Victoria, BC · Fall 2026
Pole, floorwork
and the art of
taking up space
We're a pop-up pole and dance studio, rebuilding our performance season in the open. What's confirmed, what's new, and what's still coming together: it's all posted here.
Photograph by Natalie Sky Photography
Where we're at
Fall 2026
The booking page shows what's confirmed and bookable right now. New dates, venues and registration updates post as they land, or join the newsletter and hear first.
Join the mailing list for our updates.
Open for registration
What you can book today
Floorwork Performance Series
Six weeks of floorwork training in platform heels, ending on stage in Dance with the Devil, presented by Pandora's Box Cabaret.
- Wednesdays, 5:30–6:30 PM
- Saturdays, 3:00–4:30 PM
- Starts Sept 9 · performs Oct 16–18
ELEVATED: Heels & Floorwork Technique
Heels and floorwork technique for movers who already know their platforms. Refine your walk, your floor transitions, and the way the shoe changes everything.
- Wednesdays, 5:30–6:30 PM
- September 9 – October 14
Drop-in classes
Our regular weekly classes, hosted across greater Victoria.
- Sundays — Studio 4 Athletics, downtown
- Thursdays — PoleTrix, Westshore
- Wednesdays — Pandora's Box Cabaret
First Touch
A ninety-minute workshop for people with no experience at all. Barefoot, co-taught, safety-focused. We're finalising dates now.
Tell me when it opens
How we work
A pop-up, on purpose
For Fall 2026 we're back to the model we started with in 2020: smaller programs spread across multiple studios.
Three studios are on the calendar now, with more joining through the season. Popping up keeps us close to the island's other dance communities.
More about usWhere we teach
Three rooms this season
They're in three different parts of town, so check where your class meets before you set out.
Studio 4 Athletics
715 Yates St
Downtown Victoria
Third floor. Where PoleCoven has taught for years.
PoleTrix
3218 Jacklin Rd
Westshore
Hosted by our friends at PoleTrix.
Pandora's Box Cabaret
734 Aldebury St
Esquimalt
Our floorwork home, and the stage our series perform on.
More rooms
We're confirming additional locations through the season. The mailing list hears first.
Tell me whenComing up
Shows & events
Pole Coven × Pandora's Box Cabaret
Floorwork
Performance Series
Six weeks of floorwork training in platform heels, starting September 9 and ending with you on stage in Dance with the Devil: Reap What You Sow. Three nights of wicked variety performance with Pandora's Box Cabaret.
Photograph by Katie B. Vision
Series Information
The Essentials
The show you'll perform in
Dance with the Devil: Reap What You Sow
Presented by Pandora's Box Cabaret and written, created and produced by Duchess St. Claire. Hosted by the Devil himself, it blends burlesque, drag and dance into a night of variety performance built around the seven deadly sins. PoleCoven performs a guest piece.
It's their second rendition. Last year the show asked who is in hell and whether they deserve it. This year it asks who is on earth, and deserving of hell.
- Maple Leaf Ballet — a church built in 1888, audiences seated on the original pews
- Fri Oct 16 & Sat Oct 17 — doors 6:30 PM, show 7:30 PM
- Sun Oct 18 — doors 6:00 PM, show 7:00 PM
- 19+ · residential street parking · wheelchair accessible entrance
Details are maintained by Pandora's Box Cabaret. Their page is the current one.
Content and themes
This is not a gentle show, and you'd be performing in it. Pandora's Box lists the following themes: death, violence, implied sexual assault, grief, torture, injustice and murder. The show carries strong political themes and leans into the horrors we face as a society.
If any of that is something you'd rather not spend six weeks inside, that's a good reason not to apply this round. Don't worry, we'll have other shows. Enrol in ELEVATED or come to drop-ins until the next one is announced.
Dress code for the audience is Midnight Society Macabre: black and red, elegant mourning shrouds, witchy couture.
Read the full warningsThe room you'll be in
On the Maple Leaf Ballet stage
A church built in 1888, stained glass behind you, the audience on the original pews. This is what a PoleCoven piece looks like in that room.
Photos by Katie B. Vision
Choose your track
Train, or train and perform
Train
ELEVATED floorwork technique on its own.
$130+ GST- Wednesdays, 5:30–6:30 PM
- September 9 – October 14
- Six weeks of technique, no performance
Train + perform
The full program — ELEVATED plus the performance track.
$300+ GST- Classes — Wednesdays, 5:30–6:30 PM · Sept 9 – Oct 14
- Choreography — Saturdays, 3:00–4:30 PM · Sept 12 – Oct 3
- Stage — tech rehearsal Oct 10, three shows Oct 16–18
Already registered for ELEVATED and want to join the show? The performance track can be added on its own for $170 + GST — apply using the same form.
Is this for you?
What you'll need coming in
For ELEVATED
- A year or more of consistent heels and floorwork training
- Six months or more in platform stilettos
- Comfortable walking and crawling in platforms
- Candlestick, shoulder roll, plank, pike
For the performance track
- Everything above, plus:
- 1.5+ years of performance experience
- Strong musicality
- Learns and retains choreography quickly
Not there yet? Keep training with us in ELEVATED and apply for a future series — this one comes back around.
