Meet Felix Cane

Powerful, sleek, graceful, flexible, strong, all of these adjectives have been used over and over again to describe Ms. Felix Cane of Australia. Since she abandoned her training in ballet at age 17, saying it was "restrictive" and "depressing", Felix has taken up Pole Dance for fitness, and has taken the Pole Dancing world by storm. She apparently began pole dancing around three years ago. Her mother had tried a pole dancing class and came home raving about it, Felix decided to give it a try too. After 10 months of instruction and even graduating to instructing, Felix won her first Australian national Championship in 2006. Ms. Pole dance Australia has a rule that one cannot compete and win in back to back years so Felix was excluded from competing for the title in 2007. When she returned to the Ms. Pole dance Australia stage in 2008, Felix had grown up, shed the girlish redhead pixie-ish cuteness of her debut, she was slimmer, sleeker, with a much closer cropped black died doo. I have watched her 2006 performance video on youtube.com several times, as well as every other video that she has posted or performed in that I can find. Her relative newness to the sport made her doubt her ability to walk in there and just walk off with the coveted Ms. Pole dance Australia Crown. The first part of her 2006 video begins with her explaining before she performed that she didn't think that she shall win, she had entered for the experience and exposure. Two and a half minutes later, sitting in front of the screen with your mouth hanging open in amazement, you have to wonder, who in the hell did she think was going to come into that competition and beat her? Her 2008 performance has no such pre-performance commentary, when she came in she came to win. Felix was poised, polished, and prepared to become an icon in this newly emerging sport.

The poise, the fluidity, extension, and sheer explosive power that Felix brings to every performance is evidence of the many hours that Felix has spent in the studio, on stages on the Pole Dancing Circuit, and the commitment to be the very best is displayed in every trick, combination, spin, and pose that compose her winning routines. The way she puts her entire presentations together tells me that she is not just another "pretty face", though she is easy on the eyes. Before she began racking up titles, trophies, and followers Felix was a student at her local University studying biochemistry and mathematics.

After she won the 1^st annual World Pole Dance & Fitness Federation's Ms. Pole dance World competition at the Hedonism III resort in Jamaica, she proudly took her place as a living legend in the world of pole fitness. Following her victory and subsequent publicity tour Felix took a job with Cirque de Soleil's Zumanity show as a part of what is called the "sexy side of Cirque", she currently performs in two shows a night 5 nights a week in Las Vegas, Nevada. Somehow she still finds the time to tour and teach clinics, make special appearances, and to perform exhibitions at pole dancing events such as the September 09 California Pole Dance Championship finals which can be found on YouTube.com simply by looking up Felix Cane. I was surprised and pleased when Felix appeared on the Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien.

Dancers like Felix Cane embody the ideals of pole dancing for fitness. As an observer once said to me while watching one of her amazing videos on youtube.com, "Even the way that she walks is theatrical and dramatic, she is performing from the instant she steps on stage until the lights go down and the final bars of her music still hang in the air." I have to agree with him, Felix Cane is the embodiment of the phrase "poetry in motion". As young as Ms. Cane is, I look forward to many years of powerful and beautiful performances from her. She and many other women who have elevated their talent and skills to the "world class" level are the examples of and the reasons why so many people are in support of Pole Gymnastics becoming a future Olympic sport. In fact we may see the first Olympic Games in which Pole Dancing is included as early as the 2012 Olympic Games to be held in London. If we don't see it in the Olympics then, I am certain that we will keep trying. It is a beautiful and artistic sport, and Pole Fitness is certainly becoming a mainstream sport and activity.

Needless to say the 2010-2011 World Pole Dance & Fitness Federation will have quite the hot ticket for promoters, reporters, and fans of the sport in April 2010. As of Christmas 2009 the intended location for the competition has not been revealed. Pole Passion Ltd., Great Britain, is the organizer, sponsor, and host of the WPDFF competition, their Miss Pole Dance World website has yet to post even a hint beyond the fact that the competition shall be held in Europe. Having had the opportunity to meet and compete with the best of the best from around the world at the first annual show it will be interesting to see whether the dancers from last year will be able to repeat their successes and return in the 2010 World Pole Dance competition. It is my understanding that to qualify for the World competition you have to be a Champion of a national competition. Some of the more established Ms. Pole Dance competitions around the world have rules that exclude the previous years winner from competing in the following year, such as Austrailia. This would exclude the winner of the previous year from being able to go to the World Competition if they must be current winners of a national competition to gain a slot.

