Blow a kiss, Bonjour and Welcome to Sky Sirens, flirting with sensuality, fantasy and vintage elegance. Located in the heart of Sydney's Surry Hills, we are an inclusive dance studio offering lessons in Burlesque, Pole Dance and Aerial Artistry.
Embellished with a rich aesthetic of floral wallpaper and feathers, our studio is a safe space for students of all backgrounds and fitness levels to learn aerial and dance styles, and to be included in a positive community. In addition to our physical studio, we also have an online Parlour that allows our audience to experience some Sky Sirens sparkle from the comfort of their own home. The online space is adorned with delicious lingerie and accessories, as well as an assortment of pre-recorded classes from your favourite Siren Instructors.
We are owned and run by proud past and present Sex Workers within all realms of the Adult Industry. As many of our classes are of a sensual nature, it's important for us to acknowledge their roots in Sex Work. We do everything we can to preserve this culture, and pay respects to the Sex Workers, Strippers and Erotic Dancers that pioneered and paved the way to make this Art Form available to us in mainstream society.
The team at Sky Sirens acknowledges that we meet, work and learn on what is and will always be the land of the Gadigal people. We pay our respects to Elders; past, present and emerging, and acknowledge that Indigenous sovereignty has never been ceded.
Proudly owned and run by Sex Workers from every realm of the Adult Industry, Sky Sirens is proud of our Sex Work roots.
Studio owner, Katia began working in a Strip Club in 2008. She learnt how to Pole Dance on podiums, and copied moves from more experienced dancers. Katia loved the performance aspect of Stripping, creating characters and experimenting with costumes on stage. As she progressed into competition and Pageant Stripping in 2011, Katia began classes at a local Pole Studio and trained under some of the best Strippers in Australia. She travelled the country as a touring Showgirl, taught herself Aerial Hoop and Sling and has a suitcase of winning sashes from Miss Nude competitions spanning over ten years. As a career Sex Worker, Katia worked as a mentor for new dancers, and was also employed by local Strip Clubs for weekly classes in Pole and Erotic Dance for their newer dancers.
In 2015, Katia was diagnosed with profound Deafness in one ear and low hearing loss in the other. Club environments are dark and loud, and as someone who grew up without access to the Deaf Community - Katia had no resources for adapting to life as a Deaf person in the hearing world. After resigning from her job teaching at a Western Sydney Pole Studio, Katia decided that she’d create her own opportunity, and set up a studio. Unable to obtain a Bank Loan or gain Full Time employment due to a lack of ‘civilian’ job references, Katia continued to work in Clubs to save for her dream studio.
It was a difficult journey to find a premises for a 25 year old Hard of Hearing woman with no employment history. When she finally found the location on Crown Street, although it needed a lot of work - Katia saw potential and signed the lease to Sky Sirens in March 2016. During the five weeks of renovations, Katia was working during the day at the studio painting and decorating and was also working six nights a week in the club. Despite the journey being hard and rough, Katia was blessed from the Stripper Gods, who sent her “Fairy Stripper-Mothers” Kimmy, Leilani, Kat and Dahlia - who loaned her tens of thousands of dollars when no banks would. Without the money from these Strippers, Sky Sirens would not exist - or not at least for a very long time. The studio was truly built from Sex Work, and it was other Sex Workers that believed in Katia’s dream enough for them to support it financially.
As a result of this support and her career in the Adult Industry, Katia has ingrained the importance of acknowledging the roots of Pole and Sensual styles of dance in the framework of Sky Sirens. Not only are we proud of our Sex Work lineage, we also prioritise the hire of Sex Workers for all roles at the studio, give teachers with Sex Work experience first preference to Sensual choreography classes and give acknowledgment about the history of these dance styles. Katia also set up a reoccurring panel event ‘Disrobed’ in 2017 which was one of the first of it’s kind in Sydney to give Sex Workers a paid platform to tell their stories to the general public.
After five weeks of renovations and set up, Sky Sirens launched with a bang in May 2016, with a decadent Launch Party showcasing performances by local burlesque, circus and pole talent, students from other Sydney-based, supportive studios. There were also showcases by the Sky Sirens original teachers, including Katia, Dahlia, Lola and Billie. Guests were treated to champagne and canapés and this luxurious event set the stage for our passion of creating performance opportunities for our students and community.
The very first term at Sky Sirens had 60 students, with only four teachers and two classrooms. In 2019, we expanded to the second floor of the building and now have four classrooms. Sky Sirens is now open seven days, with more than 400 students attending classes each week, and we are now a team of over thirty. Our students are part of an empowering, diverse community that promotes inclusiveness and self-acceptance.
The studio is always growing and evolving, with the goal of being as inclusive as possible. Since opening we have launched many initiatives to promote these goals, including using gender-neutral vocabulary in all our classes, and our ‘We Are Sirens’ student spotlight program.
Read more about Katia.
The Sky Sirens studio aesthetic is extremely extravagant. Each room has a completely different vibe, yet they all flow and remain cohesive.
From baby pink Flamingo wallpaper to red velvet pillow walls and glass chandeliers, Sky Sirens is a modern pin-up wonderland of Instagram-able goodness. Recline on one of our plush vintage couches, surrounded by decadent antique lamps and vases of ostrich plumes.
