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,…
“Get you a girl who can do both – pole dance and academia” (and who gets, like, really anxious about it). “Doing both” was, for a while, my brand, something I lived and breathed, without too much thought. But as…
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…
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…
Questo mese ho fatto parte di PDSM, Pole Dance Stripper Movement, la gara di pole dance di Gemma Rose. PDSM è una gara creata da una spogliarellista per celebrare le origini della pole dance. Visto che avviene in uno strip…
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…
“I’m going to Sardinia – got any recommendations?” is one of the questions I get asked the most from both friends and followers – funnily enough, even more than: “What do your parents think about your pole dancing?” (Short answer:…
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…
