New Business Invites You to Give Pole Dance a Spin

When Donna Moison opens the doors to her new fitness studio on Friday, she hopes people in Merrimack are open-minded and willing to look past the stigma attached to what she does.

Moison will hold a grand opening Friday evening from 7-10 p.m. for Center Stage Pole Dance & Fitness. The emphasis, she says, is on a good workout, building confidence and strength.

“I'm more fitness-based,” Moison said. “You'll find in this industry a mixture or a plethora of people with different approaches. I'm primarily fitness. I do some sensuality classes but you won't find that in a group session.

“I teach modestly and tastefully. I don't like to embarrass anyone,” Moison said. “It's not about stripping but about poses, working out and feeling empowered.”

Five years ago, after being laid off from her day job, Moison, a resident of Francestown, said she was looking for something fun and different to do. A fan of fitness and exercise who hates going to the gym, Moison said she started looking into ways to combine dance and exercise and came across pole dance fitness.

“I was looking online in something in the dance/fitness arena and found pole dance.” Moison said. “It was intriguing and it was blowing up everywhere, on Oprah, on Ellen, the King of Queens.”

She went to Florida to get her certification as a teacher and returned to her home in New Hampshire with a plan in mind.

Her first studio was in Brookline. She had a small studio in the Big Bear Lodge before bringing on a business partner and moving the studio into an airport hangar at the Nashua Airport. But when that space was sold out from under her, Moison had to close her studio for a couple years while she found a new space.

Now an employee at GT Advanced Technologies, Moison said Merrimack was an obvious choice when she decided to start looking for a new studio.

She settled on the Merrimack Village Mall, Suite Q, tucked in the back behind D.W. Diner and a new tattoo shop. A pink sign hanging above the door advertises fitness classes, bachelorette parties, birthday parties and more.

Inside, two tones of pink punch up the walls. Five poles are attached floor to ceiling in front of a wall of mirrors, while a sixth pole is tucked in the back on a small stage.

Moison uses the poles to teach techniques that increase strength and toning, give a cardio workout and help people feel a general sense of confidence.

Classes are available for all levels from beginner to advanced and movements are progressive, allowing students to grow with each class and improve technique. It's not hard to learn, and is a great for increasing strength, Moison said.

“I think of it as starting at infancy and growing through graduation,” Moison said. “You learn as you go and build and build.”

Each class is three parts, starting with a yoga or Pilates-based warm up, moving to the pole and then concluding with a cool down, as any class in a gym typically would.

“It's so much fun,” Moison said. “You don't even realize you're getting a workout until the next day when your muscles are sore.”

Techniques include learning to move around the pole, spins, lifts and other movements you might do on equipment in a gym, like a sit up or pull up on the pole.

Classes are small, with 12 students at most, to give students more attention and as much pole time as possible.

In addition to fitness classes, Moison holds private events, birthday parties, bachelorette parties and more. She also has an instructor to teach yoga, Pilates and bootcamp and she works with a choreograph consultant on her classes.

Moison plans to expand her offerings and is looking forward to getting certified as a Kangoo Jumps instructor – a low impact rebounding class that uses a pair of what look like a rollerblade boots mounted on small spring boards.

She also hopes to work with other businesses in the community to hold health and wellness workshops and she's working on putting together a two-day event in October with the New Hampshire Breast Cancer Coalition to raise money and awareness for the disease.

“I really want to make a contribution to the community and have the stigma erased because it really is about fitness and getting in shape,” Moison said.

For more information or to register for a class, visit Center Stage's website or call 801-3012. Center Stage is also on Facebook. Classes are held at 6 p.m. on Mondays through Thursdays with intro classes generally on Friday nights and an open session on Saturdays for people to practice technique and work on flexibility. Classes are open to women and men.

will be an opportunity for people to check out the studio, register for classes and get more information while enjoying refreshments provided by the D.W. Diner.