Making the pole their goal

Students train at the Luolan Pole Dance School in Beijing.

The eighth China International Pole Dance Championship was held in Beijing at the end of last year. it was jointly organized by Luo's school and the US-based International Dance Challenge as the China qualification round for the IDC finals, and featuring more than 300 dancers.

However, the China Pole Dance Championships, jointly staged by Yuan's club and the World Pole Dance Federation, is currently recognized by the Chinese authorities as the only qualification event for the World Pole Dance Championships which are authorized by the WPDF.

"Pole dancing hasn't been listed as an official sport or sports dance by the GASC, so there are no State-recognized national teams," Yuan admitted. "Because my club is authorized to host the qualification rounds of the WPDC, widely recognized as the most-prestigious pole-dancing event in the world, the dancers we drafted should be reasonably considered to be representatives of China," he added.

However, the General Administration of Sport of China denied that pole dancing would be included in its event-management system in the near future. "Although the fitness value has been widely recognized, pole dancing remains a niche event and has a limited number of practitioners," said Zhang Na, an official at GASC's mass sports administration center.