints”.

She was told staff had complained that after the first performance pupils were more interested in watching their mobile phone footage than they were in their afternoon classes.

Mrs Remmer said: “I was told pupils were distracted from their afternoon lessons because they were swapping pictures and videos.”

Mrs Remmer also said she had agreed to carry out the demo for free – providing she could post videos of the event on the internet for advertising.

However when teachers saw the videos on YouTube they demanded Mrs Remmer took them down.

She said: “The college are trying to distance themselves from the display as much as possible. I was contacted by the vice principal who argued that I should not be making the event public.

"I consented to removing the videos that had students in them as they had not signed any consent forms, but I refused to remove the videos filmed in the sports hall as they did not feature any students or references to the college."

Mrs Remmer said unless people are educated in the differences between modern fitness pole dancing and lap dancing then “negative stereotypes will not go away”.

She said pole dancing is appropriate for young teenagers at school as it is a mix of dance moves and gymnastics and is excellent for fitness.

The college has refused to comment on the issue.

But vice principal Pat Denham did say there was a “pole fitness demonstration but no pole dancing” and the college had received no “official” complaints.

The college has contacted Mrs Remmer and demanded she remove all videos relating to the display from the internet.
allvoices

1 comment:

Tiffanyg89 said...

Has it really come to pole dancing for exercise? People won't get off their couches as it is to jog, and now the answer is to wrap their arms and legs around a pole to strengthen muscles? While I'm sure someone would become quite fit doing this, I wonder if this is something that is going to spread to middle schools like Tai-Bo? haha people are ridiculous

Tiffany ;)