Episode 10 - The Movement of Black Girls Pole with Dalijah Franklin
Thank you for tuning in to our ninth episode of our series: The Freestyle Approach Podcast, from Finding Your Freestyle® with Tracee Kafer. In this episode we sit down with Dalijah Franklin, found of Black Girls Pole. #thefreestyleapproach inspires to start a larger dialogue on the art of freestyle (beyond modality and form), and tangential topics of mindfulness, awareness, intention, intuition, creativity, self-expression, growth, and collaboration with interesting folks who are doing their thing in their own way! This podcast will continue to touch back on dance, movement and freestyle practice, but joins the connection between freestyle, in moving form, and the way we can access that freedom in many other parts of life. BLACK GIRLS POLE Black Girls Pole is an organization striving to diversify the pole community by inspiring, empowering, and educating women of color about pole dancing. BGP is a movement to both celebrate and introduce new faces to the transformative power of pole. BGP aims to provide a platform for women of color to embrace their bodies, challenge their body, mind and spirit and express their own unique individuality. ABOUT DALIJAH, THE FOUNDER Dalijah Franklin is a dancer, performer and obsessive life giver She loves to inspire and help women of color dream big and reach their goals. She has been a dancer and mover her entire life. An Ohio native, She is a graduate of The Ohio State University with a Bachelors of Science degree in Nutrition and from Tri-State College of Acupuncture with a Masters of Science in Acupuncture. Dalijah has been pole dancing for over 10 years and teaching Pole all over the world. She is an instructor at the world renowned Body & Pole in New York City, the 2013 Level 3 champion of the Atlantic Pole Championships, the 2015 U.S Aerial Championship winner, 2015 top scoring female of Pole Theatre USA and 2019 Pole Sport Organization Dramatic Champion. Dalijah found the need to start Black Girls Pole because she felt there was not enough representation of Women of color in the Pole community. As a pole instructor, she wanted to empower more women to start pole dancing, and have a platform that would help to change the stigma around what it means to be both a pole dancer and a woman of color. Dalijah founded BGP in March of 2014. Since then, BGP has gone on to host events and retreats around the world, from NYC to London and built a community of over 40,000 followers of all colors, shapes and sizes. Dalijah lives in Harlem NYC with her pupper Wesley the Yorkie Poo. Follow Dalijah on IG: @dalijahamelia