Studio Donations - Thank you!

Our studio's fiscal year ends June 30 each year. This year, we had a surplus of unused scholarship funds. We allocate 3% of our operating budget (and all our Late Cancel/No Show fees) to supporting this program.

At our last board meeting, the Board of Directors met and agreed to distribute the remaining funds as follows:

• A selection of previous scholarship students received bonus class packages to further their subsidized classwork with Ascendance.

• $1000 to be donated to CSAW - A non profit who's missions are in alignment with ours. CSAW - Connecting Circus Students Around the World was founded in 2018. Through increase of knowledge, resources, community, and financial aid CSAW strives to assist future circus artists in finding the pathways best for them. They offer grants and tuition assistance to circus artists of color to pursue circus studies at schools of their choice.

• $1000 to be donated to Black Fitness Events - this local nonprofit seeks to centralize all health and fitness events led by Black Fitness Leaders to ensure BIPOC communities have access to wellness resources and spaces where they feel a sense of belonging.

• $1000 was left so we asked our Ascendance Staff what organization they wanted to donate to. After a round of voting, the team selected Cedar River Women in Need, an organization that helps fund access to abortion for women in need by paying for their travel, meals, and incidentals as well as their procedure if they are coming to one of their 2 locations in Renton or Tacoma. We sure they will be seeing an influx of out-of-state requests in the coming months, and will put this money to very good use.

Thank you, Ascenders!! Without your support, your class purchases, and your donations, none of this would have been possible. We are very happy we can spread some of our abundance with other nonprofits.

Mask and COVID Vaccination Updates

Beginning 8/16, we will be requiring proof of vaccination to remove your mask in studio.

If you are not vaccinated from COVID-19, please continue to wear your masks in studio. If you are not able to provide proof of vaccination, then we ask you to continue to wear masks in studio until you are able to provide proof. Fully vaccinated individuals are more than welcome to continue wearing a mask, as well.

We will continue to evaluate and make policy decisions based on new information and changing data as we receive it. Operating a fitness based business in this pandemic has been really tough and we do not make these changes lightly - we know that each change affects each one of you. We thank you so much for your continued patience and understanding while we navigate what is best for our clients and staff.

To provide proof of vaccination, you can email a copy of your card to support@ascendancestudios.org or show your card to a staff member. If emailed, please give us a full business day to process and update your account. You may need to bring your card if you have not received confirmation of account update before your next class. You may start emailing proof as early as today.

Your vaccination card must have your full name, 2 completed doses marked (or 1 J&J dose), visible dates of doses, and note where you receive your vaccinations. Incomplete cards will not be accepted. Any altered or doctored cards will not be accepted. We will not be storing copies of your vax card information - just marking a checkbox on your Mindbody account. This checkbox will indicate to our staff who has been okay’d to remove their mask in studio.

If these policy changes make it so you are unable to attend classes in studio, we encourage you to join us virtually! We still have plenty of virtual options on our schedule. Please email us if you have a special circumstance you wish to discuss.

Reminder - this is not a HIPPA violation and we are well within our rights as a private entity to request this information to protect our staff and clients. You do not have to provide or participate in sharing your status.

Questions, comments, or concerns? We’re glad to discuss! But please remember people are on the other side of your screen. Rude or disparaging comments are not welcome.

Happy Pride 2021!

Happy Pride, dear pole friends! 

We thought in honor of Pride, we'd share some history on the Pride Flag. You may have noticed that the flag we have hanging up front in the studio looks a little different - it’s a nod to the very original Pride flag design.

The history of the Pride Flag goes back to the 1970s, and the design has changed numerous times over the years. The very first flag was designed by Gilbert Baker, a friend of San Francisco’s openly gay City Supervisor Harvey Milk. The eight-color flag first flew over the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day Parade in June of 1978.

From top to bottom, the original colors represent sex (pink), life (red), healing (orange), sunlight (yellow), nature (green), magic and art (turquiose), serenity (indigo), and spirit (violet).  The intention behind the flag was to give the gay rights movement a hopeful symbol for a new era of gay liberation.  The previous symbol used to signify the gay rights movement, was the pink triangle. It was a symbol the Nazis used to identify and exterminate LGBTQ+ people.  The new flag symbolized leaving behind the shame of the past and moving forward with pride.  

The best-known, six-stripe version of the rainbow pride flag was established the following year, in 1979. At the time, hot pink was a non-standard color in flag fabric production, and deemed too costly to reproduce, so it was dropped from the flag. The turquoise and indigo stripes were also dropped in favor of royal blue when organizers of San Francisco’s Gay Freedom Day Parade wanted to split the flag in half to fly across the street and wanted equal stripes on both sides.

