Hi, hello, this is Pole Orbit!

Ew, a newsletter.

Initially I felt so weird and uncool about the idea, like people would immediately know that I’m creatively sapped, have done three dozen NYT crosswords this week and the only commenters on my TikTok are dudes writing some variant of “thanks for the closeup of your ass in that video” (no joke).

Also I saw a tweet that SubStack is OnlyFans for ugly people? And that made me feel a way about things? (Not to play into the dancer-with-a-body-complex trope, but for reals.) But then I remembered that one of the first places I felt connected to other pole people was reading StudioVeena forum posts. And YouTube comment threads on Karol Helms’ trick tutorial compilations in 2009. And those long discussions in the pole studio Facebook groups of old…

(It’s that sweet little flexed-foot step-out that does it for me, really)

I’ve also been scrolling way too much lately. I’m feeling both hyperconnected, and so impossibly disconnected from anything that makes me feel anything. I find myself speeding past posts from dancers I love, because they’re crammed into a feed full of noise and I just don’t have the spoons to decipher what will inspire me, what will annoy me, and what will make me feel like an unproductive turd.

Recently I told my therapist about how I find myself opening my email inbox compulsively multiple times a day. Even though it’s just full of promos for things I don’t have money to buy and bank payment reminders, every once in a while my compulsion is reinforced by the appearance of a newsletter that I actually want to read. Like this one from The Hell Yeah Group, or something from Chani weaving a hopeful story from the chaos in the stars lately. Or Marlo’s Flow Movement newsletter, with her wonderfully human thoughts about dance and teaching and flexibility and music. And I realized that I really love the directness of the newsletter medium. It’s not another video demanding - ATTENTION ME. They’re postcards. They’re curated, but in a nice, old school way. They make me feel energized and curious, not drained.

Last year, before the pandemic made group gatherings taboo, I started Pole Orbit. It was a sort of loose collective, a traveling group jam. Wherever teaching took me, I organized a Pole Orbit jam at a nearby studio. Anyone local could join in, not only members of the host studio. Sometimes national competitors traveling for a show came, and traded shapes with local baby polers. Studio owners often crawled out of their caves to dance with us (an impossible rarity). I asked that everyone bring something to share with the group. A song, a stretch, a flow, a trick. They were SO MUCH FUN. The idea was to connect dancers from different studios, who were all part of the same regional “pole orbit”. To create community and foster inter-studio friendships between people who would never end up in the same classes. To get people inspired again, yank them out of a dance rut, make them feel seen and heard and held by this network of new friends.

My ultimate goal for this newsletter is to foster that same kind of connection and excitement in my community. And, also? Y’all… I’ve spent more than a decade traveling around this not-so-little pole world teaching, photographing with Alloy Images, and shooting as a former official photog for Pole Sport Organization. Vanessa Woods and I probably shot half of those Bad Kitty poster images. I was in an XPERT training class with Alethea back when I was a teensy pole bebe. I’ve filmed 10,000 pole performances around the world! All that to say - I’ve seen some shit, and I have something to say, and I think it might be interesting to you guys too.

This is a big moment in the pole world. Studios are closing on all sides. Businesses are changing hands, events are shutting down and new ones starting up. Online classes are exploding. PEOPLE ARE PUTTING PLANTS IN THEIR POLE SPACES.

I don’t want an algorithm controlling my experience of the dance world - dear God, I do not ever want any “suggested posts” or an “explore page” or “for you” feed - I really just want a member of my own community, who understands what’s important to me, recommending something interesting. I want a real live human editor.

So I’ll be your editor here, your Arts & Culture reporter, and the majority of the Opinion page too. Let’s hope not the gossip columnist. I hope to do right by you - to make you feel connected, curious, delighted, and like this matters to you.

Thanks for subscribing, y’all.

With love, your intrepid reporter in a onesie and heels forever, Iris Sparrow.