We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Alexandria Vazin. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Alexandria below.
Alexandria, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.
I think choosing to pursue my creative interests as my career instead of going and getting into the field I went to college for was a huge risk. It continues to keep me on my toes and motivates me to keep working towards the goals I want to achieve with Acro Strip as a show and more because I want that risk to be worth it. Taking a risk like that I think sometimes is the only way to feel , at the end of the day, that I didn’t leave my dreams on the table and do whats expected of me. I tried to live a life and have a career thats mine and that i’m proud of at the end of the day and 20 years from now when I look back on my life.
Alexandria, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I first got into performing and dancing in 2019 right before the pandemic. Growing up in Vegas and having pole dancing (stripping) being such a big part of the entertainment industry out there I was always interested in learning it and enjoyed patronizing clubs. When I moved here I started taking pole classes when I moved here to California and joined the Acro Strip Show and later inherited the show and built it up to where it is now. My main mission with the show was I wanted everyone to be able to express themselves through pole dancing no matter their size, shape, gender identity and that they not only should be able to express themselves but also be celebrated.
I never saw that representation when I was growing up or even going to clubs and I wanted to provide that to my community and hopefully it resonates with enough people that I’ll be able to evolve from just being a show, to being a studio, then a club.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
I think people can just be more open minded. In my business particularly with its connection or proximity to sex work a lot of investors or grants deny me any support or help. Facebook and Instagram algorithms stunt my marketing and promotional posts and make it a lot harder for my business to get traction because of their prejudices. Its unfortunate because what we do at the Acro Strip Show is art. All my performers are so creative and are storytellers too. It would be nice if the rest of the world saw it that way as well.
Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?
I think non-creatives struggle to understand that being a creative is just as valuable to a business and society as the work they do. And that theres no creative task too insignificant to a business especially when it comes to even brand identity and if as much care and time goes into the creative side of your business (brand identity, logo, content creation, graphic/web design) that it will make your brand stand out that much more.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://acrostrip.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/acrostrip/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Acro_Strip_Show
Image Credits
Timothy Perri