POLE? Siska

Today Niche met with Siska to find out more about the London Pole Community, as part of our POLE? Series.

Siska is a professional dancer, instructor and performer from Slovakia, based in London. She started pole dancing in 2016 and has been teaching since 2020. She is a PDC AAP certified instructor and won 3rd place in Pole Glam Flow professionals - Elevate Pole Europe (Turin, Italy).

Siska's love for pole dancing has developed as she built interpersonal skills, overcoming new challenges and found her purpose through dancing. This has given her the chance to grow her self-esteem, personal and professional life as she says "every dance move gets me closer to new goals!"

We shot this interview at the beautiful London studio Ecole de pole; where she teaches a range of professional and beginner classes. As you can see from the shoots, this studio has such a beautiful aesthetic and welcoming atmosphere, a stunning place for visual seekers to experience.

Siska emphasised on how much her confidence has grown since discovering pole; which she proved through her bold performance on the London Underground in front of impressed onlookers. Not only does she do pole but she has used everything she has gained from this to also begin a life coaching startup @scarleted.uk preaching self growth through movement.

The full interview is available to stream across all social media platforms (2 Feb @5:00pm)

Interview summary:

What sparked your initial interest in pole dancing ?

I started in 2016 and for me it was all about the underground vibe. it was very mysterious, looked fun and I felt like that was something that I wanted to try.

I took my first beginner course back in Slovakia, and then I had a little break as I was traveling then I came to London. It was all very new for me and yeah I reunited with it here.

How did you get into it professionally?

It was during lockdown actually cuz I had the extra time to train and get my certification and the studio where I used to train, the owner she asked me if I would like to teach and that's how it happened,  it was very exciting.

What was a challenging moment for you from your pole Journey?

Yeah I mean there were quite a few of them,

I used to be quite hard on myself and I used to always compare myself with those Instagram models, but it's like they don't really share the hard work behind it they just share the wins which we all want.

but I fell into comparing comparing myself a lot and I felt the pressure that I'm not progressing fast enough yeah yeah so it was quite challenging to overcome this and actually realise that yeah I need to take my time.

What is the biggest misconception about pole dancing?

I feel like a lot of people think that they have to be strong to start dancing and everyone says that every time, when I why don't you try? They’re like oh I'm not strong enough. But you build it over time

I would definitely encourage people that even if you don't have upper body strength there's always way to start.

Also there is another one, I support everyone I support strippers I support pole dancers but most of the time when I used to do only pole dancing; I would say I’m a pole dancer and people would just have the cheeky look and they would always judge and make assumptions;

it's quite sad but I think it's getting better and better there's a lot more like representation still needs to be more but there's more than there was.

How has pole affected your overall Fitness and well-being?

I feel like my life changed completely, cuz I used to have no self-confidence at all like; I would look at myself in the mirror and I would hate myself before if you met me five six years ago that wasn't me.

Pole was something that helped me build it because as you achieve those certain moves on the pole and your Fitness like with your body, it makes you feel like you can achieve anything in life.

so it kind of gets me closer to the new goals it also like made me to start my life coaching Journey cuz I kind of found passion in building confidence

when they come to my class sometimes the girls are so shy in the beginning and then they leaving so confident so that made me actually get a life coaching certification.

it's a little project I've been working on yeah it's called scarleted.uk and yeah it's a startup

What are three things that you would warn me about?

it's highly addictive which is probably a good thing not a bad thing.

The bruises, I mean I still get them it gets better with the time like your skin gets used to it but every time I'm learning a new move there's new bruises and yeah I don't think there is anything else. yeah it's just all fun how can I say anything else when I love it so much.

Full gallery and behind the scenes available on our social media pages @NicheExhibit