Five years ago, Leila Davis (@cutiewhippingham) founded Blackstage, a non-profit events company centring and enhancing the creativity of pole dancers of colour, with a special focus on Queer, Trans, Disabled, low-income or sex working performers. The rest, as they say, is history: five years later, Blackstage has gone on to become a trailblazing company, setting the standard for events and performers in the pole dance industry and beyond. I caught up with Leila ahead of their sold-out show, Blackstage: Audacity, to find out more about what managing a successful pole event feels like and check that she is taking a break every now and then (she isn’t).
Blackstage, five years later
“I created [Blackstage] because I recognise that the pole industry is an unfair place for BPOC pole dancers,” Leila told me in a previous interview about starting the company in 2020, five years ago. “It erases us, it inflicts harm on us both intentionally and unintentionally, it gaslights us when we challenge the racist status quo, it generally causes harm to a lot of us.” Blackstage is about centring that community, and “loving them hard”.
Fast-forward to 2025, and Blackstage has a CV made of several sold-out shows, afterparties, high-profile collaborations and event castings for its performers, workshops, retreats and the status of having become one of the key voices demanding and actioning change in the pole dance industry. Leila achieved this in only five years through shows that look like the Oscars of pole (and that reward performers with unheard-of pay) and with talk programs and advocacy. But what does being the funder of such an established company feel like?
“Surreal!” says Leila. “I never imagined Blackstage would become what it is today. Its growth has been largely due to the incredible community and the love everyone has for each other, which is so beautiful to see.”
Amongst the company’s highlights from the past five years, Leila mentions running Blackstage’s debut show in 2022 – “No one knew what to expect, and it exceeded all expectations” – and their first sold-out show at The Clapham Grand, Community. “I wasn’t mentally prepared for it, I was in complete disbelief,” she says. “Seeing a physical representation of our impact was spectacular.”
Aside from their annual events, Leila cites community jams, rehearsals and performing at Mighty Hoopla as other key moments in Blackstage’s career. “[Mighty Hoopla was] our biggest stage yet!” she says. “Producing a show where pole dancers were the main act, not just backup dancers, was incredible. The audience loved it, and it affirmed the significance of pole as a standalone art form.”
Behind the scenes: five years of running the UK’s biggest pole dance show
If you’ve never been to Blackstage, let me paint a picture for you.
Imagine the whole of the UK (and often international) pole dance industry descending to South London to attend the show at the Clapham Grand, a venue as grand as its name. The queues are as long as the eye can see, with photographers, red carpets, and a who’s who of pole dancers. Then, as soon as the lights come on, the show’s performers come on stage in their custom Blackstage tracksuits, provided by the company’s partner Nike, for a quick dance-off before they each take the stage for their individual act. Then it’s time for thank-yous and an afterparty, usually thrown by iconic Queer BIPOC events collective Pxssy Palace (“They’re family, and working with them feels like home,” says Leila about the company, which she cites as an inspiration) for everyone to shake the emotion and adrenaline of the night off onto the dance floor.
In short, in the past five years Blackstage has become BIG. Very big.
Running such a huge show isn’t exactly a piece of cake, says Leila, describing the process as a mix of pressure and joy:
“In the lead-up to the show, the pressure is intense, my workload feels overwhelming, and from December until show day, I have to be completely focused to ensure everything is the best it can be.
It’s hard to enjoy the process in the moment, but just before, during, and after the show, I feel an elation like no other—overwhelmed with love, pride, and appreciation for everything we’ve created. The pre-show anxiety is always worth it in the end.”
Leila Davis, Blackstage founder
The show’s reach can sometimes make Leila feel vulnerable: “It opens me and us up to critiques from right-wing haters outside of our industry who want to extinguish our light,” she says, adding that although she doesn’t often discuss this publicly, it is a lot to deal with, especially in our current tense times.
This is because, Leila says, people look to Blackstage for guidance: “[the company] has become a reference point for some, and while I don’t have all the answers, it’s really touching to know the community has that kind of faith in us.” Nonetheless, Leila has now taken a break from speaking about every cause, and focuses on commenting when she feels genuinely called to – a boundary that her network has luckily respected.
Still, despite the pressure, pride is the main feeling Leila feels when stepping back and looking at what Blackstage has achieved: “It reminds me that there are no limits to what we can do. More than anything, I do this for love, and that love keeps growing within our community. Knowing this is only the beginning is so exciting.”
Learning from running Blackstage
Being the main producer of an expanding company has taught Leila more than she can put into words. The first development she cites is learning “how to be more gentle.”
Each year, the Blackstage line-up is made of only a fraction of the people who apply. This, says Leila, can be painful both for rejected performers and the Blackstage team, meaning their communication has had to improve:
“With the mass exposure we have globally, we interact with more people than ever, and sadly, that also means turning down more people than ever. I don’t think we talk enough about how painful it can be to say no to so many people’s dreams, especially when you know first-hand what that feels like.
With greater access to people, I’ve made it a priority to be more thoughtful in how I/we communicate, trying to let people know that a ‘no’ from us doesn’t diminish someone’s immense talent and worth.“
Leila Davis, Blackstage founder
This kindness is crucial towards mitigating the challenges of running Blackstage, which for Leila often “come down to people not realising that behind Blackstage is a person—it’s me.” The team is still fairly small, and Leila finds it hard to be spoken to as if Blackstage was a huge organisation: “It’s just me, Peachy [@peachypoler], and Alexandra [Mutungi] doing the best we can and putting our all in for this community.”
