There exist early stories of African women dancing around wooden phallus as a way of showing their husbands how they want to be made love to. Another story is about the Maypole dance of the 12^th century. This was a pagan celebration of fertility, where the Maypole was made to be a phallic symbol. These early stories were considered the early beginnings of using a pole in dancing.

At the time of the 1920’s Great Depression, there were travelling fairs commonly seen around. Small side show tents would showcase dancing girls who performed erotic dances with the use of the ten poles as support. The dance was called “Hoochie Coochie” dance, which eventually became widely popular. It is believed that the first pole dance was performed by Princess Pat, a dancer who worked for One Eye Tommy Fallon and Mom Fallon.

Another story worthy of mention is the Chinese pole. However, dancers who used them did not perform in an erotic manner. The circus performers would climb up, slide down, and hold their poses on the poles. Some of the circus tricks used by these circus dancers have later on been incorporated in modern pole dancing.

From the Chinese poles, another modification was utilized by the go go dancers. This new modification somehow related to the structure of the modern day stripper poles. The go go dancers performed on a stage that featured poles as a part of their structure.

More recent stories would tell us that dancing with the use of stripper poles originate from the strip clubs of Canada in the year 1980s. It was widely popular in the clubs of Canada and it eventually penetrated the clubs of the United States, even reaching the UK, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

Today, the modern versions of the stripper pole are used with more agility and athleticism rather that just erotic dances. Home versions are even available for use at the convenience of one’s own home.

The standard pole is usually a hollow steel or brass pole that has a circular cross section that runs from floor to ceiling. Affixing at the ceiling provides more stability, but is not always done especially in night club set ups that have higher ceilings or use transportable devices. Another variation of the pole is the spinning pole that spins, as its name suggests, with the use of ball bearings. This pole is created to provide better momentum and higher rates of speed for a greater dramatic effect. Home versions of poles used for practice or aerobic exercise may be in polished stainless steel, chromed steel, powder coating, acrylic glow poles, Titanium coated, and brass. Show poles for night clubs also have many variations, one of which is the one that provides visual effects. Usually made of clear plastics and contain water, glitter and special reflective materials, these poles will definitely add more entertainment to any pole dancing show.