Elevating Pole Dancing with SADA and Black Girls Pole

Dalijah and Sammy are friends, business partners, former classmates, pole dancers and instructors, and co-owners of SADA pole studio in Brooklyn, but that wasn’t a path they had planned. It all came together with the help of a Juliet balcony and a little serendipity.

These two discovered pole dancing in different ways, in their own time. Their attendance at the Tri-State College of Acupuncture for the same graduate program overlapped. They lived in the same neighborhood unbeknownst to one another. That is, until one day when Dalijah spotted Sammy from her balcony and there was instant recognition. The pair clicked, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Now this dynamic duo of pole aficionados jointly own and operate SADA, a space for movers and shakers and dancers to learn pole techniques, build mental and physical strength, and express themselves creatively through pole dancing.

Separately, Dalijah has started Black Girls Pole, which empowers BIPOC women to start pole dancing and diversify representation in the industry. Sammy has her own online pole-dancing platform where she remotely instructs students, and it took off during the Covid pandemic. These two stay busy, but took the time to chat with us about their past, experiences, goals for the pole community, and their roles in it.

Dalijah in Dripping in Jewels

Your pole studio, SADA, is a fun portmanteau of your names, SAmmy and DAlijah. How did it, your poling careers, and your relationship, start?

Sammy: Poling was a fluke discovery for me—my friend dragged me to a class, and I’ve been doing it just over 10 years now. I was going through a tough time with medical issues then, and pole dancing and anything of the arts was the last thing on my mind. But, long story short, it ended up saving my life. I bought a pole and taught myself at home. Dalijah and I didn’t meet through pole, but we were neighbors and recognized each other, and both happened to end up in the same acupuncture program. Dalijah was one year ahead of me in school and got nicknamed “pole acupuncture fairy godmother.”

Dalijah: I moved to New York right after college [at Ohio State] to be a dancer. A friend took me to Crunch gym for a pole dancing class around 2007 and I was initially hesitant, but eventually fell in love with it. A teacher at Crunch opened Body and Pole, and organized a pole competition. I was five months into pole dancing and did not win, but started a work study at Body and Pole and kept practicing. Over time, I realized that women of color were not taking to pole dancing, or they were being stereotyped as strippers. I wanted to open it up and create a broader understanding of what pole was. By 2021, both Sammy and I wanted to open a studio, but not solo. We liked and respected each other enough to be business partners and here we are.

Sammy in Medusa

How cool that your paths crossed in acupuncture school. What role, if any, does acupuncture play in your business model or lives now?

Sammy: It plays almost no role now. We initially intended to open a combination pole and acupuncture studio for physical therapy. Investors wanted us to tone down the acupuncture and be a bit smaller, though. I’m glad we’re focused just on the pole studio because now we’re taking such interesting turns. I don’t think it would have made sense to do both.

Dalijah: Acupuncture was an expensive impetus to get us together. Everything else took off once we got into acupuncture, and it’s good we’re not practicing. I wanted to do it as a second career because the longevity of a dancer is not forever, especially for pole. It’s rough on your body and can only take you so far. At SADA, we’re focused primarily on it as a movement space for pole dancers, even less as instructors now, and not acupuncturists.

Dalijah, in addition to SADA, you spearheaded Black Girls Pole. What would you like the Thistle and Spire readers to know about that?

Dalijah: I started Black Girls Pole in 2014 as a one-time event. It began with 100 followers on Instagram, and then people kept asking about more events. Fast forward to 2024 and now we have over 150 thousand followers and pole dancing retreats all over the world from South Africa to Costa Rica, Amsterdam, and Bermuda. It’s so cool to see how it has grown over the last ten years and evolve into this global entity. It has touched so many black women all over the world. Now we have our Puerto Rico convention coming up for 100 pole dancers.

Next year, we’re headed to Bermuda, Paris, and Iceland. For each retreat, I pull in the culture of each location. Now a lot of people just want to go on retreats—we don’t even have to pole dance.

Dalijah in Medusa

What would you want to teach neophytes like me about pole dancing that they may not already know?

Dalijah: Go into it with an open mind because it is hard. Like the first time you tried riding a bike, you couldn’t. Give yourself time and space to get stronger to do it. But once you do start pole, it is such an amazing and empowering experience that you can feel. You can create and move how you want to once you get the techniques.

Sammy: It’s easy to go into pole dancing with a lot of preconceived notions about what it’s supposed to look like. Because pole is so mentally and physically challenging, it quickly breaks all of that down, and the open mind and persistence come in handy throughout your journey, especially in those first few months when your mind is telling you “No, no, no! You’re not enough this or that.” Having that openness in the beginning is crucial and it pays off, and it builds up something that feels truly authentic. It’s empowering and allows you to tell stories that your body wants to tell.

Sammy in Wavelength

How do you respond to assumptions linking pole dancing and stripping?

Sammy: We first started pole dancing when the industry, as a mainstream practice, was very young and there was a general lack of education about the origins of pole dancing. There was a focus on separating pole from the stripping industry, which we’ve seen shift majorly over the last ten years. While we still have far to go, there is much more widespread education regarding the importance of honoring pole’s roots in strip clubs. That being said, we get a range of assumptions when people learn that we’re pole dancers. We have a few approaches to educating them, depending on where they’re coming from. 

Dalijah: There is a never-ending need to educate. It can take time, and some people may just not understand what we do. Our parents finally get it. It took them a few years, but they are here now.

Dalijah in Medusa

Dalijah, you wear many hats—pole dancer, entrepreneur, wife, new mom—how do you manage that?

Dalijah: I have a 3-month old and a 4-year old now. It’s challenging, and I don’t get to pole as much as I used to. I’m trying to navigate where I am in my pole journey while also being a business owner, mother, wife, and so many other things. It’s really hard. Because Sammy and I have been so business driven and making sure we’re taking care of that side, we’ve lost our creative lane. We don’t get to train for ourselves as studio owners. These days I’m so pressed for time and look forward to returning to that place of creativity. I’m listening to my body, but I do want to get back soon.

Sammy in Heroine

SADA’s one-year anniversary is coming up in October. Do you have any plans to celebrate?

Sammy: SADA turns one on October 14, and our showcase is on October 4. It will feature our instructors and students, and we will prepare some performances. That is how we’re celebrating.

Dalijah: We’re trying to celebrate the (over 500) students and instructors we’ve had. We are partnered up with The Ordinary to be part of it, providing gifts and goodies, and we’re doing a photo shoot for the students. Sammy and I are helping direct the students because a photo shoot can be intimidating for them. Our help with that is also part of celebration. Any parting pole-dancing messages for our audience?

Sammy: We really want people to get that we are pole dancers, but we’re also expansive human beings, like all people are, and we really want SADA to be for movers and creators across the board, beyond pole dancing.

Dalijah: We purposely are very intentional about the space that we’ve created and cultivated. The poles are removable, so you can come in and do a yoga class. It’s well-lit and has an amazing feel. Anyone and everyone can come in and enjoy it. We’ve had male instructors and students as well as female, and people of all ages and skill levels. Everyone is welcome.

 

SADA: sadanyc.com
Black Girls Pole: blackgirlspole.com
Facebook: facebook.com/blackgirlspole
Instagram: instagram.com/sada.nyc