ABOUT
Sonja SLOANE
Sonja Sloane is a feminist scholar and pole dancer with over twenty years of experience in the dance and fitness industry. Her approach to pole and erotic movement is heavily informed by her research on the body, performance, gender, and sexuality, and is oriented towards repairing an individual and collective relationship with the body caused by various social, cultural, and economic processes.
A certified personal trainer and group fitness instructor with previous dance experience, Sonja began her pole dance journey as an instructor at Tantra Fitness (Vancouver, BC) in 2008. At a time when the industry was attempting to distance itself from the sensual dimension of pole to legitimize itself as a sport, Sonja focused on erotic expression, recognizing the misogyny inherent in the pole industry’s desire to distance itself from sex work. Attending to the problematic divide between pole as sport/leisure and pole as labour, Sonja has focused on creating safe spaces for professionals and amateurs to explore erotic expression as a mode of deeply embodied unlearning, targeting internalized prejudices imposed by patriarchal social norms. Combined with her academic focus on gendered modes of dissent, she sees the erotic - the non-purposive pursuits of pleasure - as a potent mode of resistance.
ACADEMIC BACKGROUND
Vanessa Parent aka “Sonja Sloane received her Ph.D. in 2018. She is a scholar of modern and contemporary art with a specific focus on performance, the body, gender, and sex. Her research scrutinizes the gendered dimension of social and cultural disciplinary norms and their impact on the individual and collective relationship to the body and bodies. Her current research interrogates the relationship between gender and collective mythologies of nationhood through an examination of gender-based theoretical and aesthetic critiques of the continuum between fascist political forms and neoliberal consensus formative of globalization.
Sonja’s academic work greatly informs her approach to dance and movement, contextualizing her practice within a broader social and political struggle. She applies the feminist, decolonial and critical theoretical perspectives mobilized in her research to unveil the wider stakes of engaging in a movement practice that challenges capitalist hetero-patriarchal norms governing the body.
Her work has been published in The Blind Field Journal of Cultural Inquiry, IKON Journal and Public Art Dialogue.
Dancer & FITNESS Instructor
Sonja first obtained her fitness and personal training certification in 2003 (ISSA) followed by a certificate in performance nutrition. She worked as a personal trainer and group fitness instructor before starting at Tantra Fitness in 2008. Despite having no pole dance experience, she was immediately thrown into the “deep end” and began teaching pole classes while training under the legendary Tammy Morris. This steep learning curve helped her develop a teaching style that emphasizes the meticulous breakdown of moves, focusing on proper muscle engagement and effective troubleshooting methods. While at Tantra, she expanded the erotic dance programming by developing classes such as Erotica (Floorwork) and Eroticize (Floorwork conditioning). In 2018, she relocated to Montreal and began teaching at Milan Pole Dance, where she also contributed to the expansion of the erotic course offerings (Erotika, Floorwork, Floorfit, Technixxx). She has been invited to teach specialized workshops at various studios and retreats in Quebec as well as Milan Pole Dance in Italy. Sonja has also won titles such as Miss Pole Dance Taboo and Miss Sexy Back, served as a judge for erotic pole competitions, and privately coached competitors and professional dancers.
Sonja has also appeared as a feature player in episodes of Motive (CTV) and Backstrom (Fox), and choreographed scenes for Backstrom (Fox) and Lucifer (Fox).