The Ivy is a hardy, evergreen, perennial vine with dark green leaves, greenish-yellow flowers in autumn, and purple-black berries in winter. Sacred to the god Dionysos, the Ivy features in nearly all iconography of the god and his retinue. Worn as crowns, wrapped around the thyrsus, and possibly even consumed by the Maenads in celebration of the Dionysiac Mysteries, the Ivy teaches ecstatic release and abandon. In the hands of the Maenads, the Ivy encourages the abandonment of social convention, the leaving behind of “sane” behavior, and the expansion of what we would consider reality.

I love being watched. Should I feel embarrassed?

It all began when I was living in Springfield — a city in southwest Missouri, USA. I was working as a cook in a health food store when one of my coworkers told me about a dance studio that she'd visited…

Whether it was for food, for sex, or for comfort, hunger was something I was taught to fear and to keep under control…

You could argue that pole dancing is just another aspect of our ascension culture: always climbing, reaching, going up up up. But pole is also a descending art — it beckons us inward and down, into the sensual and primal sensations of the body…