Pole dancing classes now available for kids as young as 5

Canadian kids as young as five have enrolled in a pole dancing fitness class, and the instructor says she’s just responding to consumer demand.

Twisted Grip fitness studio in Duncan, British Columbia offers classes to kids using poles normally found inside men’s clubs or, at the very least, bedrooms.

Instructor Kristy Craig said parents have asked her to teach their children how to use the pole’s safely.

So she devised “Little Spinners,” a $70, 60-minute course.

“My existing students were asking about it for their children,” Craig told the Vancouver Province. “They were saying, ‘My daughter plays on my pole at home all the time, I’d love her to actually learn how to do things property and not hurt herself.’”

The oldest student in the Sept. 22 class is 12, and there is one boy.

Of course, this begs the question, is Craig training future exotic dancers?

Quite possibly, says one child psychologist.

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Dr. Derek Swain told CTV News that pole-dancing children may be at increased risk for bullying, too.

“My guess is that that’s going to be a real challenge [to separate pole dancing with its sexual stigma],” Swain told CTV. “That temptation would certainly be there, and for someone who already has those skills it would be an easy transition.”

He questioned parent involvement, however.

“Sometimes these kinds of activities are more of an interest to the parent than they are to the kids,” Swain said, according to CTV.

Craig said pole dancing is an emerging sport trying to break free from its stigma of naked women using it to bump and grind for money.

There are national pole dancing competitions all based on fitness, she said.

“I treat it just like gymnastic classes … I don’t teach any of the adult moves,” Craig said.

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