This week, our blog entry is all about Allison! She is one of our intrepid instructors here at Lotus Fitness Studio, and teaches lyra and pole classes. Allison has been involved in pole and aerial for over thirteen years, and has been a dancer and gymnast for over twenty years. You can check out her bio here (https://lotusfitnessstudio.com/allison-sipes/), but we wanted to take a moment to let you get to know Allison even better.

First thing you need to know about Allie is that she is pretty much the cornerstone of the pole community in the Orlando area. As a consultant for studios, she has helped pretty much every pole studio in Orlando find its feet. In fact, she has even created an online consulting business (PoleAndAerialStudioOwner.com), which holds a yearly Studio Owners’ Symposium. This year, it will be at Pole Expo in September. She is the founder of Florida Pole Fitness Championship, Florida Pole and Aerial Arts Showcase, and OnlinePoleLessons.com. She also started her own line of pole cleaning products, Floxy Kleen! (Quick side note: I’m addicted and if you haven’t tried it, I highly recommend checking it out. My favorite is the candy cane. The scent helps keep my energy up and my mind clear while I’m working on new routines.) She has created a system for pole instructor certification (I’m sure we all know Aerius Fitness Training), which is accredited by A.C.E and A.F.A.A. She also helps coordinate for countless events, such as our studio’s recent appearance at Nude Nite Orlando. Wherever you look in the aerial world, Allie is probably around somewhere.

Wherever you find Allison, you will frequently find her husband, Smithy! He is a fixture at FPFC every year, providing professional videos for all the competitors. And they are damn good videos, too! Smithy is a film and television director by trade, and travels the world to film everything from car commercials to tourism promotions. Usually he’s the man in charge in his work life, but he will pick up the camera himself for Allison’s events. They are a true power couple, and amazingly fun to hang out with. Smithy embraces Allison’s career in aerial completely, and even helps with her choreography from time to time. And Allie says he can be quite picky, too!

Allison is Vice President of US Pole Sports Federation. I chatted with her this week, and this item on her list of accomplishments really stuck out in my mind. As many of you may know, USPSF is one of the main driving forces behind pushing for pole to become an Olympic event. Within the aerial community, there is a ton of controversy as to whether this is a good move. Some people feel that it may take the artistry and sensuality out of pole and make it more like gymnastics. However, Allison also teaches sexy pole classes and organizes Dance Filthy USA every year. So I asked her: as a proponent of exotic style, do you worry that joining the Olympics would change the sport?

“Look at swimming,” she responded. “There’s racing, synchronized swimming, water polo, diving, and a million other ways that people enjoy sport in the water. Just because some people use an apparatus one way does not mean that others cannot use the apparatus in a different way.” Part of what Allie loves most about pole and aerial is the diversity of movement it offers. “It can be literally anything you want it to be,” she says. For her, it’s all about making aerial more accessible to more people, and whatever platform she can use to achieve that goal is fine! She did agree that the X Games may be a great match for pole in the nearer future than the Olympics, since they embrace the edgy and artistic sides of sport.

One thing kept coming up as we talked about the different faces of aerial: empowerment. For Allison, aerial stands apart from any other form dance or gymnastics because it empowers people in a completely different way. “It’s more athletic than other kinds of dance,” she says, “because it requires strength and flexibility and coordination and artistry.” Because of this, when her students break through a barrier in their training (that first climb to the ceiling, that first inversion, getting a new trick), the affect is profound. The thing she loves most about teaching aerial is watching her students transform mentally, physically, and watching them grow to own their bodies. She says that teaching adults is rewarding in a different way than teaching kids, too; with kids, it’s building a foundation and an introduction to an apparatus, but for adults, it’s almost like bringing them to their true self.

When I asked her what made aerial different than dance for her as a performer, she laughed and said, “Well, the upside down aspect!” Allie loves that aerial has an association with circus. In some way, it makes every new accomplishment that much cooler because it feels like a super power.

Her favorite thing about Lotus is the community we have built. She says we have an amazing group of people at our studio, from the instructors and staff to the members and students, and especially studio owner Cari, who is a long-time friend. She loves the environment of support and excitement the students share with each other in every class. We are so excited to meet Allison’s baby girl, arriving in April! (Also check out her amazing posts on Instagram and facebook, showing her doing insane aerial moves throughout her pregnancy, and read all about it in this previous post: https://lotusfitnessstudio.com/flying-while-pregnant-can-it-be-done/) Allison will see you in the air!