JULY INTERVIEW
Cami Arboles

Cami Arboles is a pole dancer, yoga instructor, and movement expert based in Los Angeles.

A Yale ‘20 graduate, her aspirations to move to New York and pursue live performance were curtailed by the coronavirus pandemic; she quickly turned to pole dancing both as a creative, athletic outlet, and as a spiritual practice. After a video of her pole dancing in her graduation cap and gown went viral, she fostered a digital community over Instagram (and grew it a following of 135k+), and launched her own business, the Mind Body Spirit Collective, which she describes as an online mutual accountability group for movement. She also works with artists such as SZA, as a trainer, choreographer, and performer. “I don't think so much of it being a transition as just a natural occurrence of where I'm meant to be,” She says of her career, “Everything flows to you if it’s meant for you.”

What inspired you to get involved in movement?

[When I was young,] My parents put me in ballet class. A lot of girls take ballet when they're three. I had a very strict ballet teacher. I remember from a very young age not receiving praise just because I was short and a little chubby, so my introduction to movement was “Oh, you have to look a certain way.” I had a pretty warped view of what movement was, and what it could mean in your life, what it means to be a mover by identity, or a dancer. Then, I really fell in love with singing, I started doing choir and then doing musical theater. For musical theatre, I started taking dance classes here and there again. But even in the musical theatre world, there’s an idea of the “Broadway Body”; the dance world is intense, there was a sense of what my body should be and what it should look like. Then, the day before my high school AP English exam, I just wanted to relieve some stress and anxiety, so I took a yoga class. I became obsessed. I realized you can move because it feels good, you can use it as a meditative kind of spiritual practice to help center and calm you. Then the summer [after my freshman year at Yale] I really got into movement as healing. I did my yoga teacher training and aerial training as well. I learned then that you can really use movement not as a means to an end but as a means unto itself. My senior year [of college] I just said ‘fuck it’ and took a pole dancing class at a studio nearby. I tried one class and became addicted.

When I watch your videos, I see the artistry in your work, but am also struck by the athleticism. While it still exists within strip clubs, pole dancing is becoming popularized in the mainstream as a creative and athletic pursuit through the work of yourself and other pole dancers. Ideally, how would you like people to view pole dancing?

Pole dancing has its roots in the strip club. The pole dancing I share on my Instagram page doesn't exist without the work of the sex workers and pole dancers and clubs who paved the way. I want people to acknowledge and recognize that, and honor that sex work is work. I think pole dancing makes people uncomfortable because people struggle to recognize duality. How can a woman be sexual and sensual and expressive in this way and just do it for the sake of her own personal pleasure? And how can it also be an athletic pursuit? People are multifaceted, complex beings, and we deserve to celebrate that, and for many, pole dancing is a way of doing that. I want people to acknowledge that, and honor the fact that this is an art form with its roots in the strip club, an athleticism with roots in the strip club. Acknowledging that comes with acknowledging sex work as work. And a lot of people are not ready to do that.

At what point and in what ways did pole dancing change things for you in terms of your relationship to your body?

I have a very upbeat and positive personality and I grew up very focused on school. I never thought much about the relationship I had with my body because it wasn’t a huge part of my life until recently. But, on the pole, I feel like I get to kind of tap into sensuality-- different from sexuality-- tapping into sensuality was very foreign to me. The truth is, there’s no shame in that, especially for women. The truth is that we’re all sensual beings. And you can infuse that into your movement in meaningful ways and make art out of it. Our bodies are divine, creative things that we can use as vessels for expression and there is athleticism in that as well.

What has the transition been like from doing pole and yoga for the love of it to turning it into a business?

It happened so fluidly-- I didn't force any part of it. I don't think so much of it being a transition as a natural occurrence of where I'm meant to be.

When the pandemic hit in March 2020, I was about to graduate from Yale, I had signed with an agent, and was ready to go into live performance in New York. Suddenly all that ceased to exist. I fell into a depression — everything I had planned for and worked really hard for was ripped from underneath me. I needed something to look forward to. I got a pole and every day I threw myself into pole dancing. The next thing I knew, a video of me dancing in a cap and gown went very viral. From that, I found an engaged community of other dancers and people online who wanted to learn how to move. Now it’s my full time hustle and I’m building out a business and a brand. So, sometimes obstacles are really just blessings in disguise.

Pole dancing and yoga have taught me that movement shouldn’t be transactional. There’s always a way to deepen your practice. So much of leadership, running a team or business-- it’s making decisions and being pragmatic and executing a vision, but also, can you make people feel good? Can you boost morale? Can you bring joy to people? I love the work that I get to do with the Mind Body Spirit Collective because sometimes all you need is somebody else to believe in you. Everything flows to you if it’s meant for you.

Carolyne Loree photo credit