FAQ

Empire Policies

Empire was founded on principles that we continue to base our policies around as we grow, these are incredibly important to us!

As a physically safe place, we can only accept behaviours that do not compromise the safety of you, your fellow students, or our teaching team.

As a welcoming place, we support those who support others, and will raise any concerns about negative behaviours if these come up.

And as a small business with a singular owner we ask your understanding that our policies are in place to ensure the continuation of our studio not only as a wonderful community to be part of, and space to learn and grow, but to maintain our ability to sustain our business.

We are so proud to promote our standards of excellence, and our policies reflect our commitment to you to provide the experience you deserve!

  • Studio access is available from 10 minutes before the start of your class until the class starts. Once the class has started, you may not be permitted entry. If you buzz in early, you will disturb the classes, teachers, and students in session. Please plan your time management using the 10 minute window to make sure you can access your classes and avoid disruption.

  • We encourage the safe and sustainable use of grip products that minimises damage to the equipment and inconveniencing others.

    Banned Grips
    - Climber’s Chalk (or similar)
    - i-Tac
    - Rosin (or products containing rosin)
    - Wax (or products containing wax)

    Welcomed Grips
    - Dew Point (or similar)
    - Dry Hands/Griptinite (or similar)
    - Tite Grip

    Please check with your instructor before using any unapproved grips!

  • Our classes are led by an incredibly talented and highly qualified team of New Zealand’s best pole, circus and acrobatic instructors. Our team are trained to lead classes in a safe and holistic way, prioritising technical safety and understanding of movement. Relax, focus on yourself, and let your instructor lead the way!

    Skills & Combos
    - only proceed to work on a skill once the instructor has specified this
    - only ask the instructor for guidance, do not distract other students by asking them, they will not understand the skill as deeply as the instructor and this can lead to injury, misunderstanding, and place other students in difficult positions

    Spotting
    - soft-spotting, or safety & understanding based spotting, is the only type of spotting our instructors engage. If you require heavy spotting, you are not yet ready to perform a skill, and will be given alternative guidance to support your development
    - spotting is only performed by instructors who are experienced in spotting points

  • We understand MindBody has its many quirks, and we ask you to please try a few steps before contacting Emma when experiencing MindBody issues!

    You can try
    - restarting the app
    - using the studio website
    - using the MindBody website
    - contacting MindBody if this is a greater issue

    If you Late-Cancel a class in MindBody, or do not show up, please understand that it is important for late cancellation fees to be applied, and we cannot provide exemptions for most circumstances. The administrative time taken, and monetary loss to the studio, for a mistake on the part of the booking client unfortunately adds up significantly and creates further burden on the studio management - which Emma would love to instead prioritise to helping you!

  • Empire is proud to promote professional excellence in our classes, and proud to be a substance-free space.

    It is our expectation that students will arrive to classes without the influence of any amount of alcohol or drugs.

    If you’re planning on indulging, save your classes for another day, or head to class before you start!

Getting Started

Getting started is the hardest part, so well done on getting curious already!

Our studio welcomes anyone over 18 to join our classes, whether it’s the occasional drop-in class to give it a go, or our dedicated members!

Our group classes are designed to give adults of all genders a place to explore new skills and make new friends together, if you’re new to movement and fitness you’re absolutely welcome here. If you’re looking to ramp up your fitness journey and learn some wild new tricks, we’ve got you covered too!

If you have any accessibility needs that you’d like to enquire about, feel free to pop an email through to discuss this with us.

  • No! Our Director & Head Instructor Emma has spent years training in different countries and cities, and we want you to have the option to simply drop in if you’re travelling too! You don’t have to be a short-term student to use our pre-paid passes though, we know you can’t always guarantee your schedule so our pre-paid passes are available to everyone to attend once a week, once a month, or just once to try it out.

  • Absolutely not! Our classes are progression-based staring with the foundations. While other sports can provide a helpful base level of fitness, there’s really nothing quite like aerials so we start from the absolute beginning and as you become stronger and fitter you’ll progress.

  • Not at all! Our Aerial Conditioning, Bootcamps, and other fitness suite classes are for everyone, there are no mandatory courses to join our playground!

What to expect

First, make sure you can find us! We are located upstairs at 110 Cuba Street, from the street level you’ll see a little black doorway in between the Wellington Apothecary and Indeja - pop into the doorway and press the buzzer for Empire. We recommend coming 5-10 minutes early for your first class to make sure you can find us, and so that we can meet you!

As the classes are technical fitness classes we require our students to arrive on time for the full pre-class briefing and warm-up. If you are late by more than 5 minutes you may not be permitted to join, and a standby student may fill the place.

  • WHAT TO EXPECT

    Your first Pole Dance class: you’ll meet your teacher on arrival and fill out a new student form - let your teacher know right away if you have any previous injuries that they should be aware of. The Level 1 classes are open-access, meaning that brand new students will learn base techniques alongside students that have been attending for longer, so you’ll get to see progressions for the tricks you’ll learn in real time! We start with a warm-up, conditioning, move into the class itself, then finish with a little dance before stretching out.