Take a peek!
We want our students to become friends, and get to know one another, which is why we have created a beautiful space where everyone can sit on our vintage sofas and chat.
Our Change Rooms are decorated with stunning wallpaper and plush vintage couches, making them a beautiful place to hang out before and after class. Sky Sirens has never been just a dance studio. It is an inclusive, diverse community of babes that offer support and encouragement to one another.
Along with creating a safe space for people to share the joy of learning – one of our biggest passions is giving students and the community opportunities to perform and share their love for their art. Sky Sirens produce a number of (Auslan Interpreted) events in Sydney that act as a platform to showcase diversity in skill level and acts. We provide a safe space for audience members to enjoy performances by not allowing acts portraying cultural, Religious, Sex Worker or Queer appropriation and discrimination against other minority groups. We also don't allow acts that include sexualisation of women in the workforce, especially in women-dominated industries. Our vision is always to create an evening where audience members are moved and feel inspired by the performances. Check out Speakeasy, our student showcase, Glory Box, Disrobed and Heartstoppers.
Being profoundly Deaf and having learnt dance as an adult, Katia has always been interested in an accessible way of teaching and learning. This developed the foundation of the ethics and syllabus that we employ at Sky Sirens.
We recognise that there are barriers for some people to access Pole Dance, Aerial Arts and other styles of dance. We acknowledge that not all bodies are the same, and we don’t all progress at the same speed or learn in the same way. This is especially relevant for physically Disabled, Chronically Ill and Neurodivergent students, who may face additional barriers when accessing classes. However, our goal is to break down those barriers as much as we can. We focus on accessible teaching methods, and actively educate our Instructors on ways to teach diverse bodies and minds.
Our beginner Lyra classes feature low rigged hoops, with the bottom bar at the student’s ‘hip’ height. This means that they are able to get used to manipulating the Lyra, creating shapes and understand the foundation of the apparatus before performing higher in the air. This also ensures accessibility and safety of learning. We were the first studio in Australia (perhaps even globally) to employ this teaching method, along with ensuring all students had their own apparatus.
In 2020, we hired our “Inclusion & Community Engagement Manager” Maya Hart. Maya is a Disabled, Queer, Non Binary person and uses their lived experience and continuous liaison with other marginalised students to find accessibility ‘gaps’ in the business and employ strategies to resolve them. Since the conception of Maya’s role, we have improved our inclusion on many facets, such as our Scholarship Program, Inclusive Parlour sizing, Alt-Text on all images across our website, Re-ignition of the We are Sirens student spotlights and more frequent and detailed Professional Development training for our team.
As a proudly Queer owned business, we understand that there are often barriers for the LGBT+ community when accessing spaces. Not only do we label ourselves as a ‘Safe Space’, we actively employ strategies to ensure our space is actually safe.
All of our Instructors and Employees undergo Sex, Gender and Sexuality training by a Queer Counsellor to ensure they are aware of the significance of pronouns and gender neutral language.
Our waiver form and booking system has the ability for trans students to use their chosen name. The system ensures their dead name remains confidential and only visible on the legal document. It will not be used to address the student and the digital system ensures it’s hidden from the front desk staff and Instructors.
At the beginning of every term in every class, the teacher will initiate a group discussion where students can introduce themselves and their pronouns. We educate our team on not addressing groups of students with gendered language, like “ladies”.
A lot of “moves” within the Pole and Aerial communities can be quite gendered. At Sky Sirens, we have re-evaluated these names and have changed them to be more inclusive. For example, “Hello Boys” on the Pole has been changed to “Hello Babes”! Our instructors are also told to use gender neutral language when describing body parts while dancing. For example, Instructors will say “slide your chest along the floor” or “crotch to the pole”, rather than the associated gendered terms.
All of our changing rooms and bathrooms are not gendered, and can be accessed by all students.
We also have an all bodies “pastie” policy for our events, where “male” nipples must be covered as the law enforces the ridiculous covering of “female” nipples.
As a non-indigenous owned business that operates on stolen land, we acknowledge that our profits are based on a society that systemically oppresses our First Nations people. We believe that it is not enough to simply acknowledge the traditional custodians of our land, but actively introduce programs aimed at decolonising our industry. Here are some of the initiatives that we have currently employed:
All of our Online Class packs are free for Indigenous or First Nations people. If this applies to you, please contact us for a code.
We have a Scholarship available every term that is reserved for an Indigenous or First Nations person (you don’t need to be an existing student to apply).
All of our events contain a number of free and/or discounted tickets reserved for Indigenous or First Nations people. Please contact us for more information on what events we currently have on sale.
We make significant donations to support our First Nations community, especially for Blak Sex Workers. We recommend following @decolonisesexworkau on Instagram as they often have mutual aid for Blak Sex Workers in crisis situations.
All our staff and contractors are paid to complete a “Seven Steps to Reconciliation” Workshop by Indigenous company Evolve aimed at Cultural Awareness and becoming a better ally.
All our terms and workshops begin with an acknowledgment of country.
Our recent goal for improving our current approach to decolonisation within our workplace is to hire a weekly First Nations consultant and reserve employment positions for the Indigenous community.