Episode 1: The First Step with Fawnia Mondey

In our series premiere, we sit down with the legendary Fawnia Mondey, the woman who opened the world’s first-ever pole dancing studio. We take it all the way back to the beginning—from her 8-year-old obsession with 1983 Madonna and her detour from police academy applications to her first night in a Vancouver strip club with absolutely no blueprint for what she was doing.

Fawnia shares the raw, unfiltered story of how she pioneered an industry before there were schools or instructional videos, the reality of studying the craft by watching 24 dancers in 24 hours, and what it’s like to see that early spark evolve into a global sport that empowers thousands. From her first amateur night to her current role as a world-renowned studio owner, this is a masterclass in turning a misunderstood passion into a legacy.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:08

Welcome to Between Two Poles, where we get to meet the faces of Pole Fitness Studio and Beyond. Today we have with us Vanya Mondi, owner of Pole Fitness Studio. Welcome, Vanya.

SPEAKER_01 0:21

Ah, thank you, Jenny. Happy to be here.

SPEAKER_00 0:23

So good to see you, as always. Yay. So Vanya, uh, let's just start with some background on you. Where are you from? And um how did Dance find you, or how did you find dance?

SPEAKER_01 0:37

Oh, yes, I'm from Canada, Victoria, British Columbia. And I found dance because when I was eight years old, I discovered Madonna 1983, and I just became obsessed, and I just had to know everything about her, and I would get her music and I would dance like her and might even still dress like her. And I was just, oh yeah, I got the high pony. My nipples are not cones at the moment, but I was very much obsessed and everything that she did. I was like a huge inspiration. Um, and then later on I took some theater classes and I guess the rest is history. When I turned 19, I ended up in a strip club and asked the waitress, you know, hey, how do I how do I find the stripper school? Where do I learn to walk, to dance, where do I get the costumes? And she's like, girl, you just get up there and do it. And I started like shhitting my pants. What do you mean you just get up there and do it? And she starts laughing. You just get up there. And I'm like, There's no school. She's like, There's no school, silly. And so I I kind of left feeling like, I need to do an amateur contest. Oh my God. And I need to just start teaching somebody, but I don't know what I'm doing. But I have there's there's a void here, there's a market.

SPEAKER_00 1:52

Yes, yes, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:53

Yeah. So yeah, I did my amateur night and um so you went right into amateur night, like not knowing anything really about I knew nothing. So and I had been in a strip club once.

SPEAKER_00 2:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

So I had 24 hours to prepare, and I remember um it was, I don't guess Saturday night, my birthday, and then in the following weekend I went to uh Vancouver from Victoria, and I had one day to prepare, and I remember just sitting in the strip club all day. Yeah, all day, all night, and I would take notes. Oh, geez. And I know funny education. I think I watched uh 24 strippers in 24 hours.

SPEAKER_00 2:29

Okay. You were you were very intent on learning this crap.

SPEAKER_01 2:33

I was right out of high school. I just graduated, so this was fresh in my mind. If you want to do something, you study, you get prepared for the test. I mean, it makes perfect sense.

SPEAKER_00 2:40

Why can't it translate to stripping as well, right?

SPEAKER_01 2:43

It did, it really did. And so I went and I did this amateur night, but it's not a typical amateur night, in my opinion, because it was one where the agents would go and they would see the new talent, and then you get picked up by the agent, and then you give them 12.5% of your income and they shop you around. So they book you. It's so different now. I don't even think this is the thing anymore, but I'll have to ask Vanilla Lace.

SPEAKER_00 3:07

That is that is a crazy world.

SPEAKER_01 3:09

Yeah, the Vanilla dynamite, yeah. All these superstars. I need to check in with them because from what I'm hearing, it's not at all the same.

SPEAKER_00 3:16

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_01 3:16

So yeah, I got picked up and the agent, funny enough, he said, you know, she's a little heavy, she's a little chubby, but she'll lean out. And I was like, Oh, what? He said I was overweight. The agent said I had to maybe lose a little weight. I'm a little overweight. And I'm like, that can't be. And I just noticed, okay, I don't have these lines in their hamstrings. What is that all about? I just have a bunch of like dimples and squishy. So yeah, I did end up losing some weight. I wasn't overweight, I was average, about 145 pounds for five. Which is like completely normal.

