EL
EL HAS BEEN IN THE POLE DANCE SPORTS & FITNESS INDUSTRY SINCE 2005 WHEN SHE FOUNDED & OPENED IRELANDS 1ST PURPOSE-BUILT POLE STUDIO IN BELFAST. SHE DEVELOPED A SKILL & LOVE FOR POLE DANCING WHEN SHE 1ST CAME ACROSS IT AT BOBBI’S POLE STUDIO SYDNEY IN 2003, TAUGHT THEN BY HER POLE IDOL BOBBIE HERSELF!
EL CURRENTLY HAS 2 STUDIOS IN IRELAND, BELFAST & DUNDALK & HAS DELIVERED WORKSHOPS AS FAR AS BARCELONA, ARGENTINA & AUSTRALIA. IN HER EARLIER DAYS, SHE COMPETED IN POLE DIVAS WINNING THE NI HEATS IN 2006 & 2008. SHE LATER FOCUSED ON JUDGING & WAS ONE OF THE 1ST IPSF JUDGES (THE ONLY RECOGNISED BODY FOR POLE SPORTS JUDGES) IN 2013, JUDGING AT THE WORLD POLE SPORTS CHAMPIONSHIPS IN LONDON.
SHE IS A REGULAR ON THE JUDGING PANEL OF THE POLE DANCE IRELAND PRINCESS COMPETITION, MMPSCOTLAND & AND MOST RECENTLY JUDGED AT THE WORLD POLE FITNESS 2018 IN CHINA. SHE IS THE FOUNDER OF IRELANDS’ MOST RECOGNISED POLE COMPETITION ‘THE ALL IRELAND POLE DANCE CHAMPIONSHIPS’ WHICH TAKES PLACE IN BELFAST EVERY YEAR.
MARIA
Maria is a mechanical engineering student and maths tutor by day and the rest of the time? Pole dancing and bodybuilding are her passions! She discovered Polercise in 2016 , having no background in dance and being notoriously clumsy.
She gave it a whirl… Completely fell in love! She’d only been weight training for about 6 months and Pole went hand in hand, improving her strength massively, but even better teaching her to love her body, feel amazing, boosted body confidence and had great craic with her pole family.
She’s a competitive bodybuilder and pole gave her the sass and confidence needed to get on a stage, enjoy every minute and pick up a few trophies… all in heels! Because if you can walk in pleasers you can walk in anything!”
You will usually catch Maria strutting her stuff at the studio on Mondays.
MARTINE
Martine, 35, is a mum of 2 which makes her a superhero in her own right. She started pole 7 years ago at her sisters studio before moving to join the Polercise family, admittedly the best decision she ever made ….?
She always loved dancing, in her younger years she was a freestyle disco dancer but fell in love with Pole in her later years and hasn’t looked back.
JAYNE
Jayne’s love for pole began in 2006. She was looking for an exercise that was fun and different, something more challenging than the gym. From the very first class, she was hooked. She was strengthening muscles she didn’t know she had, and with that came tone and flexibility, holding the poses was challenging but getting them right was addictive.
She went on to complete a teacher training course studying OCR Exercise to Music, First Aid, and pole dancing training (although she never stops learning). She specialises in teaching beginners and finds it very rewarding to see students progress from being unable to lift their own bodyweight to holding themselves upside down.
She enjoys seeing them letting go of their inhibitions and having fun to music on the pole. Swinging around the pole for Jayne is like being a kid again, playing in the playground. . .Fun! Her other passion is yoga and has completed a Vinyasa Flow Yoga Teacher Training course at Flow Yoga Belfast.
KEITH
Keith is a qualified personal trainer and sports massage therapist. Keith began his pole career in 2016 along with years of Circus skills and aerial training.
He describes his style as “FreeFlow” and has a high focus on alignment and form.
You’ll find him covering classes, instructing Queen’s University Aerial Society.
Available for private lessons.
TAYLOR
As a child, Taylor won multiple N.I. Championships in Gymnastics and later in Trampolining. After a long break from competitive sports, Taylor started pole in her late 20s at the Imperial College Pole & Aerial Society in London while completing her Doctorate. She later moved to work as a neuroscientist at the University of California, San Francisco, where she had the opportunity to compete and train with some of the world’s most famous pole and circus artists.
Taylor brings the Dr Pole vibes and loves to incorporate her knowledge on neuroscience and psychology to facilitate progress in movement and mindset. A qualified Xpert Pole instructor, she loves contortion, handbalancing and acrobatics as well as all things heels and has completed workshops in Pointe and Edgework, Hardstyle Heel Tricks, and Slow and Sultry Pole Flow. She has performed in live Pole Sport Organization (PSO) Championships while in the United States, placing 2nd in Los Angeles (March 2022) and 3rd in Dallas (June 2022) in the Exotic category.
Since recently returning to Belfast and joining Polercise, she placed 1st in the virtual online PSO Virgo competition (September 2022) in the RX (Russian exotic) category.
TRíona
Tríona is a teacher by day and musician by night. Having toured the world as a musician playing harp and fiddle, as well as providing vocals, she has now settled back into her home of Belfast. A natural teacher, she teaches primary school by profession and also teaches music.
She started pole in 2019 while living in England, wanting to try something different and meet new people. It turned out to be the best decision she ever made. She also enjoys power hoop workouts with a weighted hula hoop and has been doing them for the past five years.
Tríona’s love for power hooping has allowed her to develop the strength needed to naturally progress through Polercise and the strength and condition aspect of Pole is her focus. Having spent years under the tutelage of @martinekettle and El, she has spent the last months under her mentorship and shadowing her in order to progress into becoming an instructor herself. Tríona joined Polercise before lockdown and attended many of the online classes using her pole at home.
Having completed her Xpert training, she is now looking forward to using the approachability she developed through her other teaching experiences to help the next generation embrace Polercise as she has.