We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Mændy MacFarland a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Mændy thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. So, one thing many business owners consider is donating a percentage of sales or profits to an organization or cause. We’d love to hear your thoughts and the story behind how and why you chose the cause or organization you donate to.
Yes, Pole in the Wall has a few ways we give back to the community I would be happy to share! First, our Springfield Resident Discount Program offers residents of Springfield, MA a discount code they can use to take up to 45% off class passes. Students just need to show current proof of Springfield, MA to join the program. In the past we had a Scholarship Program available to Springfield Residents and we are hoping to bring that back again soon.
We also offer assistance to our instructors so they can further their education through our Teacher Education Program. All funds collected from our Patreon Video Library at https://patreon.com/poleinthewall are donated to Pole in the Wall instructors at the end of each year to put toward certifications and training.
Keeping our instructors up to date on their education helps keep our class content evolving and our students safe. We are thankful for all our Patrons who support our community and are excited to expand our instructor’s expertise through these funds. Last year we were able to award full scholarships to 3 of our instructors that they put toward earning XPert Pole Certifications.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Yes, my name is Mændy MacFarland, Owner of Pole in the Wall in Springfield, MA. Here is a bit about me and our studio!
I began my professional performance career out of high school as a Stripper in CT & VA, and then after college in 2006, I toured with modern dance companies Clark Dance Theatre and Soma Dance Company. I was a founding member of the Beat City Beauties Burlesque Troupe, and the Director of circus troupe, Cirque To Go in the 2010’s.
I have a degree in Dance, with a background in ballet, modern, tap, and jazz styles. I have also trained for aerial arts on trapeze, lyra, and of course the pole where you can find me exploring my love of low flow, floor work, and sensual styles.
I am certified to teach pole and flexibility from the elevatED training at Body & Pole in NYC, and take every opportunity to continue my education in this ever-evolving sport. As an athlete with hyper mobility, I am a patient coach and understand that while every body is different, we all can find a place on the pole.
My business partner Maryna and I founded Pole in the Wall in Springfield, MA in 2018, and then I became sole owner in 2021 after Maryna left our partnership to grow her family. Maryna is still part of our team as an instructor, and we currently have 12 wonderful coaches on our team.
Since 2018, Pole in the Wall’s mission has been to deliver quality pole dance and fitness instruction to all humans while maintaining a safe space for learning and personal growth through pole. We offer a variety of different pole, dance, fitness, and flexibility classes in studio, online, and on demand for all humans aged 18+, taught by experienced, certified instructors for every skill level and style.
Whether you are coming for fun, art, sport, or profession, you will find classes and programs at Pole in the Wall to meet your pole goals. Our students and staff participate in pole competitions, performances, and workshops throughout the year, and our studio offers many opportunities for students to increase their knowledge from pole student to instructor and amateur to pro.
One thing that sets Pole in the Wall apart in our community is the individual attention we are able to give to our students. We have small class sizes, with just 4 poles in our Main Studio, and 3 poles in our new Down the Hall Studio that just opened in February, 2023. Our pole classes are capped at 7 students, so if the class is full you will only be sharing a pole with one other person. Small class sizes allow our instructors to create programming built for the students that come to class, and our students appreciate that. We are also excited that our new Down the Hall studio has more room for non-pole classes so our students can get training in other dance and fitness styles to become more well-rounded.
Pole in the Wall is also unique to offer the option to attend our classes online, and many of our online classes do not require you to have a pole at home. All online students receive a recording of the class for one week so you can revisit the lesson again in your own time. Many of our students attend both in-studio and online classes during the week, and it’s a great way for students to get the class and community experience without making the drive.
We’ve had students attending online classes with us from Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Long Island, Maine, New York, Illinois, West Virginia, Georgia, Louisiana, Arizona, and Puerto Rico! It’s fun meeting polers from different areas, and we learn as much from our students as they learn from us.
In addition to classes, Pole in the Wall offers workshops from different coaches every Sunday, quarterly Photoshoot opportunities, annual Showcases, monthly DJ Dance Parties that provide performance experience for pole dancers, and our new Art & Movement Jams that encourage polers and non-polers to come together and create themed movement art together for social media. Last month’s Art & Movement Jam was Rose Petals themed, and the gorgeous art that was created can be seen on our Instagram at @thepoleinthewall.
You can also schedule a Pole Party or a Chair Dance Party (or Pole/Chair Combo Party!) in our studio with our amazing instructors, or we can bring the party to you with our Mobile Stage Pole! We have so much fun sharing our love of pole with parties full of office mates, families, and in celebration of milestone events like bachelorette and birthday parties with your friends.
We are also super excited for our first Amateur Burlesque Show, scheduled to premiere in our Down the Hall Studio (which transforms nicely into a performance space) in April, 2023. Burlesque Coach and Performer Alexa LaFever, who has been teaching Burlesque Workshops at the studio for over 2 years, inspired our students to take their skills to the next level. With the help of several coaches, our students have been working hard to create different burlesque acts — and even a group number, and many will be performing in front of a live audience for the first time. We are so excited to be able to provide these fun opportunities for our students, and for many, participation in this show has been a dream come true!
