Some moms are soccer moms. Others spend their weekends on the sidelines of little league, but for parents Jake Night and Lindsey Teall of St. Louis, Missouri, they participate in another sport that not many others consider to be a family hobby: pole dancing. The sport, which is controversial due to its association with exotic dancing, has gotten the parents some flack in the past for teaching the art to their children. But for Jake and Lindsey, there's nothing to them that's sexual about the activity and it's completely appropriate for their young children to participate in.
Jake and Lindsey first met and fell in love while working as exotic dancers.
Lindsey originally took up pole dancing after the end of her first marriage as a way to get her spark back. “I really needed something to spark my artistic nature," Lindsey told The Daily Mail. "So I went to a club and I saw a dancer on stage and I said, ‘I really wanna try this.’"
The couple married soon after and now share three children: Aiden (from Lindsey's first marriage), age 11, Alaura, age 5, and Rosalyn, age 3.
When Lindsey started teaching pole dancing classes, she started thinking about the activity as a sport.
"At first, we didn’t pole dance together," Lindsey said as she explained the story behind how the family of athletes got their start. "After we had our first child together, our daughter Alaura, we bought a pole and I started teaching classes. That’s when I started discovering my love for competitive pole dancing and for performing on the pole outside of the club."
In fact, pole fitness has been a circus act in other countries for centuries. According to the International Pole Dance Fitness Association, the Chinese tradition of Chinese Pole and in India, Mallakhamb, are very similar to what is now current American pole fitness, where performers use their strength to do tricks similar to the ones taught in classes like Lindsey's.
In the U.S., pole fitness was first touted as a fitness craze and the classes often receives praise from American women who feel that the sport empowers them.
Now, the couple says that their kids practice the activity as a sport, but some slam them for it.
Jake and Lindsey live their life as public figures, but say that the backlash became intense once they started to perform their routines with their children. "We have dealt with a lot of negative comments, I can’t even count, thousands upon thousands upon thousands," Jake said. "We’ve heard some pretty horrific things, they were going to hunt us down and kill us and take our children."
But Lindsey defended the way she and Jake are raising their children. Saying that the "naysayers" only make her want to protect her children more.
"You can’t explain to everybody that this is a legitimate sport," Lindsey told reporters. "A lot of people, you just can’t change their opinion. We’re living our most authentic life, sometimes people don’t like that; they want you to be like everybody else."
Plus, Lindsey added, "stripping is becoming somewhat obsolete. Pole dance is taking a new route, it’s evolving into a sport, into an art," she said.
Lindsey said that because many strip clubs are closing up shop and the practice of exotic dancing is dying down, the stigma associated with pole dancing might be a thing of the past too.
"I actually don’t have any concern about my children participating in pole dance," she said.
The couple made it clear that they didn't force their kids into the sport and are proud that they can call pole a family activity.
Jake explained that though it was "scary" to see his kids on the pole at first, but as long as he's there to spot them, "you’re really proud of them because they’re doing these things that most of the time adults have trouble doing."
“It’s really cool to see your kids take after you when you really don’t even push them," he added.
And Lindsey added that though she and Jake enjoy performing together, when the family does their pole act it is just that much more special. "It was really refreshing and being able to do it with a partner and adding our kids into that aspect, was amazing," she said.
And Lindsey's oldest son, Aiden, explained that he wants to continue in his mom's footsteps as part of the "family tradition."
"I actually do want to compete in pole dancing when I’m older, so that way it can be a family tradition to compete," Aiden told reporters. For the 11-year-old, pole dancing is as common to him as going outside to kick a soccer ball around or playing a round of catch.
“I pole dance almost all the time, basically whenever I get home, sometimes I jump on the pole do a few tricks, jump off, do my normal thing," he explained.
The family recently traveled to Pole Con International, a pole dancing competition in Orlando, Florida and have no plans to stop competing. And while the story of a family of pole dancers might make some do a double take, Lindsey argued that teaching her children the skill was a way to broaden their horizons.
"I just want them to enjoy the art," Lindsey said, "They’re going to do whatever they decide to become, with passion.”
