How did it all happen? In July-2003, Shawn was asked to teach a pole-dance class in Los Angeles. She did, and then those students brought their friends, and they brought theirs and so on.

The women attracted to and seeking Shawn's classes were informing her that they were specifically interested in something more “authentic” than what was already available out there. At the time, there was only one “pole dance” class available in Los Angeles, SFactor, and it seemed to be more “empowerment” based, rather than exotic dance based.

As a result, Shawn incidentally started one of the first regular ongoing exotic pole dance classes in the United States. (Technically the 3rd in the United States. The 1st was Catherine of Slinky Productions in San Francisco, the 2nd was SFactor in Los Angeles) Someone posted about the class on “mypole.uk” and all of a sudden the influx of emails began, about 50 emails per day. Due to this demand, Shawn then created her first website in 2004 - “Ecdysiastic Tendencies”: www.ecdysiastic.com.

So, the journey began.

I began teaching exotic pole dancing in the fall of 2003, at the request of friends. I soon realized the immense amount of women wanting to learn this modern, yet ancient movement. After nearly a year, women were coming to me from other pole dance studios and instructors inundated me, although I had not actively advertised my classes. They had all found me on the Internet by searching, and told me they had been seeking “something more” and something “authentic”.

The majority of these women also had injuries. Strangely, they had many of the same injuries. Shoulder, wrist, elbow, and neck issues seemed to dominate these injuries. There were even tailbone injuries, knee and ankle injuries, and even a bone spur in one student’s foot. I quickly realized a regular pattern of these injuries, and decided to do some study into this matter. I had also recently become obsessed with the aerial circus arts, especially aerial silks and trapeze. Having a fitness trainer history, as well as technical dance and acrobatics background (And, ahem, understanding the basic law of physics and gravity), I knew that “pole dance” qualified as an “aerial” dance form, well, since your feet become removed from the ground, and you are suspended in the air on an apparatus. I learned that I was correct, the injuries I was witnessing were the same as aerial circus injuries.

Having spent over three years studying and having learned all of this, I realized the best way to get this crucial information out into the pole dance fitness industry; I needed to refrain from being merely an instructor. I needed to become a “teacher’s teacher”. And this program was created over this past year to honor this.

Urban Fertility Dancer is now here to “help you to create the most secure, effective environment for yourself, and your students, to express their more sensuous side.” Safely, and with love for their own personal path.

The worship of goddesses has been around since the beginning of man. It is believed by many historians that the Cro-Magnon man worshipped goddesses and that this custom was also held in ancient Babylon. Goddess worship was also prevalent in India, the Orient, and the Middle East. Goddesses were also worshipped all around historical Europe, adored in numerous ancient and medieval mythologies. The Goddess is, and has been, called by many names in various cultures and ages.

The art of ancient Egypt, from the earliest of dynasties, shows dancers and musicians as part of normal life. There is also much evidence of dance in ancient Syria, Turkey and other countries. Some aspects of these dances were simply a form of entertainment, but it were also related to the worship of various fertility goddesses, such as Hathor in Egypt, Aphrodite in Greece and Ishtar in Babylon. Historians have recorded that ancient writers described this movement as being centered in circular, swaying movements of the hips, and ecstatic shaking of the whole body. Women frequently danced themselves into a chaotic trance when they felt they believed were linked to the power of the goddess.

Let’s repeat that. “Historians have recorded that ancient writers described this movement as being centered in circular, swaying movements of the hips, and ecstatic shaking of the whole body.”

Okay. Now about "The Pole". Where did this infamous stripper prop evolve from? You ready?

“One Eye Tommy Fallon and Mom Fallon ran a single-O girl show called Princess Pat. The girl who worked it would strip naked and grind herself up against the 'snorting pole', simulating sex with an imagined male lover. The 'snorting pole', or pole in the front of the stage, was often the center tent pole. These cooch and single-O tops were often very small, twenty by thirty feet, so the center pole would be right up against the front of the stage making it available as a 'prop'. Where the carny term 'snorting pole' came from is lost in time. One girl dancer interviewed thought it came from the reaction of the men in the crowd who, she said, 'snorted like pigs when they became excited!'

The snorting pole went from being a prop in cooch and single-O girl shows to being an architectural accoutrement to most go-go dancing stages. It is still a major prop in nude dance clubs”

Taken from; “Girl Show: Into the Canvas World of Bump and Grind”

Author: A.W. Stencell, Published by ECW Press © 1999

Well, I think that answers THAT question.

Dancing around the Maypole on May Day, Belly Dance. Hula. Afro-Caribbean, Samba, Geisha, Saloon Girls, Hoochie-Coochie, Afro-Caribbean, Reggae-ton, French Can-Can, Stripease Dancers, the list goes on, and on, and on. Every culture has its unique form of “Fertility Dancing”. The contemporary United States is not unique in this movement. We merely have our own version, which we call “Strippers” or “Exotic Dancers”, but personally, I like to call them “Urban Fertility Dancers”.

-- We now have an official name for this style of movement:

URBAN FERTILITY DANCING. EXOTIC AERIAL DANCE.

Now we have URBANFERTILITYDANCER.COM, not just about “pole-dancing for fitness”, but about training quality instructors to assist their own students in this journey of erotic movement. Let's put the “exotic” back into exotic aerial dance, as it should be.