Both of our studios can be rented by the hour for solo use, group rehearsals, and our Down the Hall Studio can be rented for small performance events. During your rental, you’ll get full use of the space and all the amenities with scenic view and natural sunlight out the window facing the Mill River. We have yoga mats, blocks, portable ballet barre, stretch bands, mirrors, stereo, and internet.
The last unique thing Pole in the Wall gives to the pole community is our podcast! In 2022, PITW Instructor Cris Rivers and I started Pole on the Call, a podcast for pole dancers. We release new episodes every Thursday, available to listen to on your favorite podcast streaming service, or you can watch the episodes on our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@poleonthecall
Pole on the Call has over 50+ episodes about pole dance topics like competitions, pole grip aids, what to expect from your first pole class, and more. Cris & I have also interviewed pole coaches and pole entrepreneurs who were willing to share their stories on our podcast, and this year started featuring pole studios to try and connect studio owners to help others trying to get started in the industry.
Has your business ever had a near-death moment? Would you mind sharing the story?
Yes, as a new small business owner, it was a struggle getting through COVID. My then business partner, Maryna and I had opened Pole in the Wall two years before COVID. We were celebrating the instructors with a raise because our studio was growing, and then we had to shut down. Maryna and I got so nervous as we watched all the hard work and savings we put into the studio quickly deplete.
Like many studios, we took the online route to try and salvage our community. We held free online classes in flexibility, no pole conditioning and had online zoom “Pajama Calls” with students to keep up morale as the pandemic wore on. Once we got better at zoom, we started offering low-cost virtual classes like “Heels & Coffee” which was a fun heels-based choreography class you can attend in your kitchen, and “Pull Up Bar Dances” which used your home pull up bar as a prop to dance with. One virtual event we held was called “Electric Wave,” a 90min active flexibility class set to live music by my Partner, Nate (also known as DJ Originate) behind the decks.
While these online options gave us an alternative to in-studio classes, none of us were making enough money to survive, let alone maintain our physical studio space. We were very fortunate that our landlord Walter Kroll of Icarian Real Estate worked with us through the pandemic and our closings, allowing us to pay just a portion of our rent every month until we were able to get back on our feet again when the studio re-opened.
I was so thankful our studio survived the pandemic closings, as many studios were not able to make it. It was many months of bargaining with creditors and jumping through hoops to receive government aid. If there was a silver lining to that experience, I would say we learned how to find creative solutions, maintain our community, and gained new skills that shaped Pole in the Wall into the studio it is today. It was definitely a tough experience to have as a brand new business owner.
Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.
Yes! Instructor Cris Rivers has been such an inspiration for new and cool ideas for our students and our pole community. He came up with the idea for our very first pole product, that we created for Pole on the Call, our Interactive Pole Trick Posters!
Our students expressed the need for an easy way to learn and remember pole tricks that we teach them in class, so we thought a poster would be a great solution. Cris and I came up with a list of tricks for each level that we thought were important for students to learn, and planned to get together and create content for the posters.
We recorded each other demonstrating the tricks to create video tutorials, and then took photos of each other in the tricks for the posters. There are 2 posters so far in our series (more coming soon!) for Beginner or Intermediate Pole Tricks. Each poster features 16 pole tricks, alternate names they may be called, an image of each trick, and a QR code leading to the tutorial for each trick, making it interactive.
Cris and I both have a background in graphic and web design so we teamed up to create the posters and then added them to our website at poleonthecall.com/shop. We contacted local printers to get quotes for the posters, and specified the size and paper style we thought worked best.
After the posters, we used the content to create our biggest seller, our Pole Trick Flashcards! Our pole trick flashcard deck contains 32 cards depicting the same beginner and intermediate tricks featured on our posters. Each card is playing card sized, and featured a pole trick image, known names for the trick, and a QR code leading to the trick tutorial, The flash cards are great because students use them to create choreography by mixing the cards and arranging them in different order. The cards are also a great tool for teachers and can be used to make fun lesson plans and combos.
The last product we created was our Pole Journey Activity Book. Many of our students requested a guide that would take them from Intro to Pole through Level 2, with fun information, training tips, and suggested tips for each level. So that is exactly what the Activity Book is! This was the most complicated product we created, and it was a bit of a learning curve to present the print booklet to the printer as an example, but they worked with us and now we have an amazing book our students have used to enhance their pole journey — featuring their own teachers!
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.
poleinthewall.com/ - Instagram: https://www.
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facebook.com/thepoleinthewall - Youtube: https://www.youtube.
com/@thepoleinthewall - Other: https://www.
poleonthecall.com/ and https:/ /patreon.com/poleinthewall