Meet Alice Springs Pole Dancers - Shay, Darlyhne & Courtney

*(Pictured from left to right: Shay, Darlyhne & Courtney)*

At the beginning of 2018, I moved to what I thought was the most remote place I could possibly move to – a town named Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. This was due to my partner’s work (he is a pilot) and while moving interstate for work was not new to us, moving to central Australia was quite the adventure and something that surprised my friends & family. Let’s just say when growing up I was inside playing dress-ups and putting on dance concerts, while my outdoorsy, younger sister was collecting bugs. So making the move to Alice Springs came as a shock to most people I knew!

By this point, my pole addiction had gripped to my life tighter than iTac, so of course when the decision was made to move, I had already googled to see if there was a pole studio in Alice Springs – oh thank the holy Pleaser, yes there is!!

It was here, at Polart Fitness in Alice Springs, where I met three incredibly passionate pole dancers – Shay, Darlyhne and Courtney. They were (and still are!) the girls at EVERY practice session, revising pole tricks they had learned that week or getting their glam on to learn the latest insta-chorey posted by a polebrity. It was during these practice jams, that I got to know these gorgeous girls who inspired me so much. Here they were, intermediate/advanced pole dancers living in literally the middle of nowhere, yet that didn’t pop their shiny pole balloon.

Shay, Darlyhne and Courtney opened my previously spoiled-with-choice eyes to the fact that my pole world hadn’t ended. That I could continue pole dancing and working towards my goals, even though I found myself in this new, remote environment. To put it into perspective for you my lovely reader, if I wanted to jump in my car and take a workshop with a new instructor, it would have involved a 15 hour drive either south to Adelaide or north to Darwin, through a landscape which sweats out red dirt and the odd camel.

Yet here they were, living in Central Australia, dazzling with determination all while being decked out in the latest pole threads. Fast forward 2 years where they have since started competing and now have a local performance group. Meet Shay, Darlyhne and Courtney – three pole dancers, dancing in the Australian desert.

Competing

Due to the small population size of Alice Springs, the rural location and the hot climate (my hands start sweating just thinking back to it), it is understandable that there are no pole dancing competitions of any level held in Alice Springs. If you are an aspiring pole competitor, it means entering an interstate competition which is extremely daunting for any first-time performer.

Last year, Shay and Darlyhne both popped their comp cherry with the Australia Pole Performer Competition, an amateur and semi-pro focused pole comp which holds finals in Adelaide, South Australia. They submitted a video entry, which had to be treated as a heat, and were lucky enough to get through to finals! Courtney of course travelled with them to Adelaide as their #1 fan girl!

Competing interstate for the first time did come with its own set of challenges. “I think it was such a massive experience, because there was so much that went into it and for Shay & I, we felt like we kind of did it all ourselves... and it being the very first one was really hard,” says Darlyhne. “We built our dances from the ground up and it was really hard to source costuming and stuff because there was nowhere to buy it in Alice Springs.”

Shay also adds, “With the dance itself it’s hard because like you would know from [Victorian studios] you’re learning all the same kind of levels. Whereas for us we pick and choose so many random things, that I might think something’s really cool, but down south they might not think that’s cool,” she says about the struggles when choreographing her routine. “I think it’s also good because some of us do have a bit of an edge, like we might have different things to everybody else, but then we’re also lacking in things. I always got in my own head, I would always look everybody up on Instagram and be like ‘I am not as good as them – that's hard!’”

Logistically, competing interstate when you’re from rural Australia can bring added difficulty. Not just for sourcing costumes, but also for transporting props.

“Like when people live there they can have live props, you can have your friends who live there, and you can also have props that are bloody massive you know, whereas we can’t do that,” explains Shay. Courtney adds “We went to Kmart [in Adelaide] to buy more trees!” referring to Darlyhne’s props for her jungle themed show, which they had no choice but to find the day of the performance.

Shay then raises a great point in that when you fly from a small town interstate to compete in your first pole competition, you don’t have an audience brimming with your pole besties and teachers from the local studio. As a competitor, not knowing anyone back stage might also add to the already growing nerves.

“Being interstate and travelling when you’re back in the change rooms, it’s kind of scary not knowing anybody. Like kind of knowing from Instagram ‘I know who that is but I’m scared to talk to you’, or people don’t want to talk to you because they’re in competition mode,” says Shay about her experience backstage. “But then we have also met some really beautiful people [through competing] too, that we still talk to from Melbourne and that’s really awesome.”

