Pole Fitness Studio

A League of Their Own

By Ann Parenti

I met Fawnia Mondey at an eWomen Network event I attended recently. She graciously invited me to attend one of the classes she teaches. Her charisma convinced me to take her up on the offer. Now, let me tell you what her class was, and for those who personally know me, here is where you get to have a great laugh … pole dancing!

When I filled out her paperwork prior to the class, we discovered we had the same birthday, just the month and day, not the year. We are both Libras, and that explained why I was lured so easily. Libras have a way of convincing you to do things you wouldn’t typically do. A fellow Libra turned the tables on me after all this time! Ha!

The class was for beginners, and it was filled with a dozen or so women of all shapes and sizes, but all younger than me. Let’s just say some of them could have been my granddaughters! I did better than I thought I would, but as we approached the end of the class, she had one last routine that I had to bow out of gracefully and let the others finish.

Mondey has had quite a career teaching and running her own studio. In 1994, fresh out of high school, she immersed herself in exotic dancing and began teaching in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. In 1998, she produced the world’s first instructional video on how to pole dance. This gained her worldwide attention and established her as a pioneer in pole dancing instruction. She has performed throughout western Canada, Belgium and Las Vegas. Las Vegas eventually became her home, and Mondey opened Pole Fitness Studio in 2006 and hasn’t stopped dancing since.

Students ages 18 to 65 participate on a daily basis. She has had students as young as 7 and as old as 72. Glad to hear there was one more brave soul like me who had me by a mere few years! Her operation is quite impressive, with more than 440 classes per month. They offer pole dancing for beginners and advanced students, as well as classes in belly dance, Latin dance, yoga, sound healing, aerial silks, lyra, trapeze, hammock yoga, burlesque, escape and defense, and full-body fitness. They can also help with unique events or private parties, and they even rent poles.

I left with the knowledge that there are some things I still can do and some things not so much! Ha!

So, if you’re looking for an opportunity to get outside your comfort zone, I recommend Mondey and her studio. She made it a fun morning, and no grandmas were harmed during the class, and thankfully, there was no filming of it!

To learn more, visit PoleFitnessStudio.com or call 702-878-7653.