One-armed pole dancer impresses judges

One competitor managed to keep her cool and impress a judging panel with her pole prowess- even though she could only use one arm. At the International Pole Championship in Hong Kong, Australia’s Deborah Roach slide and swung past her competitors to win first place in the disabled division.  Ms Roach, said she had always enjoyed dancing and it helped her when she felt she did not fit in with society.

‘I actually got into an underground Goth scene in my teenage years because I didn’t fit into normal society. I loved dancing the night away on the dance floor, and that led to stage dancing in clubs’ she said.

In 2006, inspired by a circus-themed double act she saw at a club she was dancing in, Ms Roach took up pole dancing and aerial acrobatics, and hasn’t looked back. After winning a pole dancing competition against able-bodied dancers in 2009, she quit her job in IT, and became a personal trainer. She also decided to get her first prosthetic arm and learn to ride a bike at age 28.

On her competitor profile page, Ms Roach wrote of her unexpected career, ‘I have always loved dancing but as a child and teen with low self esteem I believed that aesthetic and athletic pursuits were not for me, not for my ‘different’ body… Luckily as an adult, I learned to challenge my assumptions.’

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