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Interview with New PoleCon Instructor: Taylor Starke
We are sitting down to talk to our new instructors for PoleCon 2024! Learn more about them and then click here to purchase their workshop
1. We’re so excited to have you teach at PoleCon this year! Can you tell us a little more about what you’re teaching?
I’m so excited to be on the roster to teach!!! My workshop, Starke Struck, is all about my favorite dynamic tricks and shapes that make me feel like a bad-ass-ninja-superwoman-amazon creature. These are the tricks that typically get the biggest crowd cheers (and tips!) so I wanted to bring that to my Pole Con friends to add to their arsenal. A little kippy, a little flippy, and a lot of attitude in every movement. I’ll also be touching on how to make yourself more bookable for gigs and how to prep for that once in a lifetime opportunity. We all have a little something special about our individual style that makes us stand out in a crowd and I’m so looking forward to connecting and making new memories this year.
2. Is there something that defines your style of teaching or your content that is unique to you?
Hahaha you know when you go out to a club and the girls in the bathroom are somehow instantly your best friends? That’s the vibe eternally in my classes. My teaching style is a nutty professor crossed with a dance mom yelling, “You’re doing amazing sweetie!” I’m an analytical poler and love to nerd out on what makes a trick safe and where the momentum is initiated. I like to go beyond a good demo of a movement and chat about how the movement works functionally so they don’t just feel like copycats of me and can instead really feel confident that they understand how it works. The specific content of this workshop is truly shaped by my unique experiences on stage with Snoop, Doja, French Montana, etc and what got me booked/kept the crowds happy! Finding your go-to showstopper tricks means you just get to enjoy the ride when you’re having the time of your life.
3. What is the one thing you want your students to leave with after taking your workshop?
The knowledge and certainty that your tricks are YOUR TRICKS. No one will ever do the same movement exactly the same way, so you have to lean in to what sits right with you. You’ll either leave my workshop with shiny new movements that you’ll do until the end of time OR the confidence that you’ll know your next signature trick when you feel it. Either way, come play!
4. What are you most excited about for PoleCon 2024?
I’m most excited to meet all the friends I’ve made online through the pole community but have never had the pleasure of dancing with in person. It’s amazing that we cheer each other on in the comments, send well-wishes when life is wonky, and laugh about polelols together, across state lines and boarders. It’s a beautiful thing I feel very lucky to be a part of and Pole Con feels just like that in stereo.
5. Anything else you want to share with PoleCon attendees?
Eat your wheaties. I’ll see you Saturday morning 😉 https://www.instagram.com/starkestruck/
Colleen Jolly is an entrepreneur and a pole dance enthusiast. She has been poling for 13 years, is the CEO of PoleCon and the Executive Director of the IPIA. She teaches pole, lyra, floorwork, and mobility online and in-person in the DC metro area. She has been active in leadership roles in several international businesses over the past two decades and is also an award-winning pole dancer, artist, writer, and speaker. She is certified in several movement modalities and wrote the book "Mobility for Pole" to help pole dancers move better.
Latest posts by Colleen (see all)
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