verticalvixens

Buying the Studio I Love

Mon, 30 Mar 2026 01:06:24 GMT

The Vixens are back, and so excited to be here!

Did you miss us?

When founder Maggie Wright had some major life changes that meant moving out of state, the Vixens were in shock. What would happen to our little safe home for wayward girls? Personally, I couldn't imagine a world without pole dancing. This art has changed my life in so many ways. It brought me back to expressing myself creatively. Pole gave me a confidence I had never seen before and helped me courageously explore those parts of myself that had hidden from the arts world for so long.

So, my husband found me sobbing and typing with vigor when he arrived home that evening and asked me what was wrong. "Vertical Vixens is closing; We have to save it." I had spent half the evening searching for grant money to convince him it was a good idea, but it turned out he was on board. We spoke our interest immediately and began the journey to get funding to buy the studio.

Maybe it was the universe interfering in placing me here at Vixens in the first place. I certainly didn't look or act like the kind of person who would own a pole fitness studio when I started classes in 2022. I often reflect that in those first two months, I'm not sure I said a single word during class- except perhaps to my sisters, who were already skilled dancers and STRONG. But my sisters had other things happening in their lives, and I NEEDED something different. I had watched some of my friends pole dance at this very studio for years and wondered what it would be like to be so powerful and beautiful all wrapped up in one. So I stayed. I was almost religious.

And I STRUGGLED. Like every first-timer, I think, I found that I did not feel strong those first few months. The only time I took a break from my weekly class was if it timed poorly with my cycle, because I knew if I tried that too many times when I felt so weak, I might give up. I discovered that I was slower to learn how to move my body than other students. I needed to watch and hear and gesture a what seemed like a hundred times before I felt good making a single attempt, and the evidence is in my early pole footage. My phone is full of HOURS of video of my concerned face, staring at the pole before making a half-hearted attempt and then looking confused that it didn't work.

But Maggie was an unendingly patient teacher, responding to my questions with interest and being honest with me when she wasn't sure about something I asked. And I grew.

In three years I was asked to teach to assist during Maggie's shoulder injury to help the studio keep going. THAT felt like such an accomplishment of its own. It is now bewildering to think that I could be taking on any part at all of what Maggie did for me.

But the studio is saved, and I am eager and ready to take on the next challenge of running it. We reopen tomorrow (03/30) and I can see that we have just as much fun and friendship ahead as we do behind. Thank you, everyone, for doing this with me.

Your New Studio Owner,

Kaity

A Studio Of Our Own

verticalvixenswv@gmail.com (Kaitlyn Shriver) — Thu, 21 Jun 2018 18:49:11 GMT

When life gives you lemons, beat the pulp out of them!

Around Christmas time 2017 we got some unsettling news. The city of Clarksburg was planning to purchase the building that we operate Vertical Vixens Pole Fitness in. Of course, they gave us no timeline for when this will take place, but a move to a new location is inevitable.

The news was dreadful, but also a good kick in the butt. Staying put is obviously the easiest option, things have been going great and everything seems to be working fine. But it's so easy to fall into that trap, we all do it, of just getting to a good enough point and try to coast there. That's where I was, dreaming big, but not taking action. If I can get anything across to my Grrrl Gang, it's that you should always be pushing yourself to be the best that you can be. When you see that you've fallen into that trap, get on the pole, do a dance, clear your mind, and get back into action! Thank you Clarksburg then for waking me up and getting me moving . We had limited resources, but it was time to make a plan to relocate and expand our business and our vision. We scoured the region looking for places to rent, but our options were not accommodating for the direction we want to go. Things were looking bleak. That’s when we knew we had to do something different, and fast.

n the process of stumbling through properties, we came across an old church for sale nearby and decided that somehow, some way, we were going to make it our own. It met all of our architectural needs and had the right amount of space to pursue our vision, so we made it happen. We agreed on a deal with the sellers, and by the end of February we had ourselves our very own church. A building that needs a lot of love, work, and fundraising to make our dream come
true. It might not be technically a church anymore, but once we get it up and running we will be creating our own slice of heaven right here in Clarksburg!

Right now, renovating the church is our priority. So far, we have mainly been focusing on the demolition necessary to rebuild. We tore about three feet off of the front of the stage to make more room for poles and dance space. This left us
with a huge pile of scrap wood! With the help of some awesome friends, we separated the scrap into two piles: re-usable and unusable. We pulled every single nail and screw out of the re-usable scrap wood and piled and bagged up the junk.

The next challenge we faced was engineering two more beams to attach to the ceiling. In order to add the number of poles we want, we need more rigging points on the ceiling. We toyed with the idea of buying two laminated beams to add to the existing ones but two factors stood in our way- cost, and transportation. After brainstorming for a few weeks, Drew (my handsome husband) came up with a brilliant plan. The church came with about 16 beautiful, hardwood pews. After trying unsuccessfully to sell them all we decided to "reuse" them.

