As a world champion in pole dance, Mary Caryl Serritella is used to standing out from her competitors.
But it is not just her colorful costumes and killer moves, as at 71-years-old she is among the sport’s oldest competitors.
She has even kept up her hobby after undergoing a hip replacement, not that you would ever guess it from her award-winning routines.
The Los Angeles-based mom partly credits her competitive spirit for helping to keep her at the top of her game.
‘When you compete you improve,’ she explained to Daily Mail. ‘It makes you think about the level of work more intensely and you learn more.’
But becoming a world champion as Serritella did in Italy in 2023 does not come easy.
It required years of hard work and even led to some falling-outs along the way.
‘Some people unfriended me on Facebook,’ she revealed of scandalized acquaintances who could not wrap their heads around Serritella’s new passion. ‘But I don’t blame them, if you only have your perspective you might get the wrong idea.’
Mary Caryl Serritella became a world champion pole dancer in an international competition in 2023
She took her first class at age 57 but unlike other athletes, she doesn’t have a restrictive diet and never goes to the gym
Aside from some amateur gymnastics in high school, Serritella had no training in the art form.
But she took her first pole dance class aged 57 and said she immediately got ‘the bug.’
Now she trains around three times a week, but you won’t ever catch her at the gym.
‘I have two standard poodles who require walking and I have a couple of five pound weights in my home studio, but I don’t go to the gym or anything like that,’ Serritella said.
As for her diet, sweet treats are most definitely on the menu, including a batch of cookies which were fresh from the oven as Serritella spoke to Daily Mail.
‘I’m not one of these people that is a fanatic, as you can tell from what’s in my fridge right now,’ she explained. ‘I think that restrictive way of eating just makes you neurotic.’
Serritella was fresh from judging a contest in Tucson, Arizona and preparing to perform in a Harry Potter themed showcase in Denver, Colorado, where she will dance on the pole dressed as Professor Trelawny.
It is a far cry from where she first started, as Serritella says she never dreamed of competing.
Especially given the frosty reaction of some people in her hometown of Minett, North Dakota, when she was just beginning.
To stay in shape for her craft, Serritella said she drinks plenty of water and moves around as much as she can
While some pole dancers favor stripper-style routines, Serritella prefers a lyrical form focused on storytelling.
Her characters are usually, ‘comical or sensual in some way,’ she added.
Luckily, she says attitudes have come a long way since, although she does occasionally run into judgement.
‘It’s been a journey of “can do”,’ Serritella added. ‘People are going to say you’re old, you’re going to hurt yourself and there is a stigma, but people are starting to see what is possible to achieve.
‘There are so many benefits, from the physical to the friendship. I’ve had a hip replacement five years ago and it has taught me so much about how to bounce back and take care of my body.’
Serritella credits her success to her four golden rules, which she said anyone can follow.
‘The first is drink lots of water,’ she explained. ‘I see people my age looking so puffy and you just want to take the garbage out, flush it out with plenty of water.
‘Second is you have got to move, that keeps everything rotating and you will feel the benefit.’
Third on her list is simple: Be happy, although Serritella says this is where many people, especially women, fall down.
Serritella warned first time pole dancers they are likely to be ‘sore in muscles you didn’t know you had’
‘I think we go through our lives, we graduate, get jobs or have families and get sort of lost,’ she said.
‘You need to treat yourself with care, find the things you love independently so you can pull from that box of happiness when times get tough.
‘Whether that’s a hobby or buying that dress or lunch with your girls.’
Her final rule is generosity of spirit and time, which she says will distract you from any woes or pole-related aches and pains.
Because as Serritella warned, these are a given for pole dance especially for beginners.
‘You’re going to be sore in muscles you didn’t know you had,’ she warned. ‘And you’re going to get pole kisses, or bruises, from where you didn’t do it right.’
But she said it is important to stick to it and recommended giving pole dance at least six classes.
‘You’re going to feel awkward and clumsy, but that’s okay,’ she said. ‘Fear will hold you back, concern for safety is okay but if you have fear you need to think about how you can work around it.
But if you stick to it, the rewards of the sport will extend far beyond the physical, according to Serritella
The rewards will extend far beyond the physical, according to Serritella.
‘I see it like we are a rose on a branch and we’re all blooming, you can do things to extend the bloom, but it is designed to wither and die,’ she said.
‘But there are things you can do to prolong your bloom for much longer than we’re told to expect.’
