Lord of the Dance
Care home criticised for hosting pole-dancing performance for elderly residents
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Care home criticised for hosting pole-dancing performance for elderly residents

A CARE HOME is being criticised for hosting a pole dancing performance for its elderly residents.

Local councillors are branding the event “inappropriate”, while the staff at Fairmile Grange home in Christchurch, Dorset are defending the decision to hire the dancers as entertainment, one of which was as young as 10 years old.

According to management at the specialist nursing home, residents had been requesting “more modern-style activities” and, when given the choice, “welcomed” the pole dancers’ performance.

Footage from the event shows residents watching the dancers acrobatically spin around a metal pole in sports bras and knickers.

Pole dancers performing at the care home. (Picture: Facebook)

Councillor Peter Hall told Metro that it is ‘inappropriate’ to see pole dancers in a care home. ‘It’s not really the sort of entertainment I would have thought that the residents wanted or would have encouraged,’ he said. Councillor Denise Jones added: ‘I’m a bit staggered about it. While I’m always delighted to see the horizons of older people widened, I’m not sure that includes pole dancing.’

The youngest performer was 10 years old, but Katie teaches students up to the age of 65.

Images from the pole dancing event. (Picture: Facebook)

Katie Henry, the owner of Poole-based business Pole Dance Factory, which provided the performance, said pole dancing was “just another form of entertainment” and the care home “wanted something a bit different”.

She said there were different styles of pole dancing, but the style performed at Fairmile Grange was “gymnastic” and to music with a 1950s/60s theme.