My First Post!
- By Maggie Wright
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- 24 May, 2018
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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.
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.
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.
