Falling in Love With Pole
Pole dancing - permission to explore self-love | February 13, 2026
Pole holds multitudes, including strength and softness, discipline and play, and despite the stereotypes, it isn’t about being watched; it’s about learning to inhabit yourself more freely. It’s easy to get lost in the performance of pole dancing. We’re taught to think of sensuality as something for other people to look at or consume. But as pole dancers, we know dance is more than being “sexy enough,” flexible enough, confident enough or having the “right” body. At its core, the best part of the pole journey is reconnecting with your body and exploring your sensuality.
You don’t learn skills by staying in your head. You learn them by trying. By things feeling awkward before they feel right. By attempting things before you feel “ready.” Eventually, you stop overthinking how you look and start paying attention to how movement feels. With repetition, your brain finds a way to access the movement more easily, and that’s when things start to click.
Pole dance is about permitting yourself to express freely in the moment, to attempt sensuality, creativity and agility. Sometimes it feels natural. Other times it feels clunky. Both are part of the process. The magic happens when you let yourself explore without needing it to be perfect.
A huge part of the pole journey is learning to honour what your body needs. Some days, that looks like a Sensual Floor or Sensual Flow class, a chance to sink into softness, slowness and fluid movement. Other days, it’s the athletic, unapologetically powerful classes, like Russian Pole Flow, Climb & Condition or Descending Inverts Clinics, that better match your energy. And sometimes, the sweet spot is a class like Mobility & Flow, where strength, flexibility and artistry meet. There’s room for all of it.
As the journey unfolds, there becomes something wildly empowering about realizing you can lift your own body weight, climb, invert and hold shapes you once thought were impossible. That physical strength seeps into your self-image. Confidence builds quietly in those moments of wait… I just did that. Self-love doesn’t always arrive loudly; sometimes it shows up as trust in your own capability. Self-love is self-prioritization, doing something that genuinely just feels good, for you!
AVA feels different from other spaces. You don’t walk in feeling like you’re being sized up. You walk in and see people at all different levels, all remembering what it felt like to be brand new. Everyone remembers their first class, their first shaky climb, the first time a spin didn’t immediately send them flying. Cheering each other on is something that happens naturally in every class. You’re celebrated for putting in the work and showing up for yourself. And that kind of environment motivates you to keep going.
There’s also something really healing about moving just because it feels good. Not because anyone’s watching. Pole challenges your brain and your body at the same time, and it is impressive to watch yourself grow in strength, flexibility and coordination. Pole permits you to play with being slow, dramatic, messy, flirty, powerful or all of it at once. It invites you back into parts of yourself that might have gone quiet under stress, expectations or years of being hard on yourself.
Over time, you change the way you see yourself. Mirrors stop being something you avoid or critique and start becoming tools for noticing movement. You catch yourself appreciating how something feels and flows instead of fixating on what’s “wrong.” That shift doesn’t stay in the studio either. It shows up in other areas of your life.
You don’t need to “glow up” or become someone new to start your Pole journey. AVA gives us a safe place for a better or more confident version of ourselves to emerge.
Written by Jasna Rowse, Studio Coordinator at AVA Fitness, who is currently exploring how strength, self-concept and sensuality evolve as she begins her pole journey.