SPEAKER_00 3:50

Yeah, completely normal.

SPEAKER_01 3:51

Pretty typical, yeah. Body weight for that height and weight at that time. But anyway, so here I are. So dance found me, and I'm really grateful that I actually didn't become a police officer because that was my original goal right out of high school.

SPEAKER_00 4:06

I'm trying to picture this, and I can't.

SPEAKER_01 4:09

Oh man, come on, me in a uniform.

SPEAKER_00 4:12

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 4:12

Yeah, okay. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:14

You'd be a hot police officer for sure.

SPEAKER_01 4:18

Yeah, I went to, I just followed the rules, right? I said, okay, I want to be a police officer. You go to the reserve building and you get an application form and you fill it out. And I asked for the application forms are like, I'm sorry, we don't have any, we ran out. Okay, this is back when something called paper existed. And I'm really grateful they didn't have any application forms left because divine intervention kicked in.

SPEAKER_00 4:41

You were meant to be a poll instructor and to start the studio.

SPEAKER_01 4:45

Yes, I'm so grateful. And I come from a line of teachers. My grandmother became a teacher from the age of 16. She started teaching a one-room classroom with all ages and grades in one room in Saskatchewan.

SPEAKER_00 5:00

So, so Fania, um, I know that at the entryway of your studio, you know, you have that wonderful sign that says studio, home of the the world's first pole dance instructor. So how do you know that you're the world's first pole dance instructor?

SPEAKER_01 5:18

Oh, yeah, that's an interesting question. So I've been c uh coined this. I didn't choose it. Um people would just say, Oh my gosh, you're the first. Because I created a DVD in 1998 called Pole Work. Nice and or a VHS tape, I have to be clear. And I thought, oh wow, I'm the first. That's that's crazy. Okay. I mean, I did do a little research and I couldn't find anyone on the internet that was making a video. Yeah. And so to verify that I was the first, I did a search after the fact of releasing it, and I found another company called Um, their video was called Exotic Dancing for the Everyday Woman. And I bought the D the VHS tape, and I looked at the date of it, and it was produced in December of ninety-eight, and I was June or July of '98. But they didn't have any polls, it was just very much like central movement and floor work. Right. So yeah, even if they had come in even at the same month as me, I'm the first to make the DVD or the VHS tape of pole dancing. So that's how I think I know. But you know, I've actually met some people over the years, just in conversation here. You know, you meet new friends and I tell them what I do. And then there's one particular lady, she's um, she worked at Home Depot.

SPEAKER_00 6:30

Right.

SPEAKER_01 6:30

And I go, Oh yeah, cool. Um, and I think she might even have been working at the time that I met her. And she said, Oh, I used to teach way before 94. Like, well, you didn't get it on video.

SPEAKER_00 6:43

So, wow, that's like, I mean, well, that's such a wonderful title to have. I mean, I remember back when I first started poll, um, schools were still a rarity. I mean, you're definitely one of the first that I found here in Vegas. Um, but you know, the majority of pole dance was on YouTube. Like just like just watching, you know, people set up poles in their garage and like doing tricks, and you're just like imitating, you know, what you see on a video. Whereas, you know, I mean, having something like this was such a blessing where you know, you actually get hands-on instruction and you know, you get you get you know corrected for doing things that might be unsafe. For sure.

SPEAKER_01 7:25

And now they have a line of crash mats and grips and all the different aids that come with it. But YouTube didn't exist in 1994. 1998, there was no YouTube.

SPEAKER_00 7:35

When did YouTube stuff?

SPEAKER_01 7:37

I don't know. And because I've yeah, that I do not know, but um, if it was around, it wasn't very popular. Thank goodness, because I had a I had a shot.

SPEAKER_00 7:46

You cornered the market. I cornered the market. Yeah. So what was it like starting this business here in Las Vegas?

SPEAKER_01 7:53

Well, when I came here, I didn't know anybody, and I showed up with um just two suitcases and my computer and a one-way ticket. So I was definitely questioned in Seattle on my way down.

SPEAKER_00 8:05

Yeah. That's gutsy.

