Dirty(ish) dancing
Durango Pole Dance offers safe space for fitness, fun and being yourself

by Missy Votel

Forget everything you’ve ever known – or thought you’ve known – about pole dancing: the seedy nightclub, the tawdry music, Tony Soprano and anything else fed to you by Hollywood.

Pole dancing 2.0 has entered the fitness and dance mainstream – there is even an annual “PoleCon” for pole dancing aficionados – and it has now come to Durango. (Technically we should say “returned to Durango.” There was a pole dancing studio here, Eden Pole Dancing, owned by Eve Pressler, in the early 2000s.)

Durango Pole Dance, which opened in mid-January at 3600 Main Ave., is owned by Maddalena Tumminaro and Desiree Trujillo. Tumminaro has pole danced for about five years, and Trujillo, who lives in Dolores, has taught classes in the area for years with her portable poles (yes, there is such a thing.) Prior to opening the studio, Tumminaro said she would dance at home or invite fellow pole dancers over for a pole-dancing party. But the time finally came to make the leap to an official studio.

“I think Durango’s ready now,” said Tumminaro, who worked as a chef for 27 years before starting DPD. “We just decided we didn’t want to cart poles around anymore and that Durango needed a dedicated pole space. It’s kind of gutsy, but I think it’s what we needed to really build the pole community.”

Along with a handful of pole instructors – many of whom have dance backgrounds and/or are members of the local acrobatic troupe San Juan Circus (including one man) – Tumminaro and Trujillo are seeking to provide a safe space for, as Tumminaro puts it, “dancing around in your underwear.”

Of course, she is being cheeky (no pun intended), as modern pole dancing is more than that. Much more. It’s a space to be vulnerable, take risks, reach goals and, if you so wish, let that freak flag fly. And as for the underwear part, Tumminaro said it is not done so much out of the need to be sexy – although that is perfectly fine – but that bare skin just sticks better to the slippery poles for doing tricks.

“You are dancing around in not a lot of clothes and already in a pretty vulnerable space,” she said. “It’s a chance to connect with parts of yourself that you don’t get to connect with. You can play around with being sensual in front of other people in a safe space.”

Tumminaro, who moved to Durango 12 years ago but is originally from the Bay Area, said she turned to pole dancing during a tough time in her life. Although a self-confessed fitness buff and outdoors enthusiast (“I do all the things”), she did not have a dance background. However, after experiencing the challenge of her first pole class, she was hooked.

“I’d been through some hard times and started using dance as medicine, and that’s when I found pole dancing,” she said. “Pole dancing is a really wonderful motivational force in my life. It’s a source of a lot of emotional healing but strength, too.”

When she says “strength,” she is referring to not only mental strength but physical strength. See, most of those tricks, like inversions, high swings, and (gracefully) scaling the 14-foot pole, requires the strength of an acrobatics goddess.

“It is the hardest sport ever,” said Tumminaro. “You are really using your whole body. It’s a workout for sure.”

But don’t worry if you’re not Simone Biles. According to Tumminaro, with pole dancing, “everyone sucks in the beginning,” unlike, say, pickleball (just kidding! Don’t come after me with your paddles).

“Nobody’s good at it at first,” she said. “But for some reason, a lot of beginning pole dancers – just like I was – are like ‘I want that. I want to climb to the top of that pole,’ or whatever their goal is.”

Which is where the empowerment comes in. “It’s such a wonderful feeling when you say, ‘How do I do that?’ And you train and train and train and it becomes effortless, or almost effortless,” she said. “It’s empowering.”

And pole dancing is not just for the young, sporty types, she said. “I am the demographic of most pole dancers,” she said, “in my 40s, a mom and definitely wanting to get strength back.”

In fact, she said it’s especially great for women in their “menopausal years,” since it incorporates body weight work and short bursts of power. “It fuels me to be able to do cool sh*t with my body in my 40s,” she said. “Sometimes I want to feel sexy, but sometimes I just want to feel the music, feel my strength.”

And although pole dancers are predominantly women, she said Durango Pole Dance welcomes all body types, shapes, ages and genders. “Whether you want to take it to fitness heights or play around low on the pole and be sensual, there’s something for everyone,” she said.

There are even some stilettos for those who want an even uh, taller, challenge, although Tumminaro said she prefers to dance barefoot. “They are fun, and I do feel dope and sexy when I’m wearing them, but I dance way better without them,” she confessed. 

In keeping with the community spirit, in addition to daily classes for all levels and occasions, Durango Pole Dance also offers personal cubbies for members, a fridge stocked with coconut water, tea and a min thrift store of pole dancing wear. There is even a sitting area with velvet couches, a bowl of mandarin oranges and, of course, chocolates.

Tumminaro and Trujillo really want the space to reflect the uniqueness of the local pole dance community – and, hopefully, watch that community grow.

“We feel really good about it, the people that are coming to the classes,” said Tumminaro.

And down the road, the studio has plans to bring in instructors from Seattle and Portland to help the instructors hone their skills even more.

“We are really bringing in a lot of talent to train the teachers,” she said.

But most of all, it’s about having fun.

“It’s a space to come together,” Tumminaro said. “It’s way funner to dance together. It really amplifies the whole experience. This fitness community is the funnest; dancing around in your underwear with people being silly.”