Saniya & Morina

Dance like no one is watching is a saying Saniya Thompson, 35, and Morina Colyer (Fasito’o Tai & Le’auva’a, Upolu, Sāmoa), 42, of South Pole Dance studio in Waihōpai Invercargill wholeheartedly encourage. The duo run inclusive pole dancing classes making women – and the occasional bloke – feel confident, strong and joyful in their own bodies.

Morina. I was living in Christchurch with my husband, Marc, and young son, Marin, who was five at the time, when I started looking for a creative outlet that was just for me. I’d always wanted to try pole dancing, so I invited some work colleagues to come to a class. While they found it hilarious, I really enjoyed it and discoveredI was actually pretty good at it. I went home and said to my husband, “I think I want to keep doing this.” So I did. When we moved to Invercargill, I met Saniya, who shared that passion.

Pole dancing is a fun way to exercise without going to the gym, and something you can do at any age. We have lots of mums with young children coming to the studio to enjoy time away from their kids, and our oldest class member is in her seventies. She had a hip replacement but still came back to pole dance!

Some of our students have been through so much and they completely change after joining our classes. Some people who come in are so shy and timid, really unsure of themselves, or even just beaten down by life – working horrible jobs or escaping domestic violence. They walk into the studio and can shed all of that and just be who they want to be. To see them grow and to be on that life journey with them – helping and encouraging them – is very special.

There are pole dancing competitions throughout the country but at my stage of life I’m just happy to encourage and support my students to compete. My passion is teaching and allowing them to express themselves through performance. I love helping them to tell a story and draw an audience into the emotion of a song. We hold a showcase once a year and it’s so rewarding to hear how impressed the audience is with our students. And the thing is, the students are doing it for themselves. They’re putting themselves out there because they want to tell their stories – we just give them the platform to do that.

I’m a registered legal executive and governance officer at Invercargill City Council and I’m also doing my law degree part-time, so juggling family life, work and the studio can be challenging. I couldn’t do it without Saniya. Both our husbands are very supportive, too. They scrape us up off the floor when we’re completely exhausted, and they’re our cheerleaders behind the scenes.

Saniya. For me, pole dancing is a form of fitness and artistic expression. When you pole dance, you’re so focused on nailing the trick you’re learning that the work you put in doesn’t feel like half an hour on the treadmill or fifteen reps with a barbell. When I discovered pole dancing while scrolling on social media, my mind was absolutely blown. I’m Tatar Russian and, at the time, I was living in Moscow, so I joined a local studio – but the health and safety there was non-existent and I broke a rib! Luckily, that didn’t scare me off pole dancing.

When I moved to New Zealand, my husband, Pete, heard there was another pole dancer in town and reached out to Morina. We started training together, and opened South Pole Dance studio in January 2015. We bring complementary strengths to the business, which was evident right from the start, and I feel that together we are a complete powerhouse. I’ve recently been appointed operations and customer experience team leader at the new Invercargill museum opening next year. It’s exciting, but means I’ll be super busy. Thankfully, Invercargill is pretty small so it’s easy to get around, and Morina and I share the workload of running the studio.

Sharing in the personal successes of our instructors and students and making real human connections beyond pole dancing are highlights for me. It’s a privilege to witness some incredibly transformative stories. We try to provide a safe space for people to talk about their issues and not be judged. It gives me goosebumps to think of how many women we have helped in the community. We also have a lot of laughs in class. We have an ongoing list of things that you can only say in pole class, because if you take them out of context, they would sound grossly inappropriate!

Invercargill is relatively conservative, but overall the community has been supportive. The image people have of pole dancing is straight out of a Hollywood movie, so educating people is important to us. It’s not as glamorous as it sounds – we sweat and bruise and get red in the face – but don’t get me wrong, when it’s showcase time, we glam up and look amazing.

Morina and Saniya are part of the lineup at The Shepherdess Muster at Tokanui, Murihiku Southland, 6–8 March 2026. They’ll dazzle with a sassy evening performance, and will run two workshops over the weekend – no dance background needed, just bring yourself and be ready to leave the session feeling fierce and fabulous. For more information, see shepherdessmuster.co.nz.