The smooth grace of dance combined with the dexterity and flexibility of gymnastics and the strength and confidence required by acrobatics are all elements in Tiffany (Tiff) Huebner’s new fitness center in Jasper, Tiffs Pole Fitness.
With work just finishing up, the newly opened gym’s brightly lit training room still smells of new paint and fresh wood flooring. It features a dozen steel poles stretching about 12 feet from floor to ceiling reflecting in the mirrors along the walls. Special lighted panels will flash to the beat of whatever music Tiff and her three instructors choose to use during workouts.
Workouts that take place on the poles spaced around the room. Tiffs Pole Fitness studio incorporates them into movements that require total body commitment in fun and empowering workouts.
Tiff has been practicing pole dancing and fitness since she was introduced to the sport when she was 18 years old. A friend had a pole in their home and she decided to give it a try.
“It was a hoot,” she laughed.
She continued learning on her own until she connected with a group teaching pole dance in Indianapolis.
“I found that there was a whole pole community at these studios — people with this shared interest,” she explained.
She saw women sharing in the fun while they learned how to dance. She began to get instruction on her art.
When she moved to Evansville, Tiff connected with a studio there, Anti-Gravity, and was asked to become an instructor after they saw her level of performance.
As she instructed, she saw students empowered by the community they were taking part in as well as the grace and strength they were developing as they learned the art of pole dancing. She also saw students that just wanted a really hard workout.
“Pole is the best hardcore workout I know that is really fun,” Tiff explained. “You have no idea that it is a workout.”
She compared a 15-minute pole workout to a full week of standard gym visits. And the workouts look tough. Beginners can expect to learn foundational aspects of connecting to the pole in safe ways as well as beginning to understand how to move their bodies. Maintaining points of contact to ensure safety as they learn how to leverage a knee hook to point one leg while holding on with their hands and then incorporating spinning.
Imagine all the muscles at work in that simple movement and you get the idea of how things begin to intensify as students move up in levels.
“When you get into more advanced levels, like level four and five, you are talking about fewer points of contact,” Tiff explained. “Like doing something upside down and holding yourself with one hand.”
Since beginning to instruct, Tiff has enjoyed watching her students’ attitudes change. “People come in with curiosity and usually with the attitude there is no way they can do these moves,” she explained. “And change as they learn there is a science behind the training and through simple instructions, they can learn how to do it.”
It is much easier than Tiff’s ten years attempting to learn on her own after discovering joy in pole dance and fitness as a teenager. She admits that in learning on her own she left out steps and techniques that would have allowed her to advance more quickly to some harder moves and skills.
“It is neat seeing beginners learn that they can do something that looks so impossible,” she said.
Tiff calls that moment when a student realizes how powerful they can be as “taking flight”.
“You can see that spark of joy as they made this thing happen,” she said. “Like when a kid swings on a swing for the first time. They worked really hard for a few minutes and then they get it and they get excited by the way it made them feel.”
Pole dance has been accepted as an international sport since 2012. Competitions occur across the United States and the American Pole League has formed. “In countries like China and Russia, they are teaching children pole from the time they can walk,” Tiff said.
Tiff has wanted to bring her own studio to life for a few years now. Opening one in Jasper is a big step but she has found herself in a comfortable place to bring her passion to the community. She has also found a lot of support from folks that have watched her videos on Facebook and Instagram. “I’ve had strangers reach out and ask if I could show them how to do this,” Tiff said. “It is really like the community found me and asked me to bring this service.”
She has many options available for classes and a calendar on the studio’s Facebook page outlines the schedule. She has pole fitness classes as well as exotic dance classes for adults. There is even a worship class being offered on Sundays with one of the instructors. Besides fitness classes, Tiff offers parties and other options for groups to take part in and have a good time trying something new.
In her opinion, there is no limit to who can take classes — she has classes available for children and has even had students in their 60s.
“There is a whole creativity to this,” she said. “I think people really like to see their growth as they learn new things and express themselves through the art.”
She compares it to learning to read and write. “As they learn more and get more involved, they can write poetry,” Tiff said. “Pole dancing feels that way. You start to learn all these things. You learn how to put them together and it feels like poetry and movement. It is a really great form of self-expression for people.”
She is looking forward to building a community in this community around this shared and empowering passion.
The studio is located at 25 S. Clay Street in Jasper — there are signs pointing to her studio.
Tiff and her husband, Max, live in Jasper and have a daughter, Nova.
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