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When you think of pole dancing, surely you do not think of it as a sport for young children rather than a sexually explicit activity that takes place in dark, seedy nightclubs. Apparently, this isn’t a ubiquitous option anymore, though. In the U.K., controversy erupted from those who still consider pole dancing to be entirely inappropriate for children after three young girls did a demonstration on ITV’s This Morning in which they showed off the “skills” they’ve learned while attending Pole Intentions classes in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire. These classes are being defended by instructors and governing sports bodies alike, shockingly....

More than a few are still trying to figure out why college tuition costs have skyrocketed in the past few years. This may help explain why.

A Chinese nursery has come under fire for having a pole dancer perform at its welcome ceremony, it's reported. According to the Southern Metropolis Daily newspaper, parents and children were invited to attend the opening ceremony of the Xinshahui Kindergarten in the southern city of Shenzhen on 3 September. As part of the programme, families were invited to watch a number of female performers perform in skimpy clothing, including a pole dancer. Footage of the pole dancer has widely circulated online, and thousands of users of the popular microblog Sina Weibo have commented on the school show. Fuming parents But...

This family from Missouri has an unusual hobby: pole dancing. Lindsey Teall and Jake Night met as exotic dancers and are now performing in pole dancing competitions with their children, despite what the haters might say.

Berlusconi's Bunga-Bunga Strippers Dressed Up as Barack Obama, Says Bellydancer Ruby Silvio Berlusconi's infamous "bunga-bunga" parties featured strippers dressed as US President Obama as well as the more conventional fare of nuns and nurses, according to court testimony by the Moroccan woman at the centre of the scandal. Karima el-Mahroug, 20, was giving evidence at the trial of three former aides to Berlusconi who are accused of procuring her and other women for prostitution. El-Mahroug, a former bellydancer, said she attended about half a dozen parties, using her nickname Ruby. One each occasion, Berlusconi had handed her an envelope containing...

Look world: America’s First Lady can out-pole-dance YOUR First Lady! In what has to be the most mind-blowing picture of what NOT to do as First Lady, we have Michelle Obama entertaining the audience. You expect some ghetto chick to do something so crass, but not the First Lady. I know the naysayers will say, “Kevin, she is only being herself … she should be allowed to have fun!” I pay no attention to these America-hating communists, but many people do, particularly young girls. If Michelle Obama can be so crass, well don’t wonder why you see young girls “shaking...

The idea of the average mayor pole dancing would not appeal to most voters, but in the Italian town of Taranto, porn stars Amandha Fox and Luana Borgia both think it will get one of them the job.

The criteria for being considered a new Olympic sport is certainly evolving. In 2009, the IOC deemed golf, rugby and women's boxing as worthy additions - but popular sports such as baseball, softball and karate were nixed. Now another "sport" is staking its claim as Olympic caliber - pole dancing. The campaign to get pole dancing into the Games has been in the works for a couple of years. But now, according to the Washington Post, the Pole Fitness Association and other like-minded groups are circulating petitions to get the dance form in the 2012 London Games. Pole dancing may...

To the tiny students at this dance studio, the moves are totally innocent. In fact, they are being instructed in the sleazy art of pole dancing. And their age? As young as three. Child protection groups yesterday labelled these images from the classes ‘deeply disturbing’. Parents pay £5 an hour for their daughters to learn pole dancing at the Little Spinners classes. Instructor Carly Wilford insists it helps youngsters keep fit and boosts their self-esteem. But charity Kidscape warned it was another indication of the growing sexualisation of children, which has prompted Government-backed proposals to protect their innocence. Up to...

In tough economic times, countless businesses have shut down across the US. But, some entrepreneurs are trying to think outside the box to stay afloat. Jill Anne, a store owner in New York City pole dances in her store and claims business is better than ever. In a small room in lower Manhattan, the boots come off, the pole is prepared, the music comes on, and the show begins. The place is far from a strip club or porn shop. Anne is a greeting card store owner. While countless businesses in the US have been dying off and shutting down...

So is our first half-Muslim Miss USA the best contestant - or just the one handpicked by Donald Trump to keep us talking about him, her, and Miss USA, for days? I have no idea about the worthiness of Rima Fakih, Miss USA 2010, though the exotic brunette showed impressive form in her just resurfaced ’07 pole-dancing shots. Oh, my!

