Josiah Grant
Legend of Dance
Why They Matter
Grant matters because his 2013 victory provides a clearly dated point at which a major U.S. pole competition recognized a male champion, while his public explanations refused to simplify pole into either sport or seduction alone. His visibility helped widen the gendered image of the form and…
Known For
Biography
Josiah Grant, who performs as Bad Azz, is an American pole dancer, instructor and competitor based in Los Angeles. He began experimenting with gymnastics at seven and later trained across hip-hop, ballet and contortion. By his own account, he began pole work at sixteen, practicing in his bedroom and sharing progress online before developing a career as both an exotic dancer and competitive performer.
Grant's approach to pole refuses easy categorization. He has worked as an exotic dancer and has not presented competitive pole as detached from stripping, sensuality or showmanship. In a 2013 interview, he described choreography as a structured argument—with theme, development and conclusion—while treating sexiness as a legitimate part of the vocabulary.
By October 2009, Grant's official profile dates the start of his work as a pole instructor. His international teaching profile grew quickly; the Pole Fitness Academy advertised three workshops with him in Oxford, England on 26 March 2011. In the same period he was already entering U.S. competitions, later recalling a third-place result at a 2011 American Pole Fitness Association event.
Public attention widened in 2012 when LAist's *Off-Ramp* profiled Grant as a Los Angeles performer and emphasized his deliberate presentation of a masculine pole vocabulary. The profile marked a moment when his work was being discussed not only as athletic spectacle but as a challenge to gender conventions around the form.
On 24 August 2013, Grant won the men's division at the North American Pole Dance Championship in Tinley Park, Illinois, performing to Prince's "Kiss." Contemporary reporting identified him as the first male champion in that event's history. A Reddit AMA five days later connected that result to his broader career of teaching, touring and performing, and gave Grant space to discuss the compositional thinking behind his routines.
Grant continued to circulate through competitions, workshops, tutorials and television appearances throughout the 2010s. His video archive documents 2015 performances, and studios across the United States and Europe advertised workshops with him during this period. He describes himself as a multiple U.S. pole champion, though individual event verification remains incomplete.
Legacy & Impact
Grant's 2013 victory at the North American Pole Dance Championship provided a clearly dated milestone: a major U.S. pole competition recognizing a male champion. His public refusal to simplify pole into either sport or seduction alone—treating strength, sensuality, theatrical character and pedagogy as integrated parts of one practice—helped widen the gendered image of the form. As a prominent Black male artist rooted in exotic dance and competition, Grant offered visibility that challenged assumptions about who belongs in pole and what the form can be. His significance is most precise at the event level: first male winner of the 2013 North American Pole Dance Championship.
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