Last year the USPDF (United States Pole Dance Federation) was also holding its 1^st annual Championship competition. Several contestants in the 2009 competitions were competing in Ms. Pole Dance events that were hosted by newly formed and chartered Pole Federations, who were responding the need for such official organizations due to the submission of Pole fitness for consideration by the International Olympic Committee for inclusion in the Summer Olympic Competitions to be held in 2012 in London England. To me this means that each organization is still hashing out their rules and requirements for everything from entry qualifications or exclusions to the required elements for a competitive qualifying program. So it is anybodies guess whether we will see a rematch of the two titans who emerged first and second from last years Championship Competition.

As I have told you, Felix Cane of Australia was the winner, the runner up to Ms. Cane was Ms. Jenyne Butterfly the USPDF champion. Though stylistically the two women's programs were very different from one another, the quality of their pole work, grace, strength, level of difficulty, and stage presence was very much comparable between the two women who took the top honors in the competition. I have taken the time to watch their competitors as well and I must say that both women bested some very staunch competitors to win their right to compete in the World competition. There is the question of the Australian ruling that the previous years champion is not allowed to compete. Felix is the reigning World Champion as well as the reigning Australian national champion.

Here is a list of all the titles that Felix has won:

1. Miss Pole Dance World 2009

2. Best Female Stripper 2008 - Australian Adult Industry Awards

3. Miss Pole Dance Australia 2008

4. Miss Nude Australia National Final 2008 - Pole Dance Champion

5. Miss Nude Australia WA Final 2008 - Entertainer of the Year & Hottest Body

6. STAR Awards - Best Female Performer 2007

7. Miss Hustler Centrefold Oceania 2007 - 1st Place

8. Miss Pole Dance Australia 2006

Unless the WPDFF has a similar rule against the Champion returning in successive years to defend her title Felix may be automatically qualified to compete for the World Championship title but not her National Championship. There is also another factor to be considered, since Felix now lives and works in the United States, if she is excluded by the Australian Pole Federation from defending her national title in the coming year, could she not compete in the US National Competition? Felix is an athlete and a competitor, the best of the best, and she seems to thoroughly enjoy competition. So why wouldn't she want a chance to compete again in the Ms. Pole Dance World Championships again? Also the women who have set their sites on reaching the National and subsequently the World levels of competition, I am sure, want the opportunity to compete against the reigning Queen. Also spectators, both those who can afford to travel for the competition and those who purchase the DVD's of the competition, and even those people who view it in pieces on YouTube and other video sharing websites want to see Felix. Felix has done so many exhibitions, television appearances, live clinics and classes at a whole host of clubs and pole studios both in Europe and North America, and so much promotion of the sport that it goes without saying that everyone is going to want to see Felix compete again in the 2010 competition and defend her Ms. Pole Dance World Champion title.

I believe if the respective Pole Dance Federations have not come up with a solution to the catch that excludes Felix from competing for a berth in the World finals, that either accommodation will be made for Felix so that she may compete and defend her crown, or she will compete in the US Competition since she resides and works in the United States under contract with Cirque de Soleil. She may even choose to compete in another national Ms. Pole dance competition to navigate around the restrictions of her home countries rules against her competing two years in a row. Another solution may present to her or to one of the committees that will allow them to avoid violating any of their rules for a specific performer, or showing any favoritism toward her just because she won the first one. The rules and requiems are still being hashed out by the powers that be to insure that all of the best dancers in the world have an equal opportunity to win a spot on the world stage as a National Champion. There is also the International Pole Federation who will be holding their Finals in London May 2010. She could also opt to try to unify the two titles and become the reigning Queen of Pole Dance in both International Federations. One thing is for certain, whether for an exhibition, a class, or a world class competition Felix's style and talent have "Champion" stamped all over them. Whatever she may choose to do in the emerging International class competitions and World Federation Championships, Felix Cane is the woman to beat in any competition she enters. She is truly the very best at her chosen sport and deserves all of the notoriety and exposure as the "face" of competitive pole dancing today.

References for this story

2009 May 5, Grafiada, Jennifer, Champion pole dancer spices up Zumanity, Las Vegas Weekly blogs "The Playground", retrieved from http://www.lasvegasweekly.com/blogs/the-playground/2009/may/05/poledancer-champ-spices-zumanity/

2009 No authors name given, Felix Cane - World Champion Pole Dancer, Candy and Chrome Pole Dancing Studios website, http://www.candy-chrome.co.uk/pole-stars/felix-cane/

World Championship Competition Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3i7dGwQboI

California Pole Dance Championship exhibition October 8, 2009 Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5G1jRJo9ek

2008 Ms. Pole Dance Australia http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFWf60ln8II

2006 Ms. Pole Dance Australia Video http://www.break.com/usercontent/2009/7/felix-cane-miss-poledance-australia-824116.html