An iconic child (now teen) star performs a pole dance at an awards show aimed at teens. Most of the media shrug. Welcome to Hollywood 2009. At the Teen Choice Awards, which took place Aug. 9 and aired Aug. 10 on Fox, Miley Cyrus, the 16-year-old Disney-created star of the wildly popular “Hannah Montana,” franchise performed “Party in the U.S.A.” Clad in short-shorts, high-heeled boots and a tank top that revealed a black bra, Cyrus danced around a pole affixed to the top of an ice cream cart. Admittedly, the pole moves were a small portion of her performance, but...

After reviewing DVDs of exotic dancers, an administrative law judge has determined that pole dancing is "no small feat"—and it's also art qualifying for a tax exemption. The judge, Catherine Bennett, ruled the Albany-area club Nite Moves was entitled to a “dramatic arts” tax exemption and did not have to pay $129,000 in sales taxes, the New York Law Journal reports. The state of New York had contended it was owed taxes on cover charges and dancer fees paid between 2002 and 2005. Bennett ruled after hearing from a University of Maryland dance scholar and watching videos of dance routines...

EXCLUSIVE   Bakri shacks up with new bride By NICK PARKER Published: Today     HATE preacher Omar Bakri Mohammed has divorced his wife and taken a new bride who is a year younger than his pole dancer daughter. The tubby Muslim extremist dumped 48-year-old Hanah for a Lebanese beauty called Ruba, 26. Frustrated Bakri, 50, declared: “I must have a woman!” after Hanah — the mother of his six children — refused to stay with him in exile in Lebanon.   Ex-wife ... Hanah rejected new life in Lebanon  Now strict Muslim Ruba has shacked up with the...

<p>The "polemania" that overtook Hollywood, Australia and Japan a decade ago has grabbed France, where pole-dancing schools say they turn away clients eager to learn routines once the preserve of strip clubs and girlie bars.</p> <p>"It's sensual, not sexy, we leave eroticism in the changing room", said Violetta Carpentier, 31.</p>

ToughTimes, Tough Decisions (MATURE CONTENT) BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) - During these tough economic times, many people are struggling to make ends meet. The city's housing market is in a slump, gas and food prices are rising, and some say it's either sink or swim. Now, some women are going to great lengths to make some extra cash right in Baton Rouge. It's a fantasy, an escape for some attempting to close off the outside world. However, for the women inside who are barely clothed and strapped into high heels, exotic dancing can be a way to survive. "All of...

Shawn Frances Lee (L), owner of Urban Fertility Dancer, teaches a pole dancing class in Las Vegas, Nevada August 9, 2007. Once confined to strip clubs, thin metal poles are popping up in kitchens, bedrooms and exercise studios across the United States with gym fanatics, moms and even grandmothers using them to get fit. (Adam Tanner/Reuters)

Johnna Cottam was showing a group of her girlfriends how to do a move called the Fireman. Pole dancing, once exclusively the province of exotic dancers, has flared up as a much-hyped Hollywood exercise craze, and has seeped into the collective unconscious through shows like “The Sopranos” and “Desperate Housewives.” A variant called motorized pole dancing, which occurs in stretch limos, has raised eyebrows as far away as Britain, where some female university students pole-danced as a fund-raiser for testicular cancer. And mini-poles have even been spotted as dance props at over-the-top bat mitzvah parties in suburban precincts. Now the...

Tesco condemned for selling pole dancing toy by COLIN FERNANDEZ Last updated at 23:13pm on 24th October 2006 Reader comments (51) Mother of two Karen Gallimore was searching for Christmas gifts for her two daughters, Laura 10, and Sarah, 11, when she came across the 'toy' Tesco has been forced to remove a pole-dancing kit from the toys and games section of its website after it was accused of "destroying children's innocence". The Tesco Direct site advertises the kit with the words, "Unleash the sex kitten inside...simply extend the Peekaboo pole inside the tube, slip on the sexy tunes and...

Cindy Sheehan hugs a tent pole as the camp breaks down near President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005. Sheehan and her anti-war supporters are taking their protest on a cross country tour. (AP Photo/LM Otero) I always figured she'd have to be dragged out of there kicking and screaming.