Pole Dance Moves from Strip Clubs to Edinburgh Fringe Stages

This year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe features a growing number of productions that place pole dancing at the heart of their storytelling. Shows such as Dusk/Night/Dawn, Poles, Tell Me, and Forgive Me integrate vertical apparatus work into narrative theatre, using hanging, static and spinning poles that rise up to five metres above the stage—or, in some of Donna Carnow’s past performances, as high as fifteen metres. Performers describe the discipline as both a physical challenge and a vehicle for conveying personal and social stories, ranging from a woman’s HIV diagnosis to the dynamics of a neurodivergent mother-son relationship.

The Guardian

Pole dancing entered mainstream awareness in the 1990s when television presenter Zoe Ball installed a pole in her living room, sparking a boom in studio instruction and competition sport. Since then, advocates have campaigned for Olympic inclusion, and the form has migrated from cabaret and strip-club settings to dance studios and, now, theatrical venues.

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• Gina Alm – performer in *Dusk/Night/Dawn*; U.S. national pole-art champion.

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• Donna Carnow – U.S. national pole-art champion with a contemporary-dance background; co-creator of *Dusk/Night/Dawn*.

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• Yvonne Smink – Dutch multiple-champion pole dancer; creator and star of *Poles*.

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• Guilherme Miotto – director of *Poles*, collaborator with Smink.

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• Tamsin Shasha – choreographer of *Forgive Me*; former circus artist and restager of ancient Greek drama.

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• The hanging pole in *Dusk/Night/Dawn* is suspended 5 metres above the stage; Carnow has performed on poles up to 15 metres in other productions.

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• Performers note physiological adaptations: calluses develop in “weird places,” and the backs of the knees acquire a “lizard-like” texture.

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• “Travelling through the underbelly of night into the dawn,” — Carnow. It’s

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• “You have calluses in weird places, but it’s crazy what your body can get used to,” — Donna Carnow, pole art champion

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• “I’ve done pole dance for 15 years now,” — Yvonne Smink

The Guardian