We, with the help of our wonderful friends, disassembled every pew into individual boards. We staggered and layered these boards to create our own laminated beams. So now, instead of finding new homes for these church pews, they will stay in the building with a new purpose!

Now that the room is almost completely empty, we will start ripping down the boards to create the beams. Next we will sand, stain and refinish the floor, and then the poles can be moved it! We’ll keep you posted on our progress. Stay tuned!

My First Post!

verticalvixenswv@gmail.com (Kaitlyn Shriver) — Thu, 24 May 2018 17:40:22 GMT

Vertical Vixens: A Brief Origins Story

Hi everybody and welcome to my first blog for Vertical Vixens, and, well, my first blog ever! I'm hoping to create an interesting resource for everyone interested in my studio and pole fitness in general. I want to use this platform to provide workout tips, dance routine ideas, inspiration to keep going, and sometimes just a good ol' story. For this first post I want to give a brief history of how I started Vertical Vixens. There is a lot that led up to it, and I'll hopefully be able to go more in depth later about the personal problems I've faced, and the struggles of starting a small business. For now though, let's see how this first post turns out!

In early fall of 2012 I saw a video of Felix Cane on Youtube. I was in awe. The strength she portrayed, the grace she exuded, the badass sense of sensual self she was not afraid to wear like a badge of honor, all caught my attention. I showed my boyfriend, excited and infatuated.
He told me a friend of his had a pole in her basement, and put us in touch. By mid November we were meeting every to have “classes” on Tuesdays after I got out of work at the shipyard. After a few weeks other girls started to join us. I was hooked!
My whole life I was a dancer. My mother put me in modern dance classes around age 3, and I stayed with my beloved dance school until I had to change high schools at age 16. I seriously considered pursuing dance in college. I applied to a few schools and auditioned for a few dance companies. I was accepted into Rhode Island College in Providence, RI, and was accepted as an apprentice into their ballet company. This could have been the beginning of a short performing, and long teaching career for me. This had been everything I ever wanted since I was a little girl.
But after the auditions, and seeing how strict their classes were, something didn’t sit right with me. At CDC, my childhood dance school, we focused on creativity, self-expression, and learning to be choreographers. If I had

I pursued dance at RIC I would be regurgitating choreography. The technical training would have been fantastic, but the program lacked the freedom that made me love dance in the first place. I reluctantly declined this offer to further my education.
For a year or so I was devastated without dance. The options for adult classes in my area were sparse, and I felt a hole in my heart where dance used to be. My most potent form of self expression seemed to be gone forever.
When I found pole dance that hole in my heart was filled tenfold. I learned a series of poses and spins, and the rest was up to me. I could dance those poses however I pleased, and the possibilities felt endless. To say I was excited would be a vast understatement.
One by one, my group of pole friend stopped showing up. The girl who owned the pole would cancel more and more, and I found myself spending increasing hours on the internet, studying tutorials and competition videos. My thirst to dance seemed unquenchable, and I missed spinning around in that dark basement.
Finally, tax season rolled around and I ordered my very first shiny, spinning xpole with my return. I was living in a small, third floor apartment with my roommate at the time, and much to his chagrin, I ditched the table and chairs and set the damn thing up in the middle of our kitchen. This is how my pole dance journey continued for the next few years. I would set up my pole up in small corners of my house, bedrooms and kitchens and livings rooms, tucking in my feet to dodge furniture with every spin.

We moved 650 miles away to West Virginia in September of 2013. This was a challenge for me. I had no
friends, no job and no car and no direction. I was isolated in the woods with my cat, alone while my boyfriend was at work. I was lonely, and my only friend was my pole. I spent hours training every day, filling this strange transition with strength training and flexibility drills. My love for pole was more saturated than ever. It was my sanity, my consistency, and my friend. My reason to love and treat myself well. Still, I scrolled through pole forums and blogs on the internet with a splinter in my heart. I envied the supportive studios, the doubles moves, and the community I felt so left out of. I loved pole just as much as these people, but I was isolated, with no one to share my passion with. I was devastated to not have a pole community.

Out of nowhere I was given the opportunity to give teaching pole a try at a new yoga studio in town. To say I was ecstatic would be an understatement. I worked double shifts at my crappy waitressing job and put $5-10 a day in a jar, slowly saving for one pole at a time. My husband and I drove to Miami, FL in August with an overheating engine for me to get certified to teach. I put everything I needed together, piece by piece, and by May of 2015 I started teaching 3 beginner classes a week. I only had 3 poles, and my classes weren’t always full but slowly, over time my clientele increased.

Three years later and Vertical Vixens is booming. When I moved to this new state, I wanted something that didn’t exist, so I created it. I wanted people to share this love of pole dance with, so I made them. My students have taken my love of pole, made it their own, and returned it to me with more love, hard work and determination that I ever knew possible. The last three years have been quite a learning experience and I look forward to what the rest of this adventure has to bring.