HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017 01-12 Maplewood pole dancing meet is for everyone; just ask this 63-year-old PIONEER PRESS
Maplewood pole dancing meet is for everyone;
just ask this 63-year-old
Mary Giltner Serritella, 63, will be teaching teaching pole dancing at the Minnesota Regional Pole Competitions Jan. 14-15, 2017, in
Maplewood. (Courtesy of Mary Giltner Serritella)
By Richard Chin | rchin@pioneerpress.com |
January 12, 2017 at 11:00 am
Spinning upside down and doing the splits 10 feet above the floor while clinging onto a vertical metal pole
may not be for everyone.
But the second annual Minnesota Pole Competitions this weekend at the Maplewood Performing Arts
Theatre will demonstrate that pole dancing has outgrown its roots in “gentlemen’s clubs.”
It’s now a form of artistic expression, exercise and competition practiced by kids and adults, male and
female and body types of all sizes.
The event on Saturday and Sunday is expected to attract about 300 participants including nearly 60
competitors, according to organizer Angie Lofquist, a former fitness instructor from St. Paul who now
teaches and performs pole dancing for a living. In addition to competition in categories ranging from
novice to elite, the pole dancing weekend will include seminars, workshops and pole dancing vendors.
Mary Giltner Serritella, a 63-year-old pole dancer, performing the spatchcock, a trick she’ll be teaching at
the Minnesota Regional Pole Competitions in Maplewood. (Courtesty Mary Giltner Serritella)
One stereotype-busting performer at the event will be Mary Giltner Serritella, a 63-year-old Minnesota
native who pole dances under the name of Mary Caryl.
Serritella, who now lives in the Los Angeles area, said she decided to take up pole dancing about six years
ago after the kids had grown up.
“My sister said, ‘You’re too old.’ My husband said, ‘You’re going to hurt yourself.’ My son said, ‘Pole
dancing?'” Serritella said.
But now Serritella is good enough to win national titles in the masters category in pole dancing.
And she teaches others how to do it. At the Minnesota Pole Competitions, she’ll be teaching one workshop
about splits, extensions and pointed toes and another about an advanced pole dancing maneuver called the
spatchcock.
The Maplewood Performing Arts Theatre is in the city’s community center, at 2100 White Bear Ave. N.
More information and tickets to the Minnesota Pole Competitions can be found
at www.poleandperformingart.com.
Mary Giltner Serritella, a 63-year-old pole dancer, performing the spatchcock, a trick she’ll be
teaching at the Minnesota Regional Pole Competitions in Maplewood. (Courtesty Mary Giltner Serritella)