For the second edition of our niche sports rubric, the Karlovian was delighted to meet Anna Nikulina, an internationally renowned and awarded pole dancer. During a short break in her busy schedule, Anna was kind enough to answer our questions. We were thrilled and touched to meet a delightful, artistic soul who takes immense pleasure in expressing her sincerest emotions through a physically painful and often misunderstood sport. By performing instead of competing, as she puts it, Anna has achieved greatness and international acclaim, despite confessing to being second-best technically compared to the biggest stars of the sport. 

A real chatterbox, Anna’s words are equally touching, informative, and funny. For this reason, we will deviate from the usual form of this rubric, and skip the comprehensive description of the featured sport’s many facets. Anyone interested in learning more about pole dance can find all the necessary info online, or visit one of Prague’s many schools, including Anna’s very own Firefly Studio. We’ll briefly introduce her, and then we’ll let Anna do the talking.

Anna Nikulina was born and raised in Kazakhstan, although her family hails from Russia. She moved to Prague in 2007, and today practices pole dancing full time. By combining competition, promotional events for the sport, and regular gigs at various establishments, Anna performs almost every day. In addition to this, she teaches dancers of all levels at Firefly Studio. This way, Anna is able to make a living out of her biggest passion.

Anna has won numerous local, Czech tournaments and awards. The list is too exhaustive to mention here. In recent years, her excellence started being recognized internationally, and she won numerous prestigious European awards. Her most notable achievements include winning several Pole Theatre events in Greece and Hungary, and being a finalist in the Pole Theatre World championship. Anna Nikulina is a rising star, and she is firmly established as one of the continent’s best pole dancers.

Finally, an achievement Anna is particularly proud of is literally inventing the Black Sun Split, a trick so hard to perform that just managing to do it is most dancers’ biggest success. You can check it out here. And now, on to Anna.

How did you get into pole dancing in the first place?

I started pole dancing many years ago, in 2011 I went to my first class. From there, it was an absolute obsession with the sport. I took the class because I had seen a video on YouTube with an amazing dancer who was a winner in Australia, Felix Cane is her name. It was an amazing performance and I fell in love with it. I watched it many, many times. I started looking for other amazing dancers and I told myself “That’s what I was looking for”. 

For many years, I was looking for modern gymnastics for adults, because I did it when I was young. I was very good in this sport, but I just didn’t work out. I stopped, which was a mistake. Many years after, I was watching competitions and Olympiads on TV, and I always cried. If you put modern gymnastics on TV right now, I am sure that I will cry. I thought there was no way back, until I met pole dance. So, pole dance was my way back into gymnastics, because it’s art like modern gymnastics, it’s sport, I can use my flexibility, just perfect. 

I came to my first class with a teacher who had just one pole for four girls, can you imagine now, our studio has eight poles. It’s very big right now. But we were four for one pole, and we were enjoying it like crazy, I think even more than what people enjoy it now. I fell in love with pole dance and started doing it three times per week. All my friends were telling me that I’m crazy, that I quit my work for some striptease.  

What do you love most about pole dancing?

I would like to talk both about performing and competing, because you can do pole dance as a hobby, just go to a studio, do the exercises and go home, and it’s amazing. But let me tell you about performing. What I like most about pole dancing is that it’s freedom, it gives you freedom on stage. 

Pole dancing has three types; pole sport, not so much freedom; pole art, absolute freedom; and pole exotic, high heels freedom. When you go to compete or perform, you can put part of your soul into the performance. You can do it with music you like, you can do what you wish on the stage, you can tell a story, you can do a show with many people, you can show what you feel right now, or you can show other people’s feelings. It’s just art, like dancing. And it’s a sport for sure, because it’s quite hard, the exercises and the tricks. So this freedom and artistic part of pole dance are fascinating, that’s why many people come to pole dance and love it so, so much. 

If we speak about pole dancing as just a hobby, it’s amazing too. I know a lot of girls who come to classes and, you know, they lose depression! Okay, they don’t lose it, but it helps a lot. When you come into a community where there is a lot of naked women, or the women just have shorts and t-shirts, you start to accept your body. You start to feel your body differently, you know. With time, your body starts to look better. It’s nice. 

For example, what is amazing about pole dance is that it’s very, very painful. Its’ so painful that many beginner girls tell me they can’t do it, that they’ll stop because it’s painful. Okay, so it’s not for you. But many girls feel this pain, do some amazing tricks, do photos and, afterwards, they are so satisfied. It’s an absolutely different state of mind before class and after. Even I feel it. I can be in a very bad mood, but after a class it’s absolutely different. When you feel this pain, when you do such hard stuff, you love yourself after, because you did something amazing.