Yet competing in their first pole comp really helped these desert polers to continue to develop and grow in their pole journey. “I feel like comps is a really good way of gauging where you are and feeling a sense of accomplishment. It’s really hard in our studio because we don’t have anything that pushes us even further than where we are,” says Darlyhne. “I think after competing last year and how far we pushed ourselves, I definitely got stronger. It gave me something to practice often and get better at.”

Travelling interstate

Nobody understands the word “opportunity” more than a remote pole dancer travelling to a large city for a weekend! Shay, Darlyhne and Courtney make the most of every interstate trip they take.

“When we do go away, like when I was going away to that comp in May, I was booking every private I could. I was jam packing that week with what I can do while I’m down there!” Shay says laughing. “I was in Adelaide again for 7 hours over Christmas like literally flew in flew out, but I went to the PhysiPole studio while I was there. And the day after AAPC we were at a 3 hour workshop [with Ally Cat and T.K], that was already an hour and a half away!”

Courtney and Darlyhne booked a trip last year to Melbourne specifically to attend the Australian Pole Expo and they had an amazing time.

“Oh my gosh that was fantastic! Had the best time! Learnt so much and got to meet Chilli!” says Courtney with a huge, two-finger-Chilli-Rox-special smile. “The tips and tricks that we got were so helpful and it was reassuring,” she adds. Darlyhne continues, “We got to meet so many amazing pole dancers that you just stalk on Instagram all the time and you’re like ‘oh my god you’re in real life – like, you’re here!’,” she laughs.

Among the many instructors, their favourites were Felix Cane, Mel Grace, Chilli Rox and Bendy Kate. “I really liked Bendy Kate’s classes, they were really nice and flowy and I got a lot out of it,” says Courtney.

CoCo & Co Pole Performers

In 2019, Shay, Darlyhne and Courtney launched their pole performance group named CoCo & Co Pole Performers.

“I think it just happened – we were just like we want to start poling for people. We think what we do is pretty cool - we see it as gymnastics, circus, entertainment! I thought well we can’t just call ourselves ‘Shay, Darlyhne and Courtney’ so that’s where Coco & Co came from like we all have Co in our surnames,” explains Shay.

CoCo & Co first performed at the Alice Springs cinema for the opening night of the ‘Hustlers’ movie, in front of an audience of 170 people. “We had heels on and everyone was like amazed at anything we did. It was very uplifting!” says Courtney.

After the amazing feedback they received, another show was booked for a corporate Christmas function at the Alice Springs convention centre. It was a little daunting to the girls, as it was a daytime corporate gig with a predominately male audience, and they were to interact with the crowd as circus performers throughout the event. “They wanted ‘circus performers’ and there was nobody in town who could do circus. It involved a 5 minute pole show and then walking through the crowd as performers and engaging with them. We did a really PG show, and still they talked about the one body roll that Darlyhne did!” says Shay laughing. After another small performance at the studio’s end of year showcase, the girls were offered the opportunity to perform at ‘FabAlice’ in March of this year. FabAlice is a 3-day fabulous drag festival held annually in Alice Springs for the thriving LGBT community. It was a gig they had their eye on for a while.

“I think this one was like a year in the making, because I think it was at FabAlice last year we were like ‘we could perform here, we could definitely perform here!’ as like the one place in Alice Springs that you know, you could wear heels and be sexy and not be judged for it,” says Darlyhne.

However the girls had to get their act together quickly with less than a week’s notice. The queens flew in from Darwin and the day before the show, the girls had to re-jig their performance to match the drag act they were paired with. CoCo & Co were also doing their first late night show, performing into the small hours of the night. Welcome to #giglife girls!!

Over the course of the last year, Shay, Darlyhne and Courtney have discovered that the performance group has come with more than just a pay cheque. As pole dancers, they are noticing growth within themselves and the Alice Springs community.

Darlyhne found that her confidence boomed during the FabAlice show. “I was living for the compliments. Like I’m such an introvert in my normal life but then when I was in that costume and I was walking around afterwards and everybody was drunk, they were just like ‘oh my god, you’re the pole dancer!’ And I'm like yeah I am!” she says giggling.

