About Matt

I come from a 22-year gymnastics background, spending 7 years on Canada’s National Team, and winning the junior Canadian and Elite Canada championships. I also represented Nova Scotia at three Canada Games in gymnastics and diving, and had the honour of being Nova Scotia's flagbearer and winning a gold medal in gymnastics during my last Games. While a National Team member, I completed my education earning Bachelors (honours) and Master’s Degrees in Kinesiology after which I worked in the fitness industry, as well as a fitness model. In 2018 I was introduced to pole and was hooked immediately. It was an art form that was physical and used my acrobatic background, but also required extensive mindfulness forcing me to focus and stay in the moment. Within weeks, I felt passion, purpose, and motivation that I had not felt since before my burnout in gymnastics. I progressed rapidly and 3 months after starting, I moved to Montreal with the ambition of becoming a professional pole artist.

Over the past five plus years my skills and artistry on traditional and flying pole have led to me being recognized as one of the premier performers and teachers on both apparatus in Montreal and beyond. I teach pole and pole fitness to female and male students of all skill levels and ages, and I perform extensively at a variety of venues.

My Background

My Evolution in Pole

When I moved from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Montreal, I was not an artist, but very much a gymnast on a pole - technically precise, but still rigid. My first two years were spent working any job that I could find to fund my pole training. It was exhausting, but I never lost belief that one day I would be a professional pole artist.

Covid was the transition point for finding myself as an artist. When I was laid-off work and paid to “stay home”, I put everything into pole. Each day I wheeled my portable pole to a park and trained for hours. This public training caught the attention of a local nightclub, which offered me a performance residency when things reopened. The volume of stage time I acquired over the next two years transformed me from “gymnast on a pole” to “pole artist” … gaining stage presence, musicality, fluidity, confidence, and identity. I learned to captivate audiences by putting emotion into movements. These advances prompted invitations for public performances sponsored by the city of Montreal, Canada’s Got Talent, Pride Events across the county, and a variety of other venues (including movie stunt double). The vision I had at the beginning of this journey was becoming my reality. I was, indeed, a professional pole artist, and a respected one at that.

The Future

In performance, I want to continue to present pole to more sophisticated and widespread audiences, including contracts both nationally and internationally. In doing so I hope to elevate pole to a respected and sought-after discipline in venues where pole has not traditionally been considered. In teaching, I strive to continue to expand and be known as one of the leading technical teachers in the country, but also remain known for instilling the love for pole into my students. I hope to use these skills in teaching workshops and seminars at studios across Canada and around the world.

Near the end of 2021, I was introduced to flying/aerial pole - an apparatus that was an emerging discipline in the circus world. Fortunately, the skill mechanics on flying pole are the same as traditional pole - just physically more taxing. Physical strength is literally my strength, so the transition was seamless, and I attained a high skill level immediately. I continued to train extensively on flying pole, while teaching and performing at nightclubs and a variety of other venues on traditional pole (and flying pole when possible).

Pole will always be my first love, but I was very eager to expand my repertoire and evolve from a club-performer to a respected circus artist. Although I treat pole dancing as a circus art, I always felt a disconnect between my discipline and what is accepted/embraced/hired in professional circus circles. During summer 2023, I began busking giving street performing on traditional pole. This allowed me to continue to push myself as an artist, and reach a broader, non-nightclub audience that was very receptive to my presentations. Recently I have performed in several new settings including with professional circus colleagues, at an art gallery gala, larger clubs, and corporate events. This fall I was also invited to teach at a high-level pole camp in Las Vegas, and to give workshops in Kirkland Lake and Toronto.

In 2023 a circus colleague approached me with a new apparatus he had conceptualized involving two flying-poles attached to a single anchor point. We are researching how the apparatus can be used in practice, and adapting the skills in my repertoire to create new dynamic moves on a single pole (while the other pole is oscillating around), on two poles simultaneously, as well as transitioning from one pole to the other. This is enabling the development of new aerial tricks that have not previously been performed with increased difficulty and artistry.