In the middle of January, it is not uncommon for students complain of feeling tired, stressed, overworked, pale… simply put, in a rut. For many on campus, this mundane routine was challenged and broken with the arrival of a novel type of exercise: pole dancing. Opened in January 2017 under the parent company of aUM Yoga, Polarity is Ann Arbor’s premier pole fitness studio, with a goal to “demystify pole” and inspire clients daily by making fitness fun, challenging, and inviting.
Her Campus was lucky enough to sit down with U of M graduate Jessie Lipkowitz, yoga instructor, and owner of both aUM Yoga and Polarity.
Her Campus: Polarity was born out of the parent company, aUM Yoga. What led you to open up aUM?
Jessie Lipkowitz: I went to the University of Michigan and then graduated from the University of Cambridge in 2012. This was when the job market was really terrible, so I ironically went to work for the only collaboration that exists between U of M and Cambridge, a company called CaMLA. I was doing English proficiency testing. it wasn’t a bad job, but I didn’t love sitting behind a desk all day, so I spontaneously decided to enroll in a yoga teacher training program. I graduated from that program in June of 2013, and in July, I found myself saying “I want to open a yoga studio.” Two weeks later, I found a space and opened aUM in September of 2013.
HC: How has aUM grown over the years?
JL: In three years, we’ve grown so much. I started with six people in an 800 square ft. basement, and now we have a 7,000 square ft. space with over 60 people affiliated with [the company]. Last September we started a teacher training program, and now, going into our sixth training, we’ve certified almost 100 people.
HC: What led you to open a pole fitness studio?
JL: I always knew going into renting this space (aUM Yoga) that the adjacent (Polarity) space was going to be something I wanted, because they were once connected. Anything going next to me was going to have to harmoniously work with the yoga business. At aUM we play loud music, then need it to be quiet when people are in savasana, so I wanted something that would help maintain that environment. I came up with a few concepts for the space – initially I was thinking a health food cafe. Soon other businesses started showing interest in the space, and that’s what catapulted me into taking it.
HC: Why Pole Dancing?
JL: I think [pole dancing] works really well in a lot of ways – it’s the perfect cross training for yoga. Put simply, in yoga you push; in pole you pull. Pole dancing is the perfect opposite to yoga in a lot of ways, that’s why I named it “Polarity.”
HC: What message do you want your business to send to your customers?
JL: Thinking back to what I really cared about when I first opened up “baby aUM,” my whole goal has always been to demystify yoga. I think a lot of people initially feel like outsiders going into things like yoga or pole dance. It can be really easy for fitness studios to feel cultish. I wanted to make yoga accessible and fun– that’s why I named my classes things like “F*** this is hard,” “help I’m new,” and “damn this is sexy and slow.” We want to deconstruct the percieved seriousness of yoga. As for pole, I wanted something that fit within that demystifying culture that I spent three years building. So my whole approach was making pole inviting and accessible in the same way that I had for yoga.
HC: Pole dancing requires strength, stamina and flexibility, but for many it still seems to be associated with sexualized clichés. How does Polarity combat this?
JL: I’m sure if you talked to any pole studio owner or instructor, [sexual stereotypes] are the biggest thing they combat. In doing research for the design of Polarity, I felt very strongly that I wanted it to be a fitness-focused studio. For me that’s how it really fit underneath the umbrella of what I’d already created. The #1 thing that achieves that here is the architecture— specifically, the windows. As far as I’ve seen in research that I did looking at other studios, I’ve never found one with big windows. They are all darker and closed-off. Here, you walk in and realize that pole is not something that has to be hidden or taboo— it really speaks to how we think about thing!
HC: That being said, is there value in using pole dancing as a way to express one’s sexuality in an empowering way?
JL:
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Yes! For Valentine’s Day we did three events – two for women and one for men! The event’s for women only were: Pole Tricks & Tease and an All My Single Ladies Beyonce Themed Pole Class. For the men we held a competition to find Polarity’s “Magic Mike”. The winner and runner up performed for the two women’s events and won packages to the studio.
HC: How difficult is it to master pole dance?
JL: I’m still brand new to pole myself, and it’s hard! In yoga, there is a learning curve that happens pretty fast, but in pole it really does take 3-4 classes to feel comfortable. The first class is about just trying to understand how you’re integrating your body with this vertical metal object. The second class is about figuring out how to grip the pole, the third class is figuring out how to be fluid around the pole. The fourth class is the point at which you can really start to use muscle memory and integrate choreography. To tell people to hold on tight until their 4th class is kind of a big commitment, but being open and honest about that learning curve is the key to encouraging people to come back.
HC: Who comes to your classes?
JL: There are two kind of clients: The first is the people who are just going to take it for the novelty, for a girls night out. That’s totally legitimate! Pole is so different from any other type of fitness in that way where it is this fun, exciting new thing to go do. But then there are the other people, who get kind of addicted to it, and keep coming back. We designed our new student special as a week unlimited, so people can come as many times as they want within a week for $28. The price of a single class is $25, so that’s a really good value. We’re hoping that with that new student special we can get people over that 3-4 class learning curve within a week.
HC: Do any guys come to the class?
JL: Yes! A lot of men have come on their own accord. Some have always wanted to try it, others have done it before, or do similar arts like aerial silks. It’s not a huge percentage of men, but the fact that we’ve even gotten any is super exciting. I think this is part of the conversation of demystifying yoga and pole. If men and women can be in the same room doing pole dance, that’s a really cool thing.
HC: Where do you see Polarity a year from now?
JL: It’s kind of an experiment for me too. I opened up Polarity as much of as an event space as a fitness center, so I’m really excited to see where that goes. I think the event space has the potential to grow almost even more than the fitness side of things. The obvious events that initially come to mind are bachelorette parties and 21st birthday parties, and I want to do as many of those as possible because they’re a ton of fun, but I think doing more off-the-charts kinds of things is where we can really grow. I would really like to develop partnerships with sororities and other groups on campus who are interested in running philanthropy events or fundraisers. We even held a party for the U of M Family Medicine Department — a bunch of doctors came in and had a blast dancing around the poles! I think this event side of Polarity it is going to provide a really interesting interplay that feeds back into the fitness component— the more events we do, the more people are going to be willing to take that first step and try a pole dance class.
Images Courtesy of: Polarity, Meryl Rueppel