Pole move regional names survey (results)!
First off, a huge thank you to everyone who filled out my survey! If you haven’t yet, you still can here. (I’d actually ask that you fill it out before you read further since that may influence your results.)
Two notes:
Since I used convenience sampling based on my social media accounts and I’ve danced longer in Seattle than anywhere else I do have a Seattle-skewed sample here. (If haven’t yet taken the survey and aren’t from Seattle and want to do it now that would be super helpful, nudge nudge nudge ;).)
As someone pointed out (not naming them for privacy reasons), giving moves specific names is much more common in recreational pole than stripping, so that is another source of bias here.
But without further ado, let’s jump in! I’m going to talk about each movement in order. This is based on 27 responses. (I got 32 but some didn’t include where the dancer was from, which does unfortunately defeat the point.)
First off, we’ve got this spin, which I learned (in Seattle, WA) as fireman. Most respondents also know it by that name or a gender neutral variant although one person from Seattle also called it “firefly” (which I personally have heard from New York as well) and there were a couple folks who called it some variation of ankle/cross ankle or knee spin, mostly from Seattle.
This next move I learned as pinwheel in Seattle and the name seems to be pretty localized there (at a guess I’d say it’s studio-specific to Divine Movement). It seems to be called attitude most places in the US, with some variation: sunwheel in Los Angeles, stag spin in Orange County California & sunwheel in “the Midwest”. Apparently it’s also called snowflake in Australia!
Unfortunately I think I need more data for this one. It’s called both “bracket” and “split grip” (with a couple Seattle folks also using “stopper grip” or “stopper hold”, which I’d personally only use to describe the bottom hand here). You see both names across the US and in Canada without a clear pattern that I can see yet.
Now these two are interesting! I’d learned (as had a lot of folks in Seattle) that it’s apprentice with the leg bent & Jamilla with them both extended. However! It looks like that distinction is pretty cleanly regional. In the US West over to Chicago we see the same split, but not in Cleveland, New York or anywhere in Canada. (I would looooooove to get more data on this one to see if that pattern.)
Pretty much everyone calls this Genie (except for at Positive Spin in Seattle, where it has the pet name wombat). However! One person learned it in Orange County as Devil’s Point which makes me curios about the relationship between that name & Devil’s Point Shuffle. Again, I’d love to get more data on that.
This is another one with clear variation (it’s called both figurehead and hood ornament) but I don’t have enough data points to make a clear geographic distinction, if there is one.
Interestingly, a lot of folks mentioned they’d never seen this movement (which I would consider a medium-important foundational move & shoulder mount prep). It also has a lot of variations (Masthead, Hood Ornament and Figurehead), with several people who call this Figurehead calling the last one Hood Ornament.
There were also a fair number of people who called it something related to how it’s a shoulder mount prep position. Again, I just don’t have enough data to tell if it’s got clear regional variation.
By far the most common name for this is Crucifix/Inverted Crucifix, but one person who learned in Bloomington, ID calls it “Inverted T” and in Vancouver, BC it’s called “X-grab”. (That seems be very local/regional, may possibly be a single studio… at a guess I’d say Tantra.)
Aaaaand here it is with the pole in front of the tummy. Those who called the previous one crucifix were likely to call this one dive (that’s almost certainly from Divine Movement) and those who didn’t have a name for the last one were pretty likely to call this one inverted crucifix or crucifix. Again, not a clear geographic pattern except for the one from Divine Movement students.
This BAR NONE had the most names of any of the moves I asked about. Here they are:
(The) Tammy, Thigh Hold, Golddigger, Inverted Dolphin, Swan, Dragonfly, Single-Leg Dive, One-Legged Dive, One Leg Crucifix, Flight Attendant
Unfortunately there aren’t many clear geographic patterns, besides the use of “golddigger” in Canada (excluding Vancouver) and “single legged dive” or “one legged dive” in Seattle. Again, I just need more data. If I were to try and pick out the influence of specific studios or teachers I’d say this move would be a really good one to use for that.
And finally we have inside leg hang/Scorpio (on the left) and outside leg hang/Gemini (on the right). This is one that I believe used to be called Gemini/Scorpio more commonly but it seems like the inside/outside leg variant is replacing it. I think the variation here is more showing an ongoing change in terminology than regional variation. The only place where Gemini/Scorpio was the preferred form was in Cleveland (at a guess as a result of Cleveland Eclectic Dance).
So, to summarize:
I don’t have enough data to make very robust generalizations, but you can definitely see the influence of specific pole studios in my data. (For example, Tantra Fitness, founded by Tammy (yes, same as the move) in 2004 on Vancouver. It looks like the account is no longer active, but Pole Foundations on Instagram has some great content on the history of recreational pole.)
There is some change in progress around the names of different moves (for example, moving away from Gemini/Scorpio) and as a result, studios founded by or with curriculum developed by more experienced dancers are more likely to use the older terms. The exception here is intentionally-introduced changes, like changing names to be more gender neutral or studio-specific pet names/branding.
In general: Seattle seems to pattern with California (makes since given migration patterns), Canada outside of Vancouver patterns together, Cleveland patterns with Vancouver, and Australia is Its Own Thing.
Hopefully I’ll be able to get a clearer picture with more data!