    WHAT TO WEAR

    In Level 1, our skin grip is used for climbing and sitting techniques, and bare skin from the mid-thigh down is required in performing these actions. It is preferable to wear slim-fitting shorts to accommodate this, and you can wear these under looser shorts if you’d like. However, if you would prefer to begin in leggings this will be fine for many other techniques that you will learn in Level 1, although you may miss out on the climbing and sitting techniques. You may wear any tops that you are comfortable in, though it is recommended that you wear a singlet-style top so that you can access arm skin grip.

    For your first Pole Dance Choreo class you can wear anything that you would normally wear to a pole dance class, but you will want to additionally be prepared to bring knee pads or leggings with you for floorwork!

  • WHAT TO EXPECT

    Your first Flexibility class: if this is your first class with us, you’ll meet your teacher on arrival and fill out a new student form - let your teacher know right away if you have any previous injuries that they should be aware of. Our Flex classes combine active, passive, and static stretching techniques to offer a well-rounded movement session to help improve your mobility and strength in your range of motion. Some classes will be more focused on flows, while others on specific techniques, and there will be variations for all mobility levels from beginner to advanced. We’ll complete a warm-up with breathing techniques and activation exercises before a class of stretch-work, then a cool down at the end before you leave.

    WHAT TO WEAR

    You can wear any activewear that you are comfortable in to this class, although in cooler weather leggings will be preferable to keep warm throughout the session! We have plenty of mats to stretch on, though you may like to bring your own yoga mat towel if you have one, and you are welcome to bring your own yoga mat if you would like to.

  • WHAT TO EXPECT

    Your first Booty class: if this is your first class with us, you’ll meet your teacher on arrival and fill out a new student form - let your teacher know right away if you have any previous injuries that they should be aware of. Our booty classes are a fun way to condition and strengthen your legs, but they’re also full of twerk techniques and choreo! You can expect a roughly 50/50 split of conditioning and choreo, these routines are more risqué than our usual choreo classes!

    WHAT TO WEAR

    First - we HIGHLY recommend soft kneepads! There are many polewear brands that sell kneepads for pole, but these can also be any kneepads that do not have hard components (so no roller derby kneepads, but soft volleyball ones are great!).

    You can wear any activewear that you are comfortable in to this class, this class is a fitness class with a fun choreo twist, so you are welcome to dress for dancing and we recommend short workout shorts or pole shorts for the full experience!

  • Aerial Conditioning is designed to help you to progressively load your body rather than pushing you too hard! You’ll be most comfortable in a shirt and leggings, and you don’t need prior experience to join this class.

  • Lyra 1 is designed to help you to learn the fundamentals of Lyra, so brand newbies are encouraged! You’ll be most comfortable in a shirt and leggings, and you don’t need prior experience to join this class.

Pole Dance

Modern pole dance has many influences, but its origin is from strip clubs! It is important to us that our studio recognizes strippers as pioneers of modern pole.

At Empire, we offer Level classes which focus on technique, as well as choreo and conditioning classes. In the Level classes (1-5), we focus on teaching strong and confident technique. Pole is an incredible art but as you progress to inverted moves and bendier tricks it is also a high-exertion gymnastic sport, so we treat it like one in our tech classes! We provide you with the functional techniques that you need so that you can apply your own styles of dance and movement to create your own routines and flows however it is that you move best.

Our choreo classes cover genres from slinky, sexy, stripper-style to light and lyrical or fun and jazzy! We’re all about encouraging you to try styles that interest you, and lean in to your own vibe.

  • If you’re a brand new beginner, have a few pole classes under your belt, or are returning after a break then Level 1 is the best place to begin - you can also take any of our off-the-pole classes!

    If you dance regularly, have some previous pole experience whether from home, a studio or a club, or are visiting town have a look at our levels page first and flick us an email if you’re not sure which level to join!

  • We don’t run terms, instead we run a curriculum and we share the fundamentals of that with you in the Level Cards you’ll be given. As you go and grow, we check in to make sure you’re comfortable with the fundamentals of each level and when they’re second-nature skills we’ll graduate you with a certificate and a new Level Card!

  • Absolutely not! Pole Dance has so many pathways to follow and you might want to simply have fun with your hobby, maybe add some choreo to develop your movement skills and enjoy using your pole technique as a creative outlet. If you don’t want to do flips and big tricks you don’t have to at all!

  • We provide a suite of dedicated conditioning and technical classes to help with your progress. Pole Dance is incredibly technical, and takes a lot of time and repetition to get comfortable with certain skills, we highly recommend additional conditioning classes if your focus is progressing up levels!

what is your cancellation policy?

You can manage your cancellations through your account! If you cancel six or more hours before a class, you’ll get your class pass back. Late cancels and no-shows will still use a class pass credit, or a late cancellation fee will apply to members. Please cancel through your account if you can’t make a class, so that a lucky wait-lister can be contacted!

Purchases of class passes are valid for 12 months and are not returnable, but if you can’t use your pass up you can arrange to have it reassigned to a friend!