No matter how small the team, Blackstage’s growth has also meant more hires, which Leila describes as “both a privilege and a huge responsibility” because managing a team correctly can be overwhelming. “Through this, I’ve learned to trust others with my baby—which hasn’t been easy,” she says “but it’s been one of the most rewarding parts of this journey. It’s brought me even closer to people I already loved and respected.”
To manage her team, Leila heavily relies on workspace tools like Trello, Notion, Slack, Discord and Airtable. “Everything we do runs through our virtual workspace, the Blackstage Back Office database,” she says. This helps them allocating and delegating tasks, tracking progress, communicating efficiently and setting deadlines with ease.
Beyond management and communication, Leila says running Blackstage has taught her a lot about business, of which she had no prior knowledge before founding the company. Running a business rooted in both the love for pole dance and the need for change still requires skills such as “collaboration, negotiation, writing, conflict resolution, cash flow management, branding, adaptability” – but most of all it requires “resilience, vision, and a strong community” for Leila. She says she has had to rely on authenticity and adaptability to build trust and make a long-term impact, something that has been greatly aided by surrounding herself with the right team.
Safety at Blackstage
Several recent examples of rogue competition / event organisers, even with poles falling down on competitors, have led Leila to speak up about pole dance safety – and to step up safety at Blackstage as well.
Since last year, Blackstage have changed their truss supplier to a more robust truss with a higher spec than the one they previously used, one that can withstand even more weight and impact than others on the market. They have conducted a full health and safety overhaul with expert guidance, and introduced manual handling training [to ensure the safe moving of objects]. The company have also strengthened rules around equipment handling, pole cleaning, fire procedures, and show stop protocols.
These changes reflect Blackstage’s commitment to keep their community safe, but welfare has always been a priority for the company. They have worked with Safe Only CIC, a not-for-profit, peer led team of Queer harm reduction practitioners, on several occasions. Leila herself has completed Good Night Out training even before running events because she has a background in working in nightlife welfare, a training she has extended to the rest of the team.
This is what I mean when I say that Blackstage has set the standard for events in the pole dance industry. This transparency and this training are something you’d want every pole (and nightlife) event organiser to have, but skills such as these are often an afterthought at international competitions – and it shows.
Blackstage: Audacity
I am beyond excited to attend this year’s sold-out Blackstage: Audacity, which Leila says will feature “the usual passion and creativity synonymous with Blackstage but with even more attitude.”
The line-up is, as usual, in both parts outstanding and badass, joining together different pole dance styles, backgrounds and identities. Attendees can expect magic from:
- Petty Aduna (@petty_fulani)
- Melissa with Selina (@melissawithselina)
- Gracey (@graceyxp0le)
- Noel (@spacedookie)
- Yung Pole Master (@yungpolemaster)
- Big Yom$ (@moyology)
- Reem (@psychoopole)
- Legziana (@almvz_moves)
- Connor Lingus (@seliquere)
- AK Mistry (@dancingmistry)
- BaeLien (@itsbaelienbish)
- Peachy (@peachypoler)
- And the founder herself, Leila aka Cutie Whippingham.
The show also has a new MC, the author and journalist Paula Akpan (@paulaakpan), whose work I greatly admire. Paula’s appointment continues Blackstage’s tradition of having Black women authors host the show – and it comes at a special time: Paula’s book, ‘When We Ruled: The Rise and Fall of twelve African Queens and Warriors’, has just come out (repped by my same, outstanding literary agent Abi Fellows).
Leila shares my excitement for Paula’s work, adding that “she perfectly aligns with everything Blackstage is” and her goals for what she wants it to be. “[Paula] is a person of immense wisdom and integrity,” she adds, “and the fact that she has an MA in Black British History is incredible, especially when so much of the Black history we’re taught focuses solely on the US.”
For Leila, Paula’s work ties beautifully into this year’s ‘Audacity’ theme. “It feels like the perfect fit, and I can’t wait to see her bring her brilliance to the stage!” she adds.
Self-care when running Blackstage
At Blackstage Talks, fellow pole dancing academic @slinkysunflower asked us on the panel how we took care of ourselves when doing community work on top of our everyday jobs. Mindful that Leila said she struggles to switch off (something I myself am guilty of), I decided to repurpose this question. It turns out self-care is something we both struggle with.
“That hasn’t been going well at all, if I am completely honest,” Leila says. “I have good times and bad times with it, and I feel like there is a lot of pressure on me right now, so I’ve been struggling to find downtime.”
However, this year she has learnt to fight for her own downtime and rest, as well as to set boundaries: “Otherwise, people won’t let you have it, and you’ll get very ill, which I learned the hard way but learned nonetheless,” she says.
Luckily, her increased workload hasn’t affected her passion for pole, something she has to thank Blackstage for: “I think I’m lucky in that spending so much time around incredible talent makes it impossible not to feel inspired. Through Blackstage, I’m constantly learning from others, and every single alum fuels my creativity in ways I’m so grateful for.”
She adds: “When I do carve out time to train for myself, it’s pure joy. It brings me back to why I started, why I love pole so much, and why I pour so much into this community. For me, that spark never really fades — it just keeps evolving, it’s just about finding the time to play with it.”
What’s next for Blackstage?
The future only seems bigger and brighter for Blackstage, which has now opened applications for a show in Birmingham and aims to explore new areas in the UK for future events. More festivals seem on the cards, and so is their pole retreat in Barbados.
“The lessons [learnt in the past five years] haven’t just shaped Blackstage, they’ve shaped me,” Leila concludes. “And if there’s one thing I know for sure, it’s that the learning never stops. I’m excited to keep evolving, innovating, and seeing where the next five years take us.”
Here’s to the next five years!
If you’re missing the show, follow @blxckstage on Insta to catch the highlights and keep an eye on the Dice App in case any last-minute tickets become available!
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