Choreo Queens: The Women of Tease Studio Shake the Stigma of Pole Dancing
A few years ago, Ashlee Renee was working as a nurse in a urology clinic, helping people heal and comfort people. But as she navigated her way through life in scrubs, she wasn’t giving those same comforts to herself.
It wasn’t until the doctors in her department gave a (somewhat creepy) gift to the nurses that she started healing herself. The gift that changed her life was pole dancing classes.
“Neurologists are kind of sick,” Renee said.
While most of the women laughed it off, Renee and two of her coworkers seized the opportunity and signed up for three different classes, starting with a lap dancing class. Although the class asked for everyone to show up 10 minutes early, Renee and her friends showed up much earlier to shake off their nerves.
Basing their knowledge of lap and pole dancing on movies and pop culture, the nurses were expecting to see an army of size two, 6’2”, blonde women. As they waited for the class to start, they watched the tail end of the advanced pole dancing class as the women freestyled on the poles.
“It was the first time that I looked at pole in a completely different way,” she said. “These women were all different body shapes and they were doing things that I couldn’t even imagine doing. And all of these people were so beautiful, more beautiful than what I had in my head. They were flexible and strong, and they all looked really, really happy.”
Renee fell in love with the welcoming atmosphere and beauty of Tease Studio, a local adult dance and fitness studio that does a lot more than just pole dancing classes. After giggling through her first class, she walked back to her car with an overwhelmingly confident stride and a new trick.
“The instructor taught us how to do a headstand on someone’s lap during the dance,” she said. “I couldn’t wait to go back.”
And she didn’t.
Since taking her first class at Tease Studio, Renee became a regular client, an instructor, and as of March 2015, the owner of one of Denver’s best adult fitness studios. This is no easy feat, considering the stigma surrounding erotic dance and the people that do it.
Renee is breaking that stigma. Since taking over the studio, she’s opened its doors to anyone willing to come and have a good time. She’s removed all but two women’s-only classes, invited in male instructors, and made it known that “being sexy, confident, and healthy is genderless.”
On Fridays, the studio opens its doors to anyone wanting to work on their moves by hosting open studio time. Behind the black curtains separating a cluttered reception desk from the spotless studio space is a group of people all working on different tricks on the eight poles that line the northern and southern walls of Tease Studio.
Leah Ray snagged the first pole on the northern side and started practicing her lifts. Sporting a black sports bra and underwear, she ascended towards the ceiling using her brute strength and determination. As she reached the middle of the pole, she flipped her body upside down and spread her legs into the air, using only her arms to hold her weight. The room stopped to watch and yell words of encouragement. When she began to struggle, Renee stepped in and helped support her weight as she perfected the lines that her muscular legs struggled to form.
It’s a camaraderie that Ray hadn’t experienced before coming to Tease Studio, and she has no plans to leave it anytime soon.
“I’ve always been that fitness junkie who conditions and trains,” Ray said. “I’ve never been pushed this hard by any other workout. Honestly, though, the welcoming and encouraging environment is what kept me coming back. I fell in love with the sport and the people that surround me.”
Like Renee and her crew of nurses, Ray had an image in her head of what pole dancing was and the women who did it. But then Ray watched a video of one of the best pole dancers in the world.
In the video, a woman holds her entire weight as she walks in a vertical line through the air… three times. Witnessing the strength and beauty of this move, Ray decided to hit Tease Studio and push herself to do that same move.
“I’m still working on that move, and I’m not even sure what I’ll do once I complete it,” Ray said. “Since day one, this studio has changed my mind on what it means to be a pole dancer. I’m in the best shape of my life, and I feel so empowered and sexy.”
Although her mind has been changed, a lot of people still view pole dancing and erotic dance as something that should be hidden or utilized only in strip clubs where patrons look at the dancers in sexual and often times condescending ways. But for those that strip away their clothes and use strength and physics to spin around the pole, it’s more that that. It’s an art.
In the US, pole dancing acts were common in circuses and sideshows during the 1920s, but it’s generally accepted that the apparatus didn’t make it into actual strip clubs until 1968, when a woman named Belle Jangles took to the pole at the Mugwump Strip Club in Oregon. By the 1980s it was a fixture in striptease routines, and soon there were pole dancing competitions popping up all over the world.
In the last few years, thanks in large part to videos circulating social media, the stigma surrounding erotic dance has dwindled. Dancers are showing the world how beautiful and powerful it is to work the pole, one viral video at a time.
One of those people was Patty Yaconis’ mother.
Yaconis was in her 50s when her mom encouraged her to go take pole dancing lessons, and, naturally, she was hesitant. It wasn’t something that she had ever done, and she had a handful of reservations before biting the bullet and signing up for a class.
“I was really shy at first, but the more I came, the more I fell in love with it,” she said. “Now I’m an instructor.”
Yaconis’ shyness was nowhere to be found during the studio’s free time. She worked her way around the pole in black, lacy lingerie, which made the colors of her hip tattoo pop. Feet above the ground, she contorted her body in extended, elegant poses while sporting red platform stiletto.
Again, as Yaconis climbed the pole, her studio mates stopped to cheer her on.
“There’s no competitive vibe here,” Brooklyn transplant Ashley Monroe said. “I came from one of the most competitive places in the world, and it is so refreshing and beautiful to be in a place where I’m not always looking over my shoulder at what everyone else is doing.”
Monroe is one of Tease Studio’s sexiest instructors as the resident classic burlesque dancer. She wasn’t a client before she started teaching, but Lanouette saw her talent and dedication. Now, she teaches multiple classes a week, all focused on the art of body language and stripping away the clothes that hide our bodies.
“It’s all about making mistakes and fixing them during the routine,” she said. “It’s really what we do in everyday life — or what we should do. If you make a mistake, make sure it doesn’t stop you from doing what you love. That’s what [Lanouette] is spreading, and honestly a lot of us in here are better people because of it.”
She might not know it, but Lanouette is helping people. She’s teaching them to love their bodies, forget the gender norms, live a healthier lifestyle, feel sexy, and do a headstand on someone’s lap — she’s taught that move to hundreds of people since her first class.
“I’m not saying if I’ve done that move outside the studio, but I really hope my clients feel sexy enough to,” Renee said with a slight smile.
