Ramblings on pole dance and all types of exercise I do, together with my personal mindfucks on mental health.
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,…
In October I was a guest speaker and performer at Exotic Hell, Elvira Langdon’s brand-new pole dance competition which promised to be the first openly transfeminist pole competition in Italy, platforming and centring sex workers and the erotic. In case…
Following recent safety concerns at competitions, mentions of a governing body for the pole dance industry have been floating around again. My name has been made a few times as someone who may be interested in taking part in it,…
I’ve decided to take a break from competing in pole dance competitions, meaning that PDSM, which you may have read about here, will be my last comp for a while. In this blog post, I explain why I wasn’t enjoying…
In the past year, I have been upping my pole dance video game by booking professional showreels with film-maker, pole dancer and university lecturer Zeta Spyraki. We love a versatile babe! Zeta has the power to make me look like…
After the Blackstage Talks: Breaking Moulds panel I was honoured to have chaired, I have been sitting on a lot of thoughts following the incredibly generative conversations we had with pioneers in our industry. As a result, this blog post…
ICYMI, this month I competed in Gemma Rose‘s PDSM, aka Pole Dance Stripper Movement, an entirely stripper-run pole competition celebrating the origins of our industry. And I got fully naked for it. For the first time. So I thought the…
On November 3rd I competed in Skripped Down, my first professional international pole dance competition, where I also won the 2023 Philanthropist Award for my anti-censorship work. Skripped Down was an unforgettable night – read on to find out my…
Rachael Gisella is Jamaican born, London bred full-time pole instructor and performer now based in Lisbon. Known for all things choreography and low flow, Rachael has become an almost instant pole star: a world class performer who has pole danced…
Social media can be invaluable resources for pole dancers, connecting us with fellow polers all over the world, providing inspiration and helping us promote our work. But social media can also be draining, disheartening spaces of self-doubt, censorship and comparison.…