As the movement continues to progress and change, we feel it is also important to honor and keep LGBTQ+ history alive. From Sylvia Rivera, Marsha P. Johnson, and Harvey Milk to the Pulse Nightclub and so many others whose voices have been lost, Pride is our chance to keep their memory alive and to pass their stories onto the next generation as we continue working towards full equality and acceptance. The Pride flag is a piece of living history.

The flag has seen more changes since, and continues to evolve as others strive to be more inclusive and bring more visibility to disenfranchised groups. If you’re interested to learn even more about the history of the Pride Flag, check out this wonderful write-up!

At Ascendance, you are valid, accepted, and welcome, no matter who you are. Dance offers a beautiful medium to express all parts of yourself and we are privileged to be a part of so many student’s journeys of self empowerment and discovery and acceptance of themselves and others.

Happy Pride!!

Reflecting back on 2020

Well. We made it a full year into this weird pandemic.

March 15, 2020, we elected to close the studio to group classes after seeing reports of growing COVID case counts. The next day, March 16, 2020, Governor Inslee mandated our closure and we closed the studio entirely.

Looking back and reflecting over this last year, I feel relieved we made it through the worst, sad for all we've lost, and yet, optimistic about the future we're building.

For all the challenges we've faced, I am proud of how Ascendance has risen to meet each one. In a single year, we done more than I could have ever imagined. We failed a bunch too, and learned so much along the way.

In that year, we've stood up an entirely Virtual studio, and then forged new territory with Hybrid classes. We experimented with Video On Demand and some fancy videography. A brand new online retail store was born and we have shipped products all over the country. Our new Home Pole rental/sales program is taking off like crazy and over 18 (and counting) of you have poles sourced through the studio. We've held virtual community events, virtual workshops, personal video shoots, a virtual showcase and successful fundraiser, and so much more. We've also managed to keep our Scholarship program going in a new form.

It's not been easy, though. To survive this crazy year, we negotiated with vendors, cut expenses to the bare bones, solicited donations left and right, and even signed up to clean the buildings toilets to work down unpaid back rent. Some staff volunteered their time and their pay to keep us going. We worked tirelessly to apply for grants, government aid, tax credits, and loans. Every day has brought a new challenge. Every few weeks an entirely new set of rules to seek out and understand. And each day a new shift in priorities, new data to consider, and so much more. It's tested our team's ability to function seamlessly to the max.

Not going to lie, on some of those more challenging days, it honestly would have been easier to close the doors and give up. The thought entered my mind more than once. This year has been a personal challenge for me, stretching me to the absolute max. Not knowing what each day would bring was hard... Not knowing if we could pay ourselves or our team was hard… Not being able to serve my team with my best self has been hard…

Many tears were shed out of sheer frustration and anger at just how hard and unfair this has been... Oof. Thank you to those who have been there to help pick me and Maggie up when we were at our worst; for your kind words, encouragement, and grace in those moments when we needed it most.

I'm so glad we persevered though! The hard work is worth it, and any time we get to see your dancing faces (whether virtually or now in-studio), we are reminded of exactly why we put in this work. I know how important this place is to so many of you and many of you have personally expressed how much of a lifeline the studio was in some of our darkest COVID days. I also know the best is yet to come, and we need to be here for it!

I'm happy to say that we finally have a positive financial outlook as we head into summer (so long as no new Acts-of-God hit) and are very much looking forward to a return to semi-normalcy as we roll into summer and beyond.

So - Thank you again for all your support and engagement over this past year. It's been wild, y'all! For all we’ve learned and achieved, I’d rather not do that again. Get your vaccines when you’re eligible. We need to squash this thing for good and vaccines are our best shot.

We love ya more than you know. Take care and we will look forward to dancing with you soon.

Tara Steed

Plans for our Non Profit

We are thrilled to share we received our official 501(c)(3) status this week 🥳 Thank you to everyone who has supported and cheered us on these last 3 years. This is a big deal and we cannot wait to continue our mission to make pole and aerial more accessible, to build self esteem, and empower artistic expression in a supportive and safe environment 💙 As far as we know, we are the FIRST non profit pole dance studio in the country. Woweee! 🤩

In a lot of ways, our newly minted 501(c)(3) status doesn’t change a whole lot about our day to day, or our core mission. That said, we have a ton of big ideas we want to grow into in the coming months and years. Our status and the benefits of being a non profit will make some of this more possible, now that we have opportunities to apply for grants to support this work.

We are so excited about what is on the horizon!

Here are a few of the dreams we want to develop and grow in the coming months and years. 

• Expand our scholarship fund beyond our current need-based model. We hope to have programs and funds allocated for specific underrepresented groups

• Reinvigorate the Holding Space Program to have more regular events and extend the program to even more groups than we have served so far. 

• Create an Artist’s Studio Program to support artists/industry professionals with discounted studio time to grow and hone their crafts. 

• Sponsor traveling/guest instructors to bring into the studio. This idea is two fold - to support traveling guests (specifically BIPOC artists) and to increase the movement vocabulary coming into the studio. 

