Kriti Mehrotra
Netflix’s ‘Strip Down, Rise Up’ is an honest and unexpectedly moving documentary movie that offers us a behind-the-scenes look into the fascinating world of pole dancing, revealing how it can be a form of expression rather than just a way of making money at strip clubs. With the brilliant storytelling of Michèle Ohayon shining through, the latter aspect of the dance form is actually rarely mentioned in this powerful film. Instead, the focus is on the reclamation and the reawakening of one’s feminine being. And guiding us through the entire process is Amy Bond, a professional division pole competitor. Here’s what we know about her.
Who Is Amy Bond?
Born in a conservative family as the oldest of 7 children, Amy Bond is the daughter of a former lieutenant in the Marines and a first-class graduate of West Point University. According to the pole dance expert, she got her competitive nature from her parents, which has not always been the best thing for her, considering her past. Raised with Mormon beliefs, Amy ran away from home at the age of 19 to be an actress. In Los Angeles, she ended up doing nude modeling for money, and from there she moved into the porn industry.
Amy was part of the porn industry for just six months, but she says it turned her life around. Even after she spent four years getting through community college and enrolled in Berkley and then Boston University School of Law, she couldn’t escape that past. Thus, to get over that society-inflicted and self-deprecating shame, a decade after Amy left porn, she found pole dancing and took it up as a way to reclaim ownership of her body. The fact that she was raped on two different occasions has also played a significant role in how she performs her pieces.
Where Is Amy Bond Now?
Amy Bond is currently a happily married working woman residing in San Francisco, California. While her husband, Keith, is a Tech Executive at Microsoft, Amy is not only a professional pole competitor, but she is also a pro bono attorney (representing low-income clients at the debt and defense clinic and the family law clinic), a writer, and the Founder and CEO of San Francisco Pole and Dance Studio. Apart from the San Francisco unit, Amy has now expanded to Oakland and will soon be opening her premier studio in Berkley as well, replacing the Phoenix Aerial Art and Pole.
As a writer, the former corporate employee has had her work published in The HuffPost, Narratively, The Rumpus, Manifest-Station, and many more such platforms. But most importantly, she is the author of the forthcoming memoir, ‘Becoming California,’ where she talks about her entire journey of moving to Los Angeles as a naïve teenager and failing to make a name for herself in the entertainment industry. As for her work in pole dance, if you’re interested in knowing what Amy is up to, you can always check out her Instagram profile or other social media platforms.
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