Walking into the studio after a long day and shedding my clothing feels so freeing. Zipping up my 8 inch heels and throwing myself around a pole is the best stress relief I’ve found. There are three places to pole in Hamilton: Altitude; The Studio; and High Above. As a pole dance student, I can attest that pole studios foster environments where everybody is welcome. Where gender doesn’t matter, and neither do the demands of professionalism or appearance. There are students across the gender spectrum. There are bodies of different sizes and shapes. There are people of varying ages. There are mums. There are teachers and nurses. There are dairy farmers and computer scientists. 

Working Out on the Pole

In any given studio, there are pole athletes, studio managers, and instructors from a range of backgrounds, too. Nika Coley, Studio Manager at Altitude Hamilton, has been “poling” since early 2018 and stated that she got into it when her “best friend had mentioned that she instructed pole classes and I should really give it a try as I was looking for dance classes in the area to do with my weight training…dance has always been a part of my life and I like to express myself this way.” While stripping hasn’t been a part of her ‘pole journey’, she is steadfast in her support of the polers who have traversed that terrain.

Courtney, Studio Manager at The Studio Hamilton, also has a dance and fitness background. She’s been poling for ten years (wow), and got into it because of the athletic similarities with gymnastics, stating it’s “like a merge of dance and gymnastics.” While she “loves” stripper style pole dance, she hasn’t worked in the club despite experience in “jazz, showgirl style.” Rather, she came to pole because of a want to “explore increasing my confidence, especially with how I looked.”

Nika, like all long-term polers, is dedicated to the fitness of it. She says “it is when I feel most confident but also provides a good challenge to stay dedicated when things get tough (pole moves do get harder and harder but you will always find your strengths).” Courtney described the experience of poling as one where she feels “like my complete self. When I’m doing my flow routine, I feel like it’s like speaking with movement.” Both women find joy in the community they build, and love to see their students grow, and “flourish.”

The Myths of Pole Origins

From claims that pole is purely fitness, a sport like gymnastics, a form of performance like circus to claims that Mallakham and Chinese Pole are the true OG form of pole, the discourse around pole is rife with sex work erasure.

Madeline, a.k.a Lexi Liquid is an “out” former-stripper who currently works as a pole dance instructor in Auckland. Her biggest claim to fame is dancing on stage for Snoop Dogg in 2023, which had polers across the motu learning her name. And she gets loud with it. On the question of anti-SW myths around pole, she stated that “there are a lot of myths that sort of try to distance pole from sex work.” In particular she refers to “other disciplines” which she claims no expertise over. However, she does aptly comment “a lot of people try to say that pole comes from Chinese pole because they do share a little bit of similarity, but if you look closely, they’re not the same thing.” She ain’t bagging the eastern expressions of “pole”-based athletics, though, exclaiming, “Mallakham and Chinese pole are fucking epic, but not anything like pole we do. There’s also arguments for gymnastics, and circus. And while these things have had influence on pole, a pole – a metal pole – and little to no clothing on, danced around in the manner we do in pole “fitness”, pole “flow”, pole “sport”, whatever you want to call it, that comes from strippers. I think it as an attempt to distance it from sex work because a lot of people can’t handle the fact that it has a dirty history. I think it is to give credit where it is not due to other disciplines.”

Here in Kirikiriroa at least, when asked about respecting the stripping origins or pole, Altitude’s Nika highlighted her position as a manager of instructor staff, “I like to ensure that the whole team is onboard in supporting respectful language and encouraging educational conversation around [strippers] also. I feel as a studio that’s where we hold the responsibility.” Nika is a ray of sunshine! And so is Courtney, The Studio manager, who emphasises her belief in the responsibility pole dancers have towards “our stripping community.” She stresses that it’s not just the manager, but a whole team ethos. “Studio owners, managers, and instructors are all powerful in the pole space, so I feel we need to lead by example and teach others to respect that pole fitness was pioneered by strippers. That is something we should all honour and be very proud of.”

Working on the Pole

“The only reason I would come to work was to get on stage and to dance. I sort of lost all of my motivation and all of my love for the hustling aspect,” stated Lexi Liquid on taking a stripping sabbatical.

