Memories of the last decade as we approach our 10th Anniversary (Part 1)
As we approach the studio’s 10th anniversary on December 1st, and prepare for our big 10th Anniversary Showcases at the Conrad Centre later this month, I’ve been going through old photos, videos, emails, and social media posts, and reliving all sorts of wonderful memories. I thought I might share some of them here.
Our Story - Part I
“You’re buying a what now?”
At my friend Jane’s studio in Oakville, 2011
To go back to the beginning, I have to go back a little more than 10 years, to the start of my own pole journey. I took my first pole dancing lesson in Oakville at my friend Jane’s studio in April of 2010. At the time, my children were 2 and 4 years old, and I was working in corporate finance in Mississauga. My weekly pole class was my “me time”, when I could be more than a mommy and a manager. I built strength and reconnected with my body after all the changes that motherhood had brought. I also reconnected with my sensual side and learned to love my body again, and marvel at all it did for me. Even more than that, the studio provided me with social time with an amazing community of women. We were a diverse community of different ages and backgrounds. I was one of the older students, but I never felt out of place. We all supported, encouraged, and celebrated each other.
In 2011, Jane gave me the the gift that changed my life even more than pole already had. I became an instructor at her studio. I started out teaching yoga and chair dancing while I trained to teach pole. I loved being a part of Jane’s team and sharing my passion with students. I had just started teaching pole classes when the next life changing opportunity presented itself. At that time, Jane’s studio was part of a franchise with several locations in Southern Ontario. The owner of the studios in London and Kitchener decided to sell her Kitchener location. My husband and I talked it over, and I took the leap into studio ownership. Most of the rest of my family and friends said “You’re buying a what now?” and some were maybe a little bit shocked and skeptical. But, on December 1, 2012, I became the newest franchisee of Aradia Fitness, taking over the Aradia Fitness Kitchener location. For the next six months, I balanced driving between home in Oakville, work in Mississauga, and teaching and managing the studio in Kitchener. In July of 2013, I left my corporate job, we sold our house in Oakville, and we moved our family to the Waterloo Region.
December 2012 - First studio at 107 King Street W in Kitchener
The original instructors - Left to right: Laura, me (Heather), Amanda, Nicole, Veronica
Our first studio location was on the second floor of a building on King Street West in downtown Kitchener, right above Shakedown Street and Ye’s Sushi. We had one room with six custom-made, static only, 50mm brass poles, and a separate small room on the other side of a waiting room which we sub-let to a children’s highland dance studio. We could often hear the strains of bagpipe music floating across the shared waiting room, and often when our studio door opened to let a student in, you could see a dance parent straining to get a peek at what was going on in our side of the studio. We also sub-let a small room off of our main dance studio to a famous local author. She would work in her office during the day, and we would run classes in the evenings. I inherited a team of four wonderful instructors with the studio; Laura, Veronica, Nicole and Amanda. Veronica and Laura stayed with us through the next several years and subsequent studio moves, and Laura still teaches for us today. ❤️
I put my own stamp on the studio by adding mirrors, swapping out half of the 50mm poles for 45mm poles (I nearly cried the first time I tried to use one of the 50mm poles, but that’s another story for another day), and my husband built us a beautiful bar with cool lighting entirely from IKEA components. It was very chic. 😎 My husband and kids and I had “picnics under the poles” when we would go in for the day to do work in the studio. My extended family visited, and everyone helped out in one way or another.
The fancy bar that Marty built
New mirrors
Family play time after picnicking under the poles after a day of working in the studio
My father-in-law showing us how it’s done
Over the following year, we worked hard to grow our student membership by getting out into the community at every available opportunity. We brought our portable stage pole down to the sidewalk on Canada Day, and during various festivals. We went to wedding shows, and wellness events, and talked to anyone who would listen about pole dancing! We held a “Grand Opening (under new management)” party, and a Halloween party, and put on our first performances for audiences of a couple dozen in our cozy little studio, and we thought that was pretty great!
One of my favourite memories from that first year was one class where I was teaching a move called the Spinning Helicopter. This was one of my first “nemesis” moves. It terrified me and it consistently eluded me…and I had to teach it. I shared with my students that I struggled with this move and I’d try to demonstrate it for them, but that I was very nervous. As I started to walk around the pole to do my demonstration, they encouraged me and when I nailed the move, they cheered as though our team had just won the World Series. It felt so good to celebrate all of our successes together, and encourage and lift each other up through our struggles.
By the end of 2013, we had grown so much that we started looking for a larger space, and on an icy day in January 2014, we moved up the street to our second Kitchener location. More about that in my next post.
Written by: Heather Poulin, Owner and Founder, Brass Butterflies