Strip Down, Rise Up

I have watched a Chinese movie about a lost soul do this kind of dancing to find her own identity. That movie is so bad for the actress who act so it didn't bring me any interests about this "sport". But this documentary brings along many real examples for people participated, just makes me know the spirit of this sport. It's about believing yourself, don't be shame. Founder of S factor really catch the people weakness to make a success. Lesson learnt how to make a business.

If there's a 0 or -99 for me to select, I will. Not sure did the producer or production team ever done any research about pole dancing or just stumble upon a random support group that looks like some weird cult and decided to make the show.

Pole dancing is nothing like that.

It's really uncomfortable for me to watch.

Glad that if the cult did help those traumatized women but pole dancing community is a cheerful, supportive and optimistic sport.

This is a documentary about S-Factor, which is a franchise that teaches sensual movement and pole dancing. I'm familiar with it because my girlfriend teaches at an S-Factor studio. So I sort of know what S-Factor is about and have a general understanding of some of the hostility towards the film.

The movie follows a beginner class taught by actress Sheila Kelley. It focusses on students who are looking not just for an interesting form of exercise (it takes a lot of strength to do pole tricks) but also to get in touch with their femininity/sexiness/whatnot. Many students have serious traumas and the movie shows them working through those traumas in pole dancing. They also spend time in what are essentially group therapy sessions, with Sheila pushing students to open up.

The movie also shows us some interesting people outside of the Sheila Kelley world who are more part of the competitive pole world.

The stories are genuinely touching. A recently-widowed middle-aged woman, a gymnast who was one of Larry Nassar's victims. We see women relaxing into movement, we see them tearing up, we see them processing their trauma as movement.

S-Factor and the movie have a message of pole dancing as empowerment, in which women take back the feminine power and sensuality men are co-opting or closing down. Some people find it ridiculous, but some find it very powerful.

SDRU is an entertaining movie, but the few user reviews here as I write this are mainly hostile. There seem to be a couple of reasons for that.

One complaint you see is it doesn't represent the world of pole dance accurately. This is probably true, but it's really not a movie about pole dancing in general. It's almost entirely focused on S-Factor, which is as much about "sensuous movement" (a bunch of crawling around in sexy clothes) as actual pole dancing. The appeal, as I understand it, is the way it creates a community of women of all ages/body types who go on a journey of exploration of their femininity together. My girlfriend's studio eschews mirrors so women don't get self conscious, so it's perhaps more of a "safe space" than some other pole studios. If you want to see a movie about athletic pole dancers perfecting tricks and competing, you will be disappointed, although it does have those and some of what the advanced pole dancers do is wildly impressive.

Also, not everyone is a fan of Kelley's pushing women to deal with trauma. She's not a therapist, and from what I hear, while some women pretty much worship her, others have found her approach upsetting.

None of this is dealt with in the movie, which focusses on the empowerment angle and the idea of rising up. It's not a deep exploration, which is why it's been accused of seeming a bit like an informercial.

It's not a movie I would have watched if not for my girlfriend, but I did quite enjoy it.

This film was an interesting watch that tugged at the heart strings. Watching women unlock their bodies through sensual movement was so empowering. The back and forth with competitive pole dancers who do this art for sport and the beginner women who were learning S Factor for many different reasons was compelling. I was struck by HOW many women have suffered sexual abuse or trauma and the power that can be found allowing women to embody their full feminine without the male gaze. If women ever step into supporting one another the way the women in this film do, look out world. At the heart of this film are Evelyn and Megan, both unlocking their bodies that have been frozen for different reasons. I loved watching all the women in this whole movie supporting one another and lifting each other up.

An inspiring watch with lots of tears and some good laughs.

As a professional pole dancer myself, I found this boring, one sided (Jennyne Butterfly was the only sane and real person in this entire documentary) and purely "American" (drama and a lot of truly hard emotional stories but the way they directed it seemed to be just for the show and only for the viewer to FEEL something). The whole documentary was nothing but a commercial for the studio of Sheila. Waste of time , doesnt portray the real world of pole dancing by any means.