Update September 2021: This DVD is no longer in production. This review remains for anyone who’s interested in it. While you’re here, why not check out my BDSM advice, femdom advice, how to be a good sub article, and BDSM scene outlines?
Pole Dancing Divas: The Art of Pole Dancing is a one-disk DVD intended to teach you how to pole dance. The DVD really doesn’t focus much on the sexy attribute of pole dancing; it seems to be much more focused on the athletic part of it all. This DVD is presented by Pink Pony Girls and Liberator. I can’t get an exact time from my DVD player since each segment is separate, but I’d say the DVD is about an hour-and-a-half long. The DVD case is the same size as a regular DVD case, and the case isn’t discreet since it features the women in lingerie with the title in large letters. The inside insert of the DVD gives you information on where to buy their outfits.
Before I start into this review, let me say that this DVD is pretty much completely useless as a how-to video unless you do have a stripper pole that is firmly bolted to the ceiling and can support quite a bit of weight and twirling. Unlike other DVDs that just show you how to “workout” by walking around the pole, almost all of the moves on this DVD require you to place weight on the pole (and that’s a good thing!) There isn’t much on this DVD that you can do unless you can put weight on your stripper pole. (We did enjoy just watching it for the “wow” factor though)
Another thing to consider is how athletic you already are before you pick up this DVD. Every move on the collection requires you to be able to support all of your weight with your arms. If you can’t comfortably do a pull-up or hang in the air with just the support of your arms, this DVD is probably going to be more advanced than what you can manage. I know it is for both the boyfriend and I. We loved watching it, but there’s no way that we’d be able to do any of the moves displayed on the DVD. Plus, we don’t have the stationary pole either, so that would make a difference.
As a note, all of the girls in this video are small, skinny women. I don’t fault the DVD for that – watching it, I can see how it’d easily take a lot of strength and lack of weight do all of this. Just a heads up though.
So what types of moves does the Pole Dancing Divas movie show? Some amazing ones. When you want professional strippers on a pole, you see most of these moves. The moves included are almost all aerial. In fact, in the “Beginners” chapter, it teaches you how to climb a stripper pole to the top as well as do small spins on the floor. In Advanced and Master levels, it shows you all sorts of moves that require you using purely upper arm strength to grasp the pole. Not all of the moves are what I’d consider “sexy”, but all of them show an amazing amount of body muscle control. If you are looking to “advance” past just floor work that you’ve tried on other how-to DVDs, this one works amazingly. On that note, though, if you don’t have the strength to do the moves, you’ll find you won’t be able to attempt most of the moves featured on this DVD.
The video is split into easy-to-follow sections. There’s a “Play All” feature as well, but that just cycles through all of the rest of the settings. We chose to pick and choose as we went, and you most likely will too since they are defined by certain skill levels.
First off, there’s the “Pole Workout”. This consists of a small workout that’s done using the pole for stability and support. It’s fifteen minutes long, and four girls take turns leading/being background for showing you how to do the moves. Each move usually has about ten or fifteen repetitions in it. Most people of average strength should be able to do the first 3/4 of the workout portion, but may find themselves dropping out of the action when it comes to doing pull-ups on their pole. The moves include regular push-ups, regular crunches, some strength training and flexibility moves on the pole intended to help you exercise control over your muscles as well as doing pull-ups and supporting your full weight with your arms. The DVD recommends that you not attempt a single lesson unless you can do the Pole Workout in full without problem.
From there, there’s the “Dance Routines” segment of the video. It’s split into “Beginner”, “Intermediate” and “Master”. This doesn’t teach you much; this is basically just small segments of your “teachers” showing you dance routines they’ve done using only the moves you’ve learned in that section or easier. So in Intermediate, she uses the beginner and intermediate moves to make up a sexy routine that’s done over music. My only complaint is that the music seemed a little more depressing than sexy, but I’ve never been a strip club, so I’m not sure if that’s how the music normally is. The Routines are fun to watch, and it basically really inspires you want to try the routine yourself. Once you’ve learned the moves, you could actually memorize her routine and repeat it yourself if you wanted too.
“Dance Instruction” is the next section and is also the section where you’re going to find the majority of your lessons. It’s also split into “Beginner”, “Intermediate” and “Master”. In these lessons, there’s your teacher showing the move then a “student” will repeat the move off to the side. Normally, the teacher shows you, the student repeats, they do it together, then they move onto the next move. Each lesson isn’t very long – at about ten minutes each, so I’d say that each lesson probably shows you about ten or more moves. Aside from the Beginner lesson which does have some floorwork, the Intermediate and Advanced lessons are all made up of aerial moves. There isn’t very much in the way of repetition for showing the moves, so if you want to practice something over and over, you do have the pause the DVD so it doesn’t move on.
After that, there’s the “Finale”. This is basically just a ten minute video that shows about three minutes of each dancer (at each different difficulty again) showing a different routine than they showed before. This time, you don’t choose between difficulties and it just plays from beginning to end in order. You can tell the different difficulties apart because each girl wears a different outfit. In the Finale, the girls also seem to let more of their personality shine since they incorporate other moves that weren’t taught in the DVD.
In the last section, “Interviews”, you get to watch a short interview with each one of the girls. It talks about why they like pole dancing, if they lose weight, things like that. It also interviews one of the students who happened to be a 40-year-old Mom, and she talks about why she comes in for the classes.
Really, though, there’s not much more I can say about the DVD. It’s a great DVD as long as you have the pole and the relative fitness to perform the moves. If you don’t and want to try this, I’d recommend you first pick up another form of exercise (or at least strength training) then attempt this. It does require basic strength, but if you have the strength, the things you will learn! This goes well beyond what other pole-dancing DVDs teach, and if you want to learn how to pole dance – especially with aerial moves that you see the professionals do – this is where to go.