• Stand up a Training Reimbursement Program for the Ascendance staff. We want to keep our knowledge current, topical, safe, and ever-expanding. We hope that being able to subsidize some of our team’s outside training, workshops, and classes, we can inject that knowledge back into Ascendance and keep everyone growing!

• Launch a mentorship/coaching program to support others seeking to stand up non profit pole/aerial studios. We’re one of the firsts and we don’t want to be one of the last. 

It’s a big list and we know we have a lot of work ahead of us. We’ll keep you posted with our progress.

Do you have any big ideas or programs you’d like to see Ascendance launch? Tell us about it!

If you’d like to donate to our cause, visit our Fractured Atlas instance to setup a one time or a recurring donation!

Why a Non Profit?

Why would the company want to be set up as a nonprofit?

During those first few meetings where the Ascendance studio was dreamed up - there was a lot of discussion surrounding the desire to create a studio that was focused around the community that was built. The desire was to create a wonderful place that would benefit from using any profits earned to re-invest back into the studio. This investment would benefit not only those that work for Ascendance but also those that attend our classes. We can invest in the programming we offer, we can invest in others to give them the opportunity to come see what being an aerialist is all about.

One benefit of a non profit is that there are no owners of a nonprofit. The company itself stands alone. There is no concern that any one person could decide that the company should be closed. No concern over a change in ownership. If any of our Directors or leaders need to step away from running the business, we simply need to find another community member to step into their position. What that means for the community is there is more continuity over time that we will continue to be what we are today. This will let the studio grow and evolve into many molds over time, and we hope will provide stability and longevity to the community as a whole.

Receiving our Section 501(c)(3) status from the IRS not only provides us (and those that donate to us) with a beneficial tax treatment. It also opens up many more avenues to apply for and obtain grants and other funding. The more we have access to, the more we can re-invest into the community! One way we re-invest into our community is by building special programs that were created to share pole and aerial arts.

Two such programs are our Scholarship Program which allows individuals to apply to request the studio pay a portion of their membership costs, and the Holding Space Program which brings together certain underrepresented groups and provides the space to enjoy movement within their group. Additional funding will help us expand both of these programs, and add many more (stay tuned for more on this later in the week!).

In the end, we are really over-the-moon excited to be "Officially Official" and can focus on our mission and vision. Here’s a little more on our Mission, Vision, and Our Values.

Mission

Ascendance Pole and Aerial Arts serves a diverse community, builds self-esteem, and empowers artistic expression in a supportive and safe environment.

Vision

Ascendance grew from the love of the pole community and a strong desire to make it more accessible. We believe in the transformative power of pole and aerial arts and how it positively impacts each person who participates. Combining physical activity and achievement in a safe and supportive environment builds confidence and empowerment in our students. By creating and fostering a positive learning environment and celebrating each other's successes, our students build a network of support, make friends, and build self-esteem- all of which they take with them out into the world. As the only not for profit pole studio in the region, we are committed to creating a positive community for our students and for performing artists. We are an inclusive community that welcomes everyone, with specific focus on the outreach to women, people of color, the LGBTQ+ community, and the performing artists in the region.

Our Values

Have Fun!

Ascendance is our playground, and here it is recess all the time. We take full delight in fun, play, and laughter. We are here to cut loose and shake our asses, squeezing every drop of joy from each moment. If there is no music in the air, no cheers echoing from our walls...if there is no one hanging upside down...then there’s probably a global pandemic to contend with.  You can bet we’ll be back at it when the coast is clear!

Community

We believe that as we learn together in class, as we give each other support, we bind ourselves together and create something entirely new. Our community is built through the common love of movement, education, and the beauty found in everyone. We accept all people. We celebrate all lifestyles. We are stronger together.

Grace & No Egos

Grace is more than elegance of movement. It is about leaving room for others to succeed in the place they are without fear of comparison. When we walk through the doors of Ascendance, we leave our egos behind. We give ourselves room to learn and grow, and to not be perfect. We reject assholes and embrace the perfectly imperfect.

Explore & Experiment

We encourage our students to investigate the meaning of pole and aerial arts for themselves. We want them to experiment and then tell us their unique stories with motion. Try something new, test and learn, create and recreate.

Sustainability & Longevity

Our art and our community is something that must be nurtured and grown over time. As individuals, we know that it takes time to develop mastery. As artists, we advocate for our medium, investing in what we love and pushing it forward to develop new audiences. As business leaders, we actively seek ways to reduce waste (material and otherwise) and to prevent burnout. Most importantly, we advocate for the sustainability and longevity of people. Understanding the power of our bodies and the connection of a healthy body to a healthy mind is true Ascendance.

What do you think? What questions can we answer? Are you excited about what Ascendance has planned for the future? Let us know in the comments below!