How my Pole Dancing journey began...
My pole dancing journey started when I was four years old and wanted to be a cheerleader. I've always been fascinated with being high up in the air, doing flips, flexible shapes, and all kinds of acrobatic acts. However, my coach was kind of strict, and I remember falling on my face once, and she said that I deserved it because I was basically acting like cooked spaghetti. She reminded me of a family member since I grew up in a Russian household, so tough love was the way for me to learn. That's how I met Mia, the owner of the studio.
Mia quickly became a family friend, and I started to compete at competitions and train almost 24/7. The teams I was in were pretty successful, and at the age of 13, I started to coach the little ones of the team. I realized that I actually like to coach as well. I helped to choreograph some of the routines and the teamwork brought us a lot of success as a team. We were like a big family, but then Mia decided to leave the teams due to her new found passion and work.
I was about 14 years old, and I remember the entire team being mad at her because they felt like she didn't care about them. So I stood up to them and explained that Mia is following her heart, and that we should be proud of her instead of hating her for selfish reasons. The original team didn’t like the new head coaches, so I left mid-practice and joined Mia at the Pole Dancing Studio.
It was time for a change, I joined the Pole Studio...
When I joined the studio, I practiced more as an escape from reality and for my mental health. After a few months of training, I started to compete at my first competition (Steel on Fire) and placed second. Then I went to nationals and placed second again. I just wanted to make my older sister (Mia) proud and prove that I can be as good as the people I saw on my social media.
The Corona Year was somewhat a blessing for me...
The following year, I hit a low point in my life, lost motivation to compete, continue social media, and lost contact with a lot of people. But then the pandemic happened, and quarantining helped me a lot when it came to starting my personal growth journey and reconnecting with pole. Quarantine allowed me to reflect on my life and start from a blank canvas. I figured that I was in a toxic relationship, toxic friendship, and I wasn't interested in what I was studying at all. Being alone in the studio was helpful when it came to connecting with my soul, body, and mind, and it brought back the passionate spark that I had for performing.
At the end of the pandemic, I realized that I wasn't happy with the life I was living. So I tried to envision the life I'd like to live, dropped everything, and started doing what I wanted to do. I always knew that I wanted to do something with art, but I also wanted to work with health and fitness. Since I was already at the pole dancing studio, I started to take it more seriously because my style is a fusion of artistic expression and fitness.
How I became a pole dance instructor....
So I dropped out of economics school, transferred to online school, and started to learn how to coach by analyzing the pole dancing classes. Eventually, it turned into me teaching my own pole dancing classes. I had a rocky start, but once I figured out my teaching style and combined that with the constantly developing pole dancing knowledge, I was able to start my teaching career. After I got the hang of teaching classes, I started to post my pole videos and my personality on social media again. A few of my videos got a lot of attention, which made me meet a lot of amazing people. A lot of them ended up joining my classes, which made me feel very supported and happy that I could help them achieve their goals.
I had my first photo shootings and got to travel to give private classes. This made me realize that I can do more than one thing with my craft and branch out to other industries. So I educated myself on modeling, coaching, and content creation.
I had to focus on my personal growth...
In 2021, I took a year to only focus on my personal growth and travel to have a better connection with myself and think about where I want to take my career. The main thing I did during this time personal growth-wise was meditate 1-5 hours a day. I had a journal of how I wanted to live my life, a journal for my mental health, and one just for my goals.
Manifesting what I want...
In 2022, I actually lived these manifestations and started to perform as an artist, started to do online classes on personal growth, yoga, and meditation. I trained my pole kids for their first competition. I even looked exactly the way I wanted to look like. I met incredible people during this time, which gave me the idea to take myself as an artist more seriously. This time, I didn’t take breaks in between the shows, classes, practicing, and choreographing. And I ended up finding myself in the hospital for ignoring the signs my body gave me.
Beginning of 2023 was a though cookie for me...
Which brings us to 2023. The beginning of the year was very stressful for me since my job requires me to actually be present. So I couldn’t work for almost all of January. I had to cancel all the shows, shootings, and I couldn’t even give the classes, which led to me not making any money that month. This made me realize that being an artist or owning a small business isn’t always rainbows and butterflies. Sometimes it can be very challenging. I’m still very grateful for all the highs and lows I went through in this very short period of time mainly because I gained so much knowledge from personal growth coaches, Mia, event planners/managers, content creators,...
At the present moment, I’m excited about what kind of challenges, obstacles, responsibilities, highs, and lows I will come across this year. I’m looking forward to being a wiser, stronger, and happier woman before we reach 2024.