“I think that was the scariest bit to start off with, is being like what are people going to think of me, and what are others going to think at my work and you know, by the end of it everyone knows you’re the pole dancer!” laughs Shay.

CoCo & Co Pole Performers are helping to flick the flies away from the local’s eyes, and show this rural town just how amazing pole is! “At the ‘Hustlers’ thing, nobody was like ‘look at those hustlers’, they were like ‘they are so strong omg!’ says Shay. “And I think you really have to SEE it with your eyes to realise... I think when people actually see [pole] they’re like WOW! And definitely for the contemporary piece at FabAlice - people were blown away by that.”

Darlyhne adds, “I’ve gotten quite a few messages, from people that I don’t know, messaging me on Instagram and being like ‘hey I’m thinking of joining in Alice Springs, like joining pole’. I think through that [the studio] might have gotten a couple of new members, just from seeing us more out and about and doing our thing. It de-stigmatises it because the things that we’ve done haven't been sexy stripper kind of stuff. It's been like a theatrical performance and a contemporary sort of performance, and so people kind of look at it and they aren’t like ‘oh they’re strippers’ - they’re like ‘oh it’s actually a full performance!’”

The Alice Springs Pole Community

Although the Alice Springs pole community consists of one studio, a small studio shouldn’t be mistaken for not having a big heart! The pole students and instructors at Polart Fitness are very passionate about pole and its positive effect on increasing health, happiness and confidence in your mind and body.

As with many studios, these polers have gravitated towards their preferred styles of pole. Some love to focus on strength and fitness, while others love to slip on the stilettos and dance it out. However, the students have found it can be difficult to find exotic pole competitions to enter, especially at an amateur level, when they live so remotely.

“I like more exotic styles, and there isn’t much exotic here unfortunately,” explains Courtney. “Hayley [a Polart instructor] and I did an exotic doubles routine for the showcase last year and that was so much fun – I absolutely loved it! It would be cool to enter something exotic related but not sure just yet,” she says dreaming of the sexy, slinky opportunities that might come her way.

Alice Springs did have it’s time to shine late last year, with one of their leading ladies competing in and even placing at Frisk in 2019. Polart Fitness instructor Hayley came second in the amateur division, with her provocative kitty cat routine in which she teased her owner who seemed to have jumped straight out of a rotating, water-bed from the 70s. Her unique transitions on and off the pole captured the audience, and her rare flare for base-work, flexibility and acro, helped this pussy claw her way to sit in the top 3! What a show it was!

*(Pictured: Hayley onstage at Frisk 2019)*

While the Alice girls didn’t all fly down to Melbourne to watch Hayley compete, the support of the studio was still overwhelming from afar. “We had a get together at Shay’s and there were bubbles and lots of screaming!” says Courtney laughing.

These desert dancers form part of a very tight-knit pole community. I found during my time there, that you would walk into the studio and everyone knew everyone, no matter what level of pole you were in. Practice sessions were like one big catch up with the girls. “I think that was really encouraging. When you were advanced and we were kind of still intermediate, being able to talk to you and get that insight into what further we could push ourselves to do. It was nice to be able to talk to another level,” says Darlyhne. Yet the inspo flows both ways, especially as an advanced pole dancer you can find yourself losing your pole-jo or becoming fixated on the hardest, trending tricks. Chatting to polers in lower levels brings back that fresh energy you may have lost, and remind you of all the great tricks that you have since deemed ‘too-easy’, yet are still super cool!

And while I have since moved on from the scorching yet simply stunning landscape of Alice Springs, the passion for pole still flows freely through this little town much more impressively than their dribbling Todd river.

CoCo & Co Pole performers are continuing to inspire their remote community and bring pole to the desert through guest shows and performances. “I think with the performing, it’s also made other people at the studio interested in performing too. So that’s good – to let people know that you can do these things, you can go on to compete. You’re not stuck in a little bubble here!” says Shay.

As I discovered during my time there, once you wash the red dirt out of your eyes, you will soon see a glittering, inspired pole community, dancing away in the heart of central Australia.

You can follow CoCo & Co Pole Performers on Instagram at @cocoandco_pole. To contact them for a performance, message them on Instagram or email cocoandcopole@hotmail.com.

Dancing in the Desert - Meet Coco & Co Pole Performers