SPEAKER_01 8:06

Yeah, it was gutsy, and but I I was determined, even though I was definitely on hold for a couple hours at the airport. But um, I didn't look like a threat. And when I came down here, I thought, okay, I want to start teaching, but there isn't any places to go teach. So I thought, okay, I need to find a studio space, and I found a Pilates studio, and I rented out their room, put up and down my nine little Minx poles every day before and after class. Oh wow. Yeah, definitely had some help with Damon. And we we just made it work. So in the beginning, though, it was very challenging because I was the only instructor. So I, you know, four hours, six hours, eight hours of teaching a day definitely got very tiring. So I had to go around to the strip clubs, to wherever, just meeting people out and about, getting to know them. Do you teach? Can you teach? Do you want to teach? And oh geez. Finally.

SPEAKER_00 8:59

So how did how did you first like start structuring things for for your classes? Like how how how was that?

SPEAKER_01 9:05

Yeah. So in the very beginning, um, I had access to the room at specific hours in the Pilates studio. And I thought, okay, what's the most common time? When can people work out? So I created Monday night, 6 p.m. level one, and it was one class a week.

SPEAKER_00 9:19

Nice.

SPEAKER_01 9:20

Just like you know, when you think about how a baby's being born, like first they're the size of a blueberry. So I was a blueberry, and here we are. We are way more than a watermelon. We have five rooms, 45 instructors, and 120 classes a week.

SPEAKER_00 9:34

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 9:35

Yeah, it's nuts. But it just started with one class a week. And that's what I'd recommend for anyone that wants to open up their own business. Just start. Get your pen, get your paper, start writing it down and making things happen. Yeah. Um, don't wait for the perfect moment.

SPEAKER_00 9:49

Perfect moment.

SPEAKER_01 9:50

There's no such thing. In fact, that perfect moment isn't gonna happen unless you take these baby steps.

SPEAKER_00 9:54

Yeah, makes complete complete sense. I mean, I I like I I I've seen how much the studio has grown since I, you know, since I started here with you. And it's just, you know, it it it it's gone through so many changes, all positive. You know, the world of poll has changed so much. And um, it just it just keeps on getting better, in my opinion.

SPEAKER_01 10:13

Yeah, I have to agree. I know when you started, Jenny, we were downstairs studio. We had 10 polls, and then we put in an 11th poll for Felix Kane when she came from Australia. I remember when she came. I was like, and then you and I were trying to do uh we were trying to do something, um, I guess a shoulder mount flip, and we did it on the wrong side, and I hurt my ear and I was.

SPEAKER_00 10:34

Yes, yes. I remember that move because I never did it again. I was like, I just feel like I tore my ear off.

SPEAKER_01 10:39

Oh my god. I love that move though to this day. I need to do it more, and I know, yeah. I will I will get back to it. I'm kind of on like injury prevention mode. But yeah, the studio has gone through a lot and a lot of different walks of life and creatures have come through.

SPEAKER_00 10:54

Well, like what we were like talking about even before the interview started, you know. I mean, one thing that I appreciate about you is just how you know flexible you've been. I have to be flexible. With your business, yes. So I believe it is rapid fire time. Time, Fania. Bang bang. So spinning or static. Ooh, I love static. Whips or feathers.

SPEAKER_01 11:19

Uh whips. Didn't say who's holding it though. Oh, I give it to you.

SPEAKER_00 11:23

Trick question top or bottom. Oh, mmm, bottom. Bottom. Oh, okay. Rice or quinoa. I'll do a nice Canadian rice. Canadian rice. Yes. I'm curious. Tell me about Canadian rice. Coffee, coffee or tea? I'll do coffee. Oh. Bevikisha, please. Morning or night. Morning.

SPEAKER_01 11:50

Depending. But I'm trying.

SPEAKER_00 11:52

Oh, you're trying. Trying mornings? I have a child. It's morning. I know it all changes with a child. We're both parents.

SPEAKER_01 12:00

Yes. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 12:01

Rave or meditate?

SPEAKER_01 12:03

Oh, I do like to do both. I'm trying to retire from Rave. That's why I gave birth to a raven.

SPEAKER_00 12:10

Oh. That's how we got his name. Really? Yes. I love his name. Yeah. So so well suited. Thank you. Um, exhibitionist or voyeur? I think exhibitionist. You can watch. I could see I could see that in you. Okay. Well, we have more questions, don't we? Okay, so what happened after the TV interview aired um after the Super Bowl in 2006?

