Vanesa Chung Martinez lives and breathes dance.  Having first learned ballet as a child, her fervor for dance carried on into her teen years as part of Bodycare, a dance group in Kota Kinabalu, and into her days of university as part of the salsa community in Newcastle, Australia.

But it was early in 2013 when she first discovered pole dancing.  A lot of the time when people hear ‘pole dancing’, the image they have in their heads is hypersexualised.  It comes with some stigma that Vanesa was initially quite self conscious about.  But from her very first class, it became apparent to her that pole was about much more than the stigma.  Pole dancing not only challenged her physically but also gave her a safe outlet to express and explore her creativity and sensuality.  That freedom and discovery gave her a newfound confidence and grounded 

state of mind that has shaped the instructor and person she is today. Pole Dancing became her therapy in fighting her decade long battle of mental health illness of Anxiety and Depression.

Vanesa competed in a number of state heats in Australia, and was a finalist in the Australian Pole Championships in 2015. Soon after, Vanesa took a “competitive break” as she entered a new life chapter - Motherhood. Now, a mother of three children, Vanesa continues to share her passion for dance and hopes to inspire others to discover their authentic self through dance.