Select a region
From overcoming anxiety, to bouncing back after having a baby...a local dance teacher has opened up about the mental and physical power she has found on the pole, and how she's now using it to help others build their self-belief.
Nikki Zachariou founded Uber Edge Dance 15 years ago after returning from six months of traveling in Sydney, where she rediscovered the love for dancing she had experienced as a teenager through adult hip-hop classes at Sydney Dance Company.
“When I came back home, there wasn’t anything for me, so I started my own dance classes for people who, like me, liked this style of dancing and wanted to do it again… and the rest is history!” she explains.
While training for a variety of fitness and dance qualifications, Nikki stumbled upon a flyer for a pole dance qualification.
Although she had never owned a pole or even tried it, Nikki signed up for the qualification, bought a pole and installed it in the biggest room in the house - her mum’s bedroom, whose ceiling still bears the mark of it.
Pictured: Nikki says she gets “mental strength from being physically strong".
With no social media and Youtube still in its infancy, Nikki spent two weeks practising 20 minutes every day with a DVD to learn the “basic spins”, after a not so successful first session.
“I discovered I could not do pole dance for my life, and I could not hold myself,” Nikki recalls.
Her first actual lesson took place just a few days before her exam. Her mentor was Katie Coates, who is now at the forefront of the campaign to make pole dancing an Olympic sport.
Since then, Nikki has never looked back.
For Nikki, the best thing about pole dancing is getting “mental strength from being physically strong” - something she noticed even more when she had to build her strength back after having a baby.
“It had an impact on my emotions, especially when I could not get tricks that I found so easy before and tricks I was fearless about doing, but obviously after having a baby your brain changes and you worry about everything,” Nikki says.
View this post on Instagram
“I do get free flowing anxiety, especially around my menstrual cycle, so I turn to pole dancing to make myself feel very strong and just to remind myself that I am not a nervous wreck, I am strong and powerful, and I can do hard things,” she adds.
“When I am in that sort of state of feeling anxious or doubting myself, I turn to pole to try and pivot from that mental state that I find myself in," she continued.
"I turn to the actual pole dancing, the movement, the more sensual choreography to tap into that feminine energy of moving, flowing and feeling not just sexy, and not just strong, but both at the same time.”
View this post on Instagram
In addition to helping her either “enhance a positive feeling or pivot from a negative one”, Nikki says pole dancing and dancing makes her feel more confident.
“If I am not feeling strong, I can do all my tricks - if I want to feel good in my body, I can dance,” she explains.
“With dancing, there’s always something new to learn and just the feeling of not being able to do something one day and then nailing it the next, it just gives me so much confidence. It’s like a high, a feeling of achievement and confidence. I feel like if I can do this, I can do anything.”
“I am a big believer that whatever happens in the studio, spills out in your daily life,” she adds.
“If you are building confidence and achieving new things, it’s going to happen in your life. It makes you believe it can happen outside the studio.”
As a teacher, Nikki also gets to see the impact dancing has on her students, mainly the shift in their self-belief and their self-image.
In her lessons, she says she always tries and talk to her students’ inner voice that says: ‘I am not good at this’.
View this post on Instagram
Video: "Every week is a step into the unknown, so the question comes up ‘am I going to be able to do this?’ and then they do!”
“They walk in as a beginner thinking they will never be able to do the things that some other pole dancers do and then they can do it and they think, ‘I’m just like that person’. We learn something new every week.
"Every week is a step into the unknown, so the question comes up, ‘am I going to be able to do this?’ and then they do!”
Pushing yourself in every class to learn new tricks and combos also helps build resilience, Nikki, who believes that “how you do anything is how you do everything”, says.
“The first lesson, it feels really awkward, wobbly and uncomfortable but that does not mean they are not going to be great at it later. You should never be put off or judge your potential by the first try, you should allow it to feel uncomfortable.
“With pole dancing and dancing, there’s always more to learn so I take every opportunity to learn and feel uncomfortable.
“I just know that attempt 15 is going to be easier than the first one, and this is where the studio is a metaphor for life. Because day one of heartbreak, of losing your job, of rejection is going to feel harder than day 15. It gives more resilience when it crops up in your everyday life.”
Whilst some people might believe dancing and pole dancing aren't 'proper' exercise, Nikki explains it takes movements and shapes from acrobatics, gymnastics as well as yoga, providing an all over body workout that helps participants work on their core strength.
View this post on Instagram
Video: "The art of pole dance and heel class is making the difficult look easy," Nikki says.
As Nikki recalls, one woman who came for a pole dance taster session exclaimed “I didn’t know it was an extreme sport!” as she left.
“If you think of the things you can do on a gym beam, a lot of the same things can happen on a vertical bar,” Nikki says. “It takes effort! To those people, I would say come and try a class, because the art of pole dance and heel class is making the difficult look easy.
“It gives people a way to feel both sexy and strong, and that’s why women and men have a passion for a hobby that makes them feel good and accept their bodies for what they can do, and inspires healthy habits within them.”
Commercial and street dance classes give participants the opportunity to “blow off some steam, sweat and get their heart rate up”, while heel classes and pole dancing are less jumpy. However, both provide a fun way to exercise that does not feel like exercise Nikki says.
“Dancing and pole dancing takes your mind of things because you are thinking of the steps and the moves,” she says.
“We always take beginners to come and try the dance classes, even if they haven’t dance before. With pole, anyone can try! People always worry they are not going to be strong enough but nine times out of 10, the biggest obstacle I have seen is sweaty hands… and we’ve got potions and lotions for that.
Pictured: “It’s a community first of all," Nikki says of her classes.
For Nikki, the benefits of dancing also include the community aspect of dance classes, including how classmates connect with each, the friendships they create, how they cheer each other on and how much they admire each other.
“Even though I run a dance company, it’s more than that for us,” she says. “It’s a community first of all. It’s self-care because we are looking after our core, our emotional and physical wellbeing… the physicality of going to a dance class, it’s the same as doing crossfit or running. It’s just a different modality of doing that!"
Anyone interested in taking part in a taster session can contact Nikki on Instagram.
This piece first appeared on Bailiwick Wellbeing.
Sign up now for your weekend guide to wellness at work and in island life, delivered free to your inbox every week.
Comments
Comments on this story express the views of the commentator only, not Bailiwick Publishing. We are unable to guarantee the accuracy of any of those comments.