SPEAKER_01 12:37

Oh yes. Um, I believe it was channel 13, if I'm not mistaken. They came and did a big interview for channel 13. And it aired right after the Super Bowl. And I had some phone calls. Let me tell you, I went from two or three students to a waiting list. Right. I had to find instructors quick. That's when I found Amy Raven. Oh, wow. At the rhino. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:03

Um the best promotion for your for your studio ever. It was amazing.

SPEAKER_01 13:07

Yeah. When I first moved to Vegas, being the first pole dancing studio that opened here, uh, it was such a blessing to have everyone curious and interested and knocking on my door.

SPEAKER_00 13:16

How are you able to find students initially? I mean, how how were you, you know, promoting? How are you, how were you advertising?

SPEAKER_01 13:22

Oh man, you know, I really it was tough. It was tough in the beginning, and the payment structure as a student was so different as well. So um I would go out to the clubs a lot, the pools, restaurant openings. I know some of our Vegas magazines, um, one called Vegas, I remember when they opened, um, huge parties at Green Valley Ranch. I've seen the hotels open, and you just go and you hand out cards and you talk to people. Okay. That's really it. Just hitting the pavement. Right. Um, a few radio interviews, um, but more TV, actually, channel 3, 513, um, The Morning Blend, Fox, Fox Five News, and um, I can't remember the name of the Fox Morning Show. But just hitting the pavement, making phone calls. And I remember making how what do I want to charge? So this is how things have really adapted. The members of Pool Fitness Studio count your lucky stars because when we first opened, we were a four-week course. You come once a week for four weeks, say Mondays at six, level one, and it's$220. Oh my god.$55 a class. Wow. One hour class. Things have changed a lot. Thank goodness. Thank goodness, yeah. But when you, if you want to Google, say checkout rates for pole dancing studios in New York, I was gonna say those are like New York big city prices. Exactly. You're gonna pay over$200, and you're probably gonna get 30 or 40 classes a week access to. And then yeah. So we have it really good here.

SPEAKER_00 14:55

And I I I say I say this all the time. I'm just kind of like, you go anywhere else, you know, it is you're you're hard pressed to find. Yeah, it's like taking Pilates.

SPEAKER_01 15:03

It is, which is another, I'm gonna dive into that world soon. I'm I'm I'm excited to learn.

SPEAKER_00 15:08

Because you just got your nutrition um certification. I did. Oh, yeah. Nutrition certification.

SPEAKER_01 15:13

Yeah, it has no no connection to Pilates, but I want to do Pilates for my health and my spinal alignment. But I did just get my nutrition coaching degree.

SPEAKER_00 15:21

So before we close out, Fanya, tell us what are you what are you working on now? What's that?

SPEAKER_01 15:27

What am I working on? Um this is I'm so glad you asked this because the last couple interviews I forget. I am working on a nonprofit. It's called P-O-L-E poll, which means power over limits every day. And it's focused on people over 40 that just maybe they need a reminder that they are powerful, they're strong, and just because of the number doesn't dictate that they're not able to do something or they don't have to fit. They had they you don't, we're not the golden girls, you know. Yeah, we're not cutting our hair short. Exactly. Um, we're not gonna stop exercising. And we do love, we love a good podcast. Okay, we're gonna sit on the couch from time to time. Yeah, but we have to move the body. Yeah, I remember a famous um quote in my mind Um the TV is highly motivating. Whenever it turns on, I get up and I go. You know, and so just get up and move. Do it, do something for yourself every day because sitting around and watching, no offense, Netflix, but sitting around and watching that for hours a day is not that's not living your your life. So so important. Yeah, so we'll be encouraging people all ages to be active, and it's gonna be great even for children to come out or with their children, mothers, grandmothers, everyone just coming out and having a good time. I love that.

SPEAKER_00 16:48

What a great note to end on. Thank you, Fanya. Yeah, thank you, Jenny. Well, thank you for joining us at Between Two Poles. If you um enjoyed the content, please like, comment, or subscribe to this channel. We'd appreciate it. Um come out to visit. And share us.

SPEAKER_01 17:06

Share us with your friends.

SPEAKER_00 17:08

Yes.