Pole dancing studio in Atlanta offers 'Mommy and Me' classes for kids as young as 4: 'God aligned us'

An Atlanta-based studio that teaches women to dance on a pole like a professional stripper has now decided to broaden its classes to target a much younger audience. With its new "Mommy and Me" classes, girls and boys as young as 4 can learn to twirl around a pole, prompting cries of outrage about the apparent sexualization of young children.

Next month, Pink Dance and Aerial Studio, also known as Pink Poles Studio, will begin offering a workshop called "Mommy and Me." During the class, kids 4 and up will be "swinging, sliding and flipping on a pole" while "moms and peers cheer them on in the background," said a statement defending the classes on the company's website.

Though the statement repeatedly insists that pole dancing has little or nothing to do with "stripping," a video to promote the class shows young girls performing pole stunts often associated with those seen in strip clubs. For this reason, Blaze News is choosing not to link to the promo video.

No clothing is removed during the class, the statement claims. The "children wear age-appropriate gym wear, and adult students are fully clothed too." However, the statement also boasts that the course will help students, ostensibly including children, "embrace ... their sensuality."

The statement also claims that the class gives families quality bonding time in which "moms can unleash their inner child with their daughters (or sons!), exploring a variety of fun pole tricks and spins." Despite the strong backlash the course has received on social media, the overall response has been "overwhelmingly positive," the statement said.

Tiajuanna "Tia" Harris supposedly founded the pole dancing studio a decade ago, despite having "no exotic dancer background or affiliation with stripping." An image contained in the statement indicates that the studio, which now has four Atlanta-area locations, was the result of divine inspiration. "God gave me a vision and fully funded," read the message attending an image of Harris, "now 10 years later I'm still winning and getting better each day."

Another message attending the "Mommy and Me" promo video on Instagram likewise references divine intervention, claiming that God brought Harris together with a "gymnastics coach" known as Royalty Pole at just the right time. "We know she’s perfect for the job," the message said. "... God aligned us perfectly and [at] the perfect time."

It appears that Royalty or another "gymnastics coach" like her will be supervising the kids during the "Mommy and Me" classes. Royalty's "adult" Instagram page does not appear to contain any videos of traditional gymnastics performances but contains hundreds of posts and videos of stripper-like pole dancing, complete with platform shoes and other notorious erotic attire.

Her child-friendly Instagram page, kidspoletoo_, offers just two videos. In both of them, she is wearing much more modest clothing.

Though Royalty's gymnastics expertise is unclear, the Pink Poles Studios statement still hints that young "Mommy and Me" participants may grow up to become Olympic champions like beloved gymnasts Gabby Douglas and Simone Biles. "Pole is a SPORT," it states emphatically, "and if any of these kids aspire to compete in the Olympics one day, they can and will!"

Sadly, that assertion may not be wrong. In 2020, the Global Association of International Sports Federation, the organization which determines whether an activity is considered a sport, gave pole dancing the official nod, creating a path for it to become an Olympic sport some day.

After the official GAISF go-ahead, pole dancing enthusiasts quickly scrambled to figure out a way to make the sport competitive. "We had to come up with a scoring system, rules and anti-doping process, everything you would associate with a sport like [soccer]," Katie Coates, president of the International Pole Sports Federation, said at the time.

The IPSF offers several age-related categories, including "senior 18+ women," "senior 30+ women," "Master 60+ Women," and "Junior Female." There are many categories designated for males as well, including a "junior" competition. The website does not state the age range for "junior" competitors.

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