Our Russian exotic, pole ninja, flexi unicorn! Angie is such a special person and is crucial to functions at UV! Our resident social media expert and Pleasers heels guru, this babe does so much more for UV! We’ve never seen our pole unicorn in a bad mood, Angie is bright, energetic and loves doing crazy things-pole moves, dancing in the snow, acrobatics, you name it! Angie is a former ballerina turned pole dancer and has so much to offer students in terms of form, conditioning, flexibility tips and exotic movement.

Name/nickname: Angie J I don’t know if I have a nickname. I consider myself a unicorn with sparkles and kawaii attitude :P

What got you into pole dancing? Me, myself and I with encouragement from my husband. It intrigued me because at that time no one was doing it. I had recently stopped ballet because of studying and felt like something was really wrong with me. I was definitely depressed but didn’t want to ever admit it.I was missing dance and any sort of movement. It felt really strange to my body that I had stopped my dancing routine considering I was dancing since I was 5yrs old nonstop. Acro and Flexibility wasn’t really a big thing back then or it was if you only wanted to become an Olympic athlete. When I was a little girl I didn’t know how to explain it but I remember I was always excited to demonstrate our ballet curriculum exercises at the barre and tangle my legs behind my head for no reason. All the other girls were bored of the barre but I felt so excited every time. They kept saying “Angie the crazy flexy girl” and I loved it! It was some sort of challenge that I was missing from my training. I was thinking to myself now it’s time to put this active flexibility to practice and work harder :P Pole was the closest thing to what I was comfortable with and knew for years..it was a barre..just vertical.

What makes you passionate about pole? The acrobatic-parkour-ninja-badass element if you want along with the freedom of body movement. Pole can be whatever you want it to be: sensual, lyrical, contemporary, acrobatic etc. The shapes and possibilities are endless. It still amazes me to see how far people can go and how quickly pole sport evolves.

What do you love sharing with your students? The journey, the excitement of accomplishment, the ups and downs J With Pole now being competitive and at a very high level worldwide , we tend to forget the journey. I always say to myself “Take your time, work hard, breathe. Don't forget to practice moves you already know and work on your technique, extension and fluidity in favor of moving on to bigger tricks” .I also try to remind me and my students to celebrate small victories and our own development instead of finding flaws and comparing ourselves to others that in the end have different lifestyles than ours.

What makes you feel sexy? (Mood, music, clothing, etc) UV lights (uvpolefitness-get it?:P) socks and heels and moody music!That’s all I need J

What is your fav pole move? When I very first started pole dancing I was obsessed with Jade Split because I thought it was impossible to do. My ultimate favourites though are Rainbow Marchenko, Eagle and Spatchcock

What is your fav grip aid? Probably Dew Point and Liquid Chalk by Mega Grip-both of which I can’t easily get my hands on in Canada :P

Fav brand of pole shorts? Rad Polewear because they always fit me perfectly and I know that is run by passionate people who had a vision

Heels or no? Angie of the past would have been like hell no..Now I’d say hell yes :D Let’s do it!!!