The commitment
What we'll ask of you
- Attend the dress rehearsal and perform in all three shows
- Attend the required classes and Saturday rehearsals
- Practise your choreography between sessions
- Arrive prepared and open to feedback
- Review our terms, attendance requirements, and cancellation policy
How to apply
Four steps to the stage
Check the prerequisites
Submit the form by Sept 1
Hear back by Sept 2
Register and pay
Fall 2026
Classes
Sundays at Studio 4 Athletics downtown, Thursdays at PoleTrix in the Westshore, Wednesdays at Pandora's Box Cabaret. More locations are being confirmed through the season.
This page is still filling in
We're writing class descriptions, level guides and instructor pages over the next few weeks. What's below is live and bookable right now. The schedule and pricing come straight from our booking system, so they stay current even while the rest of this page catches up.
This week
Schedule
Pulled straight from our booking system, including classes added mid-season.
In the room
What a class looks like
Different rooms, different nights, same idea — people working on something hard in good company.
Floorwork in platforms. Most of a class happens down here.
Hands-on spotting. Nobody is left to work out an inversion alone.
Watching each other work is half of how the room learns.
Warm-ups take twenty minutes and nobody skips them.
Class photography — credit to confirm.
Finding your level
The ladder
Four rungs. You can stay on one as long as you like — plenty of people do.
First Touch
No experience. Ninety minutes, barefoot, floorwork-led.
Foundations
Weekly classes building the basics. Being scheduled for this season.
Elevated
Heels and floorwork for students with experience. Confident in 6–8" platforms, plus recent floorwork or low-flow training.
Series
ELEVATED and the performance track. Ends on a stage.
Passes
What it costs
Drop-ins, class packs and memberships, live from our booking system.
What to bring
- Kneepads for anything on the floor
- Platform heels for heels classes — Pleasers, Hella Heels, Burju
- shoefreaks.ca is a good local option
Between levels?
Email us and describe your training so far. We'd rather place you well than have you bounce off something too hard.
Get in touch
Series & shows
Training that ends on a stage
Multi-week series with a produced cabaret at the finish line. This is where the studio turns into a company.
Photograph — credit to confirm
This season
Series running now
Floorwork Performance Series
Six weeks of floorwork technique in platform heels, ending with three nights on the Maple Leaf Ballet stage in Dance with the Devil.
- Classes — Wednesdays, 5:30–6:30 PM · Sept 9 – Oct 14
- Choreography — Saturdays, 3:00–4:30 PM · Sept 12 – Oct 3
- Stage — tech rehearsal Oct 10, three shows Oct 16–18
Fall Spotlight Showcase Series
Our showcase stream, returning this fall. A lower-pressure route to performing than the Floorwork Series, built for a first time on stage as much as a fiftieth.
- Dates to be announced
- Venue to be confirmed
- Pricing to be confirmed
We'll announce it here and to the mailing list first.
The show
Dance with the Devil: Reap What You Sow
Hosted by the Devil himself, seven deadly sins brought to life through burlesque, drag and dance. Last year we asked who was down there and whether they deserved it. This year we turn it around — who's up here, and deserving of hell?
Photograph by Katie B. Vision
Since 2020
About PoleCoven
Six years of building a room where the technique is taken seriously and nobody has to explain themselves.
The short version
How we got here
PoleCoven started in 2020, mid-pandemic, and has grown from a handful of classes into a program with its own shows, performance stream and community. It has always run under the same company, now called Lucent Productions.
Along the way we've taught out of Studio 4 Athletics downtown, expanded to Dance Victoria in 2022, collaborated with Luminesque Dance from 2023, and produced our first show, Thrive, in 2024.
Where this comes from
Pole didn't start in a fitness studio
It came from strip clubs, and from the sex workers who built the vocabulary the whole industry now trains on. We teach it as their art form, credited, rather than as a workout that happens to involve a pole.
That shows up in how we teach: heels classes drawing on club movement culture, taught by sex workers and allies, and a refusal to sand off where any of this came from.
Who teaches
Instructors
Our instructors are working performers: the material they teach is the material they take on stage. Your goals and your pace set the class; their job is to get you there safely.
Mayari
Owner
Sylvia
Instructor
Maowi
Instructor
Luna
Instructor
Sloane
Instructor
Mel
Programs
Britt
Operations
Maybe you?
We're glad to hear from instructors who teach the way we do: technique first, credit where it's due, and a room where everybody belongs.
Teach with usIn the works Profiles for each of us — what we teach and how — are being written for the next update.
How we run now
Back to where we started
For Fall 2026 we've shifted back to the model we began with in 2020: popping up across studios instead of settling into one address. Sundays at Studio 4 Athletics, Thursdays with our friends at PoleTrix in the Westshore, Wednesdays at Pandora's Box Cabaret, with more announced as the season goes on.
It's how we grew in the first place, and it means the program can reach more of the island instead of asking everyone to come to one room.
We read everything
Get in touch
Two inboxes, so your message lands with the person who can actually answer it.
Classes, accommodations, billing
Where to start, what to bring, cancellations, injuries, anything about money.
hello@polecoven.comApplications & performance
Questions about applying, prerequisites, or whether a series is right for you.
mel@polecoven.comMailing list
Hear it when it lands
First Touch dates, new pop-up locations, series applications opening, and show announcements. We only write when there's something to say.
Find us