About the founder
Michelle Stanek, founder of the pivot, is a lifelong dancer. Although it wasn’t until she found and developed her pole dance skills that she could call herself a professional dancer. She started taking pole classes in 2006 in New York City. In 2012 she won the United States Pole Dance Championship.
Through pole, she began to travel the world teaching and performing. She created two teacher training programs - XPERT and elevatED. She aligns deeply with the archetype of Teacher and enjoys every moment of teaching and coaching.
In addition to dance, Michelle earned her BA and MA in Art History. She was a professor at Pratt Institute where she taught Renaissance to Rococo art history courses. She still produces two major art fairs / year in New York City.
Reimagining movement
That same drive to push pole further didn't stop at teaching. In 2011, a New York Fashion Week performance at the New York Public Library sparked an idea she couldn't shake — what if a dancer could stand and move from anywhere on the pole, not just spin around it? Years later, that idea became the pivot: a patent-pending, tool-less attachment that opens up an entirely new pathway of movement for dancers at every level.
Building the pivot has been its own kind of practice. Prototyping, testing, adjusting, starting over and it's taught her as much about persistence as any performance ever has. It's been designed the same way she approached teaching: rooted in curiosity, not perfection, and built to meet dancers exactly where they are.
When She's not coaching, dancing, or developing...
Michelle loves getting lost in a fiction novel, working out, exploring NYC, biking, and having adventures with her husband and their son.
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