Dance studio offers feminist pole dancing in PDX

Ecdysiast is a pole and specialty dance studio in downtown Portland that aims to be an inclusive space, pushing against strip club established pole norms. I attended their taster class and tried pole dancing for the first time.

Shannon Gee co-founded the studio in 2008. As an Asian woman and single mom with a 10th grade education, the growth of Ecdysiast has opened many doors for Gee. When founding the studio, she saw the importance of pole dancing, but wanted to hold space for the skill outside of sex work.

“Just being a person in the sex trade and being really familiar with the strip club culture, and kind of everything adjacent to that, (I) definitely could see that this was a channel for a lot of folks, in fact all folks, to really access,” Gee said. “But it wasn’t accessible outside of the sex trade or strip club, so I think that’s what inspired me to be a founder.”

Most people familiar with pole dancing are acquainted through the sex industry. For Gee, the coercion and push for survival in these spaces means that there is no true consent. By divorcing pole dancing from that environment, and instead uplifting feminist values, people can engage in the art form consensually.

“There’s real consent, I think when people take classes, that is truly of their own volition,” Gee said. “It’s truly of their own volunteerism. We are what you call a ‘seek’ industry.”

For Anna Graff ’22, her first experience with pole dancing was deliberately sought out. 

“I just have always been interested in pole dancing,” Graff said. “I took a dance fitness class at Lewis & Clark and I really enjoyed it. So I was like, I like dancing and pole is such a beautiful art that I’ve always really loved.”

With the rise of pole dancing in popular culture, with artists like FKA Twigs and Lil Nas X incorporating it into their music videos and performances, Graff was inspired to fulfill her longtime interest. Graff searched online for pole dancing classes and stumbled across the Ecdysiast website. She fell in love with their messaging that emphasizes “If you have a body, you’re a poler.”

Graff took one session of the beginner contemporary pole dance class and had a positive experience, and plans to return in the future.

“It wasn’t competitive, it wasn’t critical, it was work at your own ability level and do what feels good for your body,” Graff said. “That made it a little less intimidating, but it still was challenging which was good.”

Similar to Graff, I have attended one class and plan to attend other lessons in the future. The class I took was taught by Chris Ettrick, and focused on presenting a wide sampling of the different types of pole classes Ecdysiast offers. Ettrick taught a short routine, instructed the small group through a series of tricks and encouraged my peers and I to get familiar with the pole.

The studio space is small, but welcoming. It is a 20 minute walk from the Shattuck Hall Pioneer Express Shuttle stop, situated next to Buffalo Exchange. Single classes start at $40, and the price per lesson decreases when buying their series or courses.

For all these reasons, I am eager to return, but the powerful and purposeful message of Ecdysiast is what draws me to come back most.

“We do a ton of political education, (…) so that we can facilitate not only appropriately, but in a nurturing, non-capitalistic, feminist, queer, indigenous, Marxist, socialist, communist way,” Gee said.” Our school is rooted in revolution. It’s rooted in a revolutionary framework, and that trickles out.”

Photograph by Amelia Madarang