Well, first off you need to find a good pole dance instructor as you’ll then be working with your instructor all your life and that’s very important. Second, there are a LOT of pole dancers out there and it is a very competitive industry, so you need to learn from a lot of different instructors, and you need to be flexible and adaptable to different instructor’s styles, and to have a lot of fun doing it. Lastly, pole dance involves a lot of body movements and the instructors I’ve worked with have always helped me learn ways to better handle these movements so I don’t always end up in the same positions over and over.
How long were you working with Pole Dance? Was it a regular gig after college?
I started pole dancing at the age of 19 and just transitioned to a full schedule at the age of 29.
Do you think the industry will ever move beyond the “traditional” models with traditional skills? Can you see pole dancing becoming more of a sport?
I think the world, for the most part, is going to look at pole dancing as more of a form of extreme gymnastics, rather than a ballet.
What makes pole dancing special compared to other dancing and sports. You mentioned that it’s more like gymnastics, what’s special about pole dancing?
I think most people think pole dancing is just about dancing and I think that’s mostly true. But really, it’s not just about dancing! It’s about the body, the mind, and the soul. You can do anything you want with your body, and any trick you want with your mind! The spirit within dance is at the core of pole dancing and there’s really nothing you can’t do if you have a solid foundation of dancing.
What happens when a girl gets hit by a pole? Do you feel unsafe in the industry?
This is such a hard question to answer honestly. Obviously if you hit another woman in a dance studio you get called an asshole and made fun of and you will get yelled at if it’s really true. And honestly, I still get that “you don’t even have the money” response a lot. Because I would never be in a restaurant where there’s a bunch of waitstaff that will yell at us for taking their order. I know the reason, the waiter had his back to us, so we could have our conversation with him. And he was in between each of us. So we were at the wrong table.