News Desk · 12/20
Berkeley Pole & Dance, PoleActive, ST Shimi, Pleasergate, and more
The News Desk features a handful of notable happenings from around the pole community over the past few weeks. These updates are free, but subscribers (at $12/month) also get biweekly curated dance art & culture newsletters sent directly to your inbox, my own exotic pole movement tutorials, gear reviews, recommendations and extra writing.
Phoenix Aerial Art & Pole will become Berkeley Pole & Dance. Powerhouse Amy Bond and partner Joshuah Ciafardone (Aurora Rose) will take over from Kirstin Brown to add one of the bay’s oldest pole studios to their growing movement empire, which also includes San Francisco Pole & Dance and Oakland Pole & Dance. This thrills me because the Phoenix community gets the opportunity to survive instead of being destroyed by a closure, and because this duo consistently works to make their spaces inclusive homes for all kinds of movers. Check out their studio code of conduct, for starters.
Jamie Wagner will become the new owner at The Aviary in Minnesota. I met Jamie when she was competing nationally and tearing all our hearts out with every performance. Her championship winning piece from 2017 PSO Central gutted me, in the best way. I am truly rejoicing to know that she’ll be guiding more pole babies under her dramatic, expressive, fluid, gorgeous wings.
Beast babe Shay Williamson, owner of Kairos Fitness, Dew Point Products, and Aerialympics, will now take over polewear retailer PoleActive as well. I really love how Shay authentically represents queer polers in the community, and when her insane levels of Doing Cool Shit All The Time don’t make me feel hopelessly inadequate, they’re really fucking inspiring.
In a massive, far-reaching loss for the community, the multitalented, relentlessly fabulous S.T. Shimi was hit and killed by a car in early December. Shimi taught at Soft Sensuous Moves in San Antonio and performed as Black Orchid. Private conversations across the pole world since her passing centered her ferocious kindness, unending generosity, and spectacular showing in every Masters division she ever encountered. Lily Takata is working on an S.T. Shimi Performer Scholarship, and her burlesque troupe, Stars & Garters, created a support fund for her husband, Oscar. Donate, and shake a tailfeather in her honor, if you can.
New York-based studio owner Anna Mercedes organized a virtual Stripper Symposium with panelists Madam NovaCaine, Jordan Kensley, AM Davies, Daphne, Onyx Black, Cat Hollis, and Nats Honey. The timely event addressed systemic anti-sex-worker bias in the studio-based pole community, the impacts of recent (and upcoming) federal legislation that censors online sexual expression, pro-sex-work activism, and the impact of social media terms of service changes in a wide ranging panel discussion. It’s required watching for every pole dancer. Recordings are still available through Anna Mercedes.
Oh, Pleasers. What a love/hate relationship dancers have with the brand. In early November, Pleasers quietly rolled out a new retail-facing website that featured a category labeled “Pole Fitness Collection” - while their wholesale website still labeled the same shoes “Exotic Dancing”. Madame Novacaine brought the issue to the forefront and the outrage at stripper erasure spread across the pole community on social media, with support from Jordan Kensley, Bamm Rose, Ava Henny, Daphne, and other prominent voices. As the community waited for a response from the company, the online discussions expanded, noting Pleasers’ lack of inclusion of BIPOC dancers and larger bodies in their own advertising and catalog imagery, the lack of diversity in company staff, the recent deterioration in the quality of the shoes, and the discontinuation of many styles popular in the stripping and sex work community. Eventually Pleasers simply removed the “Pole Fitness Collection” category entirely - without a formal apology, and without addressing the larger issues. In response to Novacaine, a customer service rep stated, “Please note our intentions were never to diminish our [sic] downplay any group of individuals, we were simply trying to cater to a certain area of our customer base.”
If you have something you’d like me to include in the next News Desk update, drop a comment below or email me at iris.sparrow.art@gmail.com.