What’s in a Name
I’ve been investigating the world of pole dance apps in the Google Play store (since I have an Android). Some apps are tutorial-based and require payment to access all the tutorials (I just looked at the free content). I even tried the Pole Star game (which, of course, has too many ads). But my new favorite app is the Pole Moves App by Impolester.
The Pole Moves App is, primarily, a little encyclopedia that includes the names of pole tricks, as well as drawings or small animations illustrating the trick. I’ve been personalizing this list—the software allows you to mark your level of expertise, add notes, and upload your own pictures/videos of the moves. Picking out the best examples of each move in my camera roll is a relaxing distraction when I’m taking a break from work, or unwinding after work, which is mostly what I look for in an app. And I especially like that users can edit the alternative names for pole moves, because most moves have a wide variety of names.
I suspect that the reasons for multiple names include a lack of knowledge about the history of pole dance and the erasure of sex workers. Some pole moves are the stage names of dancers who invented them. For instance, Jasmine is a common pole move and a common stripper’s name. However, some apps refer to the jasmine as the anchor, which is much less likely to be a stripper’s name. As previously mentioned, the Pole Moves App is extremely customizable; you can switch out the main name of the move to your preferred one and keep the others in the alternative name text box. This allows you to honor the women who invented the move, and keep up with the fashionable names of things, but perhaps lacks some historical context.
One trick that I’m obsessed with is the Deville split, named for Jamilla Deville. It’s also called a hug jade split, or a no-handed jade split. However, none of the apps I could get (on Android, for free) listed the Deville split as such, nor had it listed as an alternative name. I had thought that it was common knowledge among pole dancers that Jamilla Deville created the Deville split, considering the X-Pole website, as well as more commonly used webstores, sell Jamilla’s instructional DVDs, called the Art of Pole. I guess believing that other people have researched instructional content is a cognitive bias where I assume other people love to gather knowledge like I do.
The Art of Pole DVDs (and other early recorded tutorials) are the predecessor of the tutorial apps people use today. My most used free tutorial app is YouTube. I downloaded Elizabeth B-fit’s app because I love her YT channel. The free content on her app—unlike YT—is limited, and perhaps someday I will get annoyed enough at YT’s ads to pay $5.99/month for her tutorials (which is honestly pretty reasonable compared to the belly dance app subscription costs I’ve been looking at). Her content includes a move I couldn’t find in the Pole Moves App: the Sarah Jade Split. This is a bucket list trick of mine—one that I hope to achieve someday, but is not currently in my reach. It’s an upright vertical split with both hands on the pole. There are similar upright vertical splits on the Pole Moves App, but the hand placements seem different than those for a Sarah Jade (which has one hand near the crotch and the other behind the back, with the body facing away from the pole). I’m not sure if the move is missing, or if I’m missing an alternative name for it, in the app. Having consistent names for pole moves would solve this specific problem.
However, the lack of consistent names invites dancers to come up with perhaps more descriptive names, or ones that build upon known names. For instance, in addition to my previous descriptions, I’d say the Sarah Jade Split is like the Diva Split, but turned away from the pole instead of towards it. To do it on the floor would be to do a regular split and bend your back to touch the floor beneath your split. But this is not searchable on an app. The most important use of names, I think, is having clear, consistent ways to refer to tricks when they are done together in a pole pass (a combination of tricks). The Pole Star game doesn’t tend to link tricks—the animations all tend to start with an invert or a climb, even when they are done sequentially—nor does it list the names of moves.
The apps that list pole moves, without including tutorials, are great for getting happy brain chemicals from filling out your achievements. Apps of pole dance tutorials can help with getting happy brain chemicals from learning new tricks. However, it’s sometimes hard to connect moves across apps because of the differences in naming conventions. Not having the right name can keep you from being able to search for tutorials, or have an organized list of your accomplishments, within apps. Both inside and outside of apps, learning all the names of pole tricks is a way to access the history of the art and honor the dancers who have come before you.