Our story

Two friends and a credit card.

IncrediPole opened in August 2015 in a former Polish Democratic Club in Greenpoint. Sharon and Kirstin built it themselves, and then kept building it.

IncrediPole students gathered around the pole for a group portrait, one of them inverted above

01 - In their words

Hi! We're
Sharon and
Kirstin.

Two IncrediPole instructors standing by a pole with their dogs

As we move past the milestone of a decade in business, we're reflecting on our roots. We met in 2013 at a Bed-Stuy yoga studio's small pole program and found a supportive, non-competitive community. When that program ended, we knew it deserved a new home.

After months of searching, we found a former Polish Democratic Club in Greenpoint complete with cathedral ceilings. We pooled our savings, opened a credit card, and built it ourselves. In August 2015, IncrediPole was born.

During the first year, we both worked multiple jobs as we poured everything we had into the studio. Sharon ran everything behind the scenes and Kirstin taught nearly every class. We both cleaned nightly, threw rent parties, held community queer classes, hosted workshops, and organized showcases.

We wanted to build the kind of community we'd been looking for.

Eleven years later, we're still here - and still very involved in what happens inside these rooms.

02 - Eleven years

How it actually went

2013

A small pole program in Bed-Stuy

Two people meet in a yoga studio's side room and find something non-competitive and unusually kind. Then the program closes.

2015

A Polish Democratic Club, Greenpoint

Cathedral ceilings, pooled savings, one credit card, and a lot of nights spent building it by hand. IncrediPole opens that August.

~2017

A second room

The studio grows into the Lair. The original room becomes the Loft - the names both rooms still have today.

2021

Keys to Gowanus in May

A summer of getting the space ready, then reopening in August - on the exact sixth anniversary of the original opening. Four rooms now: the Loft, the Lair, the Alcove and the Annex.

Now

Two studios

Gowanus runs the classes, the programs and the workshops. The Dumbo Den is a rental space you book by the hour. 20+ instructors between them.

03 - The part that's hard to photograph

Rent parties.
Showcases.
Work trade.

The first year was funded partly by throwing parties to make rent. Some of that never really stopped - showcases, queer series, pop-ups, and a work-trade program where two hours of work in the studio buys you a class.

It is not a marketing scheme. It is how several of the people teaching here now first got through the door.

Work trade & jobs Meet the instructors

IncrediPole members training together on the poles in the Gowanus loft

Come see whether we built it well.

Book a class

Two friends and a credit card.

Hi! We'reSharon andKirstin.

How it actually went

Rent parties.Showcases.Work trade.

Come see whether we built it well.

Hi! We're
Sharon and
Kirstin.

Rent parties.
Showcases.
Work trade.