Who: Miki Marcu (21, Philosophy, Politics and Society)
What: Professional poledancing
So, pole dancing really is your cup of tea. What does professional pole dancing entail?
‘Pole dancing originated in circus burlesque shows and strip clubs, but has later developed all sorts of artistic and athletic branches. Some people have gone in a more competitive, sports-oriented direction, which is less about artistry and sexiness, and more about athleticism and getting the moves in. Others have kept up the sensual and sexy aspect, and still other people dabble in both styles. In the end, for most people pole dancing is a hobby. So pole dancing is a lot of cups of tea!
‘For my work, I do a bit of everything. For work, it is most effective when you can do multiple styles, because then there are more opportunities. I do shows with Striptopia, which does all sorts of events, for example at the Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven or at Down the Rabbit Hole next July. I love performing! I’m a bit of an attention whore, so I love big audiences and big crowds. The more people, the better. At pole dancing events, the crowd does not tend to be very strict. Often, people are there to drink and have fun, so the energy is always there. As opposed to competitions, there is no pressure to do technical moves and get it just right – people see a split and they cheer. So I am free to play with the expressive part of pole dancing and to have fun interacting with the audience. Besides this, I upload videos to Instagram and participate in competitions.’

We heard you have a pole installed in your room.
‘I brought my pole with me from Romania when I came to the Netherlands. When I won the SSH& lottery, I wondered: am I allowed to install my pole here? Luckily the guy who settled me in gave his approval. The pole did fall a few times, because it works with a pressure system, like a shower curtain. The main issue is, my room is not that big. When I first moved in and did not have much furniture yet, it was really fun, but now I end up hitting the table, so it is not very practical anymore.’
What should more people know about pole dancing?
‘The moment the pole industry entered the mainstream, it tried to sanitize itself away from sex work and destigmatize itself. It tried to fit itself into technical rubrics, because in competitions you need to have an objective metric by which to score people. However, that takes away from the artistry, as it requires having some rules in place about what is and what is not allowed. It can also come at the cost of the sex workers who pioneered pole dancing. People don’t like to make the association with the origins of pole dancing anymore. Even at Radboud, people will make distinct efforts to separate themselves from that kind of pole dancing. I wish more people were mindful of the fact that the people who pioneered modern pole dancing were sex workers and strippers.’
The Dutch version of this article appeared earlier in ANS-3.