ANDREW MCKIRDY
Staff writer

Sixty-three-year-old Kiyoshi Ikehara mops his bald head with a towel, wipes his hands and grips the vertical pole.

With a sharp intake of breath he hauls himself up, grunting and straining as he climbs to the top. Once there he stops, clamps his thighs shut and quietly composes himself.

Then, as the rest of the class watches, he releases his hands and slowly lowers himself backward until he is completely upside-down. He stays there for several seconds, holding the pose with uncommon strength and grace.

It’s fair to say that the image of pole dancing has changed quite a bit in recent years.

“I started around three months ago,” Ikehara says, after an hour’s workout on a Friday night earlier this month in a beginners’ class at Pole Dance Studio Transform in Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward. “I used to do yoga to keep in shape. I started doing this for the sake of my body — for flexibility, muscle strength and balance. I thought it could help me with all that and I could also have fun doing it.

“I have a different image of it now, but when I tell my friends that I’ve taken up pole dancing they laugh,” he says. “They wonder why I’m doing it. They don’t think it’s something for a man to do. But then I tell them it’s just like when you were a kid climbing things, and that it’s actually a really tough sport.”

Pole dancing’s origins in strip clubs and exotic bars means it has long been saddled with a seedy reputation, but times are changing. Several studios have sprung up around Japan in recent years, offering lessons for men, women and children, with an emphasis on healthy exercise, artistic expression and wholesome fun.

Participants range from beginners looking for a new hobby like Ikehara to professionals like Kaori Ozawa, the owner of Transform and director of the Japan Pole Dance Association. Competitions are widely held around the world, and in October last year the International Pole Sports Federation was granted observer status by the Global Association of International Sports Federations, paving the way for pole dancing to potentially appear in the Olympics one day.

“It’s becoming more popular,” says Ozawa. “The reason I know that is because the traditional mainstream media has picked up on pole dancing. People are seeing it more often now. People are becoming aware that it’s not just something sexy. It has become viewed as another performing art.

“It used to be seen as something sexy performed in bars and nightclubs,” she says. “But if you watch it you will understand that you need muscle strength, you need skill and you need to practice.”

This year’s edition of Japan’s most prestigious pole dancing competition, Miss Pole Dance and Pole King Japan, was held on Nov. 10 at Nakano Zero concert hall in Tokyo’s Nakano Ward.

The event featured categories for amateur men and women, groups, kids, juniors, pairs and professional men and women. Each entrant was given 3½ minutes to perform a choreographed routine to music of their choice using the two poles set up on stage, with a panel of seven judges awarding scores based on technical and artistic merit.

“With the technical score you’re looking at lines, execution, strength, flexibility, how clean their movement is,” says Natasha Wang, a Los Angeles-based U.S. national who is known as one of the world’s best pole performers and was appearing as a guest judge at the Tokyo event. “The artistic score is choreography, how well they express the music and the theme. The X-factor, star quality type of thing.

“I think Japan was one of the first countries that really developed pole as a sport, so the level in this country is very high,” she says. “The Japanese love costumes and themes and they are known for being fearless, so they take a lot of risks on the pole, which is great to see.”

The performances are undeniably spectacular, combining the strength, flexibility and athleticism of gymnastics with the expressive nature of classic and contemporary dance. The tone of each entry can range from solemn elegance to brash flamboyance, with a wild array of music and costumes on display.

“Today’s theme was ‘cyber,’ ” says 33-year-old Hideki Miyamura, as he pulls a tracksuit over his sparkling black and gold outfit after performing in the men’s professional singles competition. “I wanted to show a different side of me from the image that people usually have. That was the challenge. I usually dance in a classic style, like ballet, very calm, but today I chose a robotic style. I don’t know the name of the music I danced to but the image I wanted was like ‘Final Fantasy,’ like a science fiction video game.”

Performing in the kids category was Nana Hashimoto, a 14-year-old who took up pole dancing when she was 8 and practices twice a week after cram school. She says her classmates are surprised at her choice of hobby because they don’t really know what it is, but she hopes to one day win an Olympic gold medal.

“She isn’t quite at the stage where she can express herself through pole dancing, but she’s become better at appearing in front of people,” says her mother, Megumi. “She’s not so shy any more.

“If you tell people you do pole dancing they think you’re involved in something seedy, but it’s not like that at all,” she says. “It’s more of a sport, especially if you watch the kids doing it. They do it at a really high level. There’s a prejudiced view of it and I’d like that to change.”