Please describe how you train. How did you become so good?

It’s maybe better that you don’t know how I train, because it’s not the best part of my story. Right now, I’m not training much, due to time management and things I have to do. I train only for competitions, but I need to train more. When I was starting pole dance, I trained a lot, for sure. Even without good training for myself, I won my last competition last summer, because I train with my girls. When I describe to them some moves, I start to understand how to do it well, because I’ve been doing it for a long time and as a full-time job all these years. 

I know girls who do a lot of practice per week, and they are amazing. Actually, I think it works everywhere, that you need to repeat, repeat and repeat, and you will understand how to do it with flow, and how to do it better. I became quite good because I was teaching a lot for many years, I just know how to do stuff, but I need to train more myself.

What would you say is your strongest attribute? What sets you apart from competitors?

Maybe because I don’t think about them as competition. When I go to a tournament, I never compete. I know that many people will tell me that I’m wrong, that I should think that I will win. But that’s not my way. I always go to competitions quite depressed, because I always feel that I didn’t practice enough for this. My way is going to competitions to perform, to show myself, because I respect other competitors, and for me it’s quite hard to say that I will win. I can’t, I just can’t think like that, because I wonder how can I win with such amazing people around me. I’m just happy to be part of this. 

I was competing with great stars, and it was always amazing just to be one of these people, it was super cool. I understand that there are not many people who think like this, and maybe I’m wrong, but it works for me. When I go for competition, I put my ego a little bit down. Maybe even a bit too much down, but I don’t think about my ego, about how I’m good or something. I spend all my energy to dance well. It helps me, because when I compete with superstars, I compete with people who inspire me. If I went there to win, I think I’d fail, put too much into my moves and make some mistakes. No, I think like “These people are superstars, and who am I? I’m nothing, I don’t have a chance to win so I will just dance my best, just enjoy the stage”, and I enjoy the stage maybe sometimes too much when I see my videos a-ha-ha. 

I put an artistic part into my performance, because I just don’t want to win, don’t want to be the best. My category, Stars, is at the very end, we start with amateurs, then semi-professional, then professional, and finally Stars. At the end of the whole competition, I hear my name. Oh my God, it’s the best feeling on this planet! You know why? Because I didn’t try to win. If I speak about art, that’s because I perform, I try to show myself. I don’t try to achieve some ideas of other people, to find inspiration in somebody and do the same, I always do my story. Maybe it’s a strange story, maybe nobody understands, or maybe everybody will find themselves in this story. 

What would you say is your greatest achievement?

You can imagine the answer from the previous question. The biggest, for me, is to be with these absolute stars who inspire me. To be on stage with them, and be the first. That’s amazing! If I were to say for concrete things, I was at the Pole Sport World Championship, at the Pole Theatre World Championship I was finalist of an amazing competition with amazing people. I won some international competitions, so for me that’s the best. International competition with superstars, and you are the first! And you step on the podium, what the fuck!? A-ha-ha. How is this possible? They are better than me, you know, they dance better, but my performance won just because I put my soul into it. I did it my way. No expectations, no ego, and you are the first! But, you know, it doesn’t work for many people, it’s just my way really.

What message would you like to send to young people taking up pole dance?

Everything that I said so far. Put into your pole dancing freedom, your soul, your art and be yourself on the stage. I judged competitions many times, and it’s a big difference when you believe in what he or she danced, and when you don’t believe. That’s what I want to tell young people who start doing pole dance, who want to compete, to perform. You need to trust your performance, no matter what you do. People will then feel it too.

For people who do pole dance as a hobby, and don’t have competing or performing ambitions, I want to tell them to just keep trying, keep doing this. It will be painful always. Many beginners ask me if it will be less painful after some months or years. Yes, it will hurt less, but then you’ll feel much more pain in new parts of your body. Much more painful tricks exist, trust me a-ha-ha. Maybe I should tell them that it will not hurt, so that they continue.

Young people who start doing pole dance need to find the best trainers. It’s very, very, very much needed. They should try a lot of different trainers, and find the best and it will help them a lot.

Pole dance can be performed in pairs as well

It’s only been half an hour of listening to her, but we feel like we’ve known Anna forever. And to get to know her even better, we just couldn’t resist asking her some random questions!

What is your favourite movie?

Vanilla Sky and Brazil, I can’t pick one.

If you could eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Tomatoes!

What was your first job?

I did household chores to earn mom’s pocket money.

Cats or dogs?

Cats. I have two at home.

Do you have a phobia? If so, what is it?

Height and war.