Madeline attributes her love for performance as what kept her in the club so long. She worked at two undisclosed strip clubs over three years, eventually transitioning out of the industry and into the studio following the burn out from the “intensity of the industry”. She spoke of the gang violence in club circles, and the overabundance of drugs and alcohol. She touched on the inherent toxicity of her relationships at that time due to misogynist stigma against strippers. She described burn out as an experience of losing joy and going from being “bright eyed and bushy tailed” to “jaded” within three years. “But I still really, really loved the dancing…I’m still sort of on the fence about if I’ll ever go back. I would love to, I still miss it a lot.” 

Madeline highlighted a troublesome woman-versus-woman dynamic that can crop up in studios, “I started consuming a lot of content online that was coming from studio girls. I saw a lot of things I didn’t agree with. I saw a lot of approaches from studios globally that I felt shat on strippers and I felt really called to educate on why that wasn’t all good. Because I was judged for my choice of career it’s really hard for me to witness pole dancers sort of cosplaying as strippers and not dealing with any of the repercussions that a stripper would deal with for doing the same thing. I felt like pole dancers were taking the piss….we should be centering strippers and we should be honoring and respecting strippers, our foremothers, who were in the past quite often raped and murdered for being sex workers and not shit on that ugly history.” Because of this, Madeline ran a workshop entitled ‘Flow and Ethics’ across Altitude studios to spread messages of support and allyship with strippers given that she “came up through the club.” 

It’s not completely doom and gloom here in lil Aotearoa, though. Lillith Lee, a stripper and pole instructor currently living in the UK, talked to me about the differences between NZ and the UK. She stated “the biggest thing is that stripping is actually less frowned upon in New Zealand. In the UK strippers are fighting to even be recognized in the pole scene, let alone any scene outside of that. In the UK, strippers are still hiding.” She also credited the pole scene in NZ for our acceptance and celebration of diverse genders and sexualities in the studio. The pole community here in Aotearoa is, “ a lot more open and friendly, whereas in the UK, it’s a lot more… um, I don’t want to say ‘narrow-minded’… but it’s a lot more conservative. Looking back I realise how open-minded the pole scene and community is and how much we support minorities and queer folk.” Although she does critique the pole competition scene, “New Zealand is very focused on our strength and our skills and it would be really nice to see more inclusiveness for those of us who are here to be dancers.” Lillith’s love for pole overlaps with each of the interviewees, ultimately it’s about the freedom of movement and physical expression. Speaking on behalf of stripper style dancers, she says, “We enjoy our tricks, sure, but that’s not the basis of our movement. We just want to be on stage and self-express what we can, and if that’s in stripper style then I think that should be accepted, celebrated and judged [in competitions] in a way that we too can be considered pole dancers.”

One strip club renowned for its ethical business practices here in Kirikiriroa is The Book Club on Victoria Street. Lillith shared her positive experience as a stripper there, referring to the upstairs bar as “the best club I ever worked at”. She attributed this to the owners’ direct involvement, and supportive approach to managing dancers. It shocked me to see how low the bar is when Lillith pointed out it’s not common for managers to even know the names of the strippers. But she would “absolutely” recommend The Book Club to aspiring strippers, because not only does management learn the names of the women, they “knew what was going on in our lives,” and had security who “always had our back. We were supported over unsavoury customers. Ultimately I knew that every time I walked in that building that I was going to be safe.”

Strip club managers can make or break the independent contractors that dance on their stage, in more ways than career trajectory. Much like strippers should have more of a voice in pole competitions, studios need political advocacy and legislative change. The latter is what 19 Fired Up Stilettos (19FUS) protest for. 19FUS are a self-described group of “some of the 19 dancers fired for advocating for better labour rights,” at a branch of Calendar Girls in early 2023. The movement that formed out of the outcry on social media in response to this “unjust firing” has continued to fight. 19FUS is still protesting at Parliament and calling for legislative change. I can only imagine the undisclosed stories of mistreatment the strippers interviewed here have endured.

While pole studio managers cannot change the entrenched whorephobia of western, capitalist patriarchy within the stripping industry, they do have a role to play in contributing to discourses around strippers’ value within the pole fitness industry. Women like Nika and Courtney are community minded, supportive, and non-judgemental allies. Women like Madeline are loud, proud, and strong advocates for our stripper sisters, and women like Lillith Lee are spreading the pro-inclusivity vibe of the NZ pole scene far from home.

Whether or not you pole, have poled, or want to pole – whether or not you have stripped, currently strip, or aspire to strip one day – there is a community waiting for you. And if you’re thinking about stripping, educate yourself on the reality of the industry. Above all else, please keep yourself safe, and look out for the pioneering polers that are our stripper sisters.