Viktoria, Pole.

Three summers ago, a lot of things in my life came together. My first house. My first “real” job after uni. A new relationship that was promised to last longer than my previous ones.

And my first pole class.

Up until today, I find everything in this community. It is a circle of trust, where women and men cheer when the other succeeds and supports when one struggles. I see women and men celebration their bodies after journeys of medical treatments, self-damaging, gender transitions or body dysmorphia, that made them hate their bodies. I see women and men taking back power after toxic relationships, including the ones they had with themselves. I see women and men falling in love with their own soul and reflection. And with that, I fell in love with them.

Crushing comfort zones

It takes one step to start doing pole, one more step to transition from your fitness gear to your first pole wear, a third step to buy your first 8” heels. And then one step into Viktoria’s classes. Don’t get me wrong, this woman is there to make you feel safe and supported. But it is this woman that got me at most out of my comfort zone, when she asked us to perform for each other.

Many of us join pole because of how the sport makes us feel so strong (yes, we can open our own jars and carry our own stuff upstairs, thank you!). We love how it makes us reconnect with our bodies, being surrounded by friends in a safe space where every form of expression is allowed and accepted. Of course some of us have the ambition of performing professionally at clubs, but other than many assume, we can count them on one hand. So you can imagine many of us fully froze when Viktoria reserved the final quarter of the class to split up the group into dancers and audience: ‘Make eye contact. Imagine she is your customer!’

The importance of empathy

Viktoria is the first one teaching me about audience engagement. For the audience, dance can count as a spiritual experience where they see their own life story reflected in the movements. The secret behind eye contact lies in the knowing of the story you want to embody through your dance. Who is your character? What is your narrative? How do you want the audience to feel at the end of the show? Including these elements help the audience to become emotional invested with your performance. The right music choice, preferably a song with surprising transitions, help to play with different expressions throughout the choreo. You can imagine strong confident looks are needed for bad ass combinations, while relaxation is suitable for flowy or emotional performances. Just like owning physical space on the stage, or playing with gestures, eye contact counts as a way of narrowing the distance between you and the audience. It is this big variety of things you can learn to become a better dancer every day that excites Viktoria to look beyond just perfectioning the movements. ‘Empathy is the biggest quality you can have as a dancer.’

Curiosity

Viktoria’s journey as a pole dancer started from curiosity. When the fitness studio in her hometown started to offer pole classes, it was her and her friend joining a trial class as part of their search for excitement. She remembers being mesmerized by the teacher. ‘It was like all lights in the room shined on her!’ She still counts her as her biggest inspiration.

Soon after that first trial, Viktoria finds her body becoming stronger. ‘It is this combination of dancing and working out at the same time that I like.’ Already a year after her first class, it is her teacher using the words ‘Just do it!’ that give her the confidence to perform on stage. She feels highly nervous, not only because of performing but also because she wears heels for the first time. She laughs thinking back on how she hit the walls, the mirrors… ‘I am still surprised how nothing got broken.’

From there, many shows follow. By performing, she learns what it feels like to gain energy from an audience. The addictive cocktail of adrenaline, embodiment and recognition becomes a high, that made her look for new opportunities to get her hit. She finds several clubs where she can perform, and for the years that came after she lived the life of an accountant by day, dancer by night.

The development of pole

Sometimes my friends and I play with the idea of performing at a night club. Over some drinks we openly fantasise about stage names, captivating the crowd, leaving them breathless. It is the power of control that exited us, and honesty, we all feel that it would be nice to finally get some of the cheers we don’t get in our regular jobs. And get some better payment for our effort.

As many polers can tell you, pole dancing is more than strippers clacking their heels, spreading their legs or twerking on your face while you slide up some cash between their panties. It is a journey of female empowerment, a personal exploration of the possibilities of your body, and feeling comfortable expressing your sexuality. Viktoria is excited about how the pole sport is always evolving because it welcomes everybody to include a bit of themselves and their background into the style. ‘It is inspiring to see how pole invites dancers to blend other styles into their routine.’ She predicts that, as long as the sport remains open and inclusive, it will continue to evolve like it has been over the last decades.

Even though Viktoria experiences more and more people becoming understanding about what the pole sport actually means, there is still a way to go of changing its image. The biggest step that will help to make the sport grow, is it now being considered for being an Olympic sport. ‘People often don’t understand how challenging it is. But it is what it is, an actual sport!’

Ambitions

For her own future, she dreams about becoming a choreographer. Her style can be described as edgy, kinky and dark, wrapped with a ribbon of sensuality. One of the places where she finds her inspiration are festivals, like Wasteland. Her eyes sparkle when she tells me about the things she sees there: ‘Amsterdam is a great city to explore limits you didn’t know existed!’

As much as she experiments with bold movements, softness is embracing her heart. While working with her students in her classes, she pays full attention on them and their wellbeing. Her background in learning to check-in with a customer’s body language, helps her to connect with the needs of her students. ‘In order to be a good teacher, you need empathy. Students need to feel understood, you need to help them when they struggle to keep up.’ For that, you can adapt the movements to their levels, or take more time for explanation while teaching them a shorter part of the choreo. ‘Their joy comes before the skills. First, they need to be willing to come back to you, class after class.’

Performing together

Last Sunday we performed together at the Halloween Show of our dance studio. And I can say that even though I knew that she would force us out of our comfort zone, she always surprises me with how she finds new way to do that.

‘We are going to include chairs. And ask men from the audience to come sit for us.’

‘Let’s twerk at the end.’

‘I would like to start in big shirts. And then take them off. It will be like stripping. You will feel hot, no worries!’

It is the trust of her students in her that makes them follow. She succeeds putting confident groups together, that become friends under the gaze of her guidance. A group that has proud smiles on their faces on the after-show pictures, still not fully believing they did things they could not believe they would ever do. Even after the lights are shut off, Viktoria continues to take her role seriously: ‘Don’t let this high make you start drinking and partying. Use it for preparing for your next show.’

We look at each other, already carrying glasses of champagne in our hands. No words need to be said: this will be the final drink, and we’ll see each other again next week in class.

---