KUSHINA

THE WOMAN BEHIND THE FILTH.

I didn’t create Sultry Filth because I wanted to invent another style of dance.

I created it because I needed to understand my own movement.

My body has always lived between different worlds—classical discipline and raw instinct, precision and sensuality, structure and freedom.

For years, those worlds shaped the way I moved. But eventually, I stopped asking how they were supposed to exist separately and started asking a different question:

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I LET THEM FUCK WITH EACH OTHER?

That question changed everything.

What began as the way I naturally moved became something I wanted to take apart, question, understand, and eventually teach.

Not so dancers could learn to move like me.

But so I could give them the tools to discover how they move like themselves.

THAT BECAME SULTRY FILTH.

BEFORE THE FILTH, THERE WAS TECHNIQUE.

My relationship with movement began long before Sultry Filth had a name.

I was trained in classical ballet and contemporary dance, where I learned discipline, placement, alignment, control, musicality, lines, and the mechanics behind how a body moves.

That training gave me structure.

But as my movement evolved, I became increasingly drawn to the spaces outside of that structure—to sensuality movement, pole, floorwork, performance, and the freedom to explore what my body wanted to do when I wasn’t trying to make everything technically perfect.

And something started happening.

I wasn’t abandoning my training.

I WAS FUCKING WITH IT.

I began taking the precision I had learned and asking what else it could become.

What happens when a technically clean line gets dirty?

What happens when control becomes temptation?

What happens when something disciplined becomes raw?

What happens when you understand the rules well enough to deliberately bend them?
That collision between technical understanding and unapologetic exploration became one of the foundations of the way I move—and eventually, the way I teach.

THE TECHNIQUE NEVER DISAPPEARED.

I JUST STOPPED LETTING IT HAVE THE LAST WORD.

THE FILTH QUEEN

SHE WASN’T CREATED. SHE WAS UNCOVERED.

The Filth Queen isn’t a character I put on when I perform.

She is the part of me that stopped asking for permission.

The part that could be technically precise and unapologetically filthy. Powerful and vulnerable. Controlled and instinctive. Elegant and nasty as hell.

For a long time, dancers are taught to refine themselves—to clean the line, correct the placement, control the body, perfect the presentation.

And I value that discipline.

But I also became curious about what lived underneath it.

What happens when I stop polishing every part of myself?

What happens when I let something feel uncomfortable, strange, sensual, dark, awkward, dominant, soft—or completely fucking unexpected?

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I STOP PERFORMING WHO I THINK I SHOULD BE AND LET MY BODY SHOW ME WHO ELSE IS IN THERE?

That exploration is where the Filth Queen lives.

Not in perfection.

Not in imitation.

In permission.

And that same permission is what I want dancers to experience when they enter Sultry Filth.

I’m not interested in creating more Filth Queens.

I’M INTERESTED IN HELPING YOU UNCOVER WHO’S ALREADY INSIDE OF YOU

I DON’T TEACH YOU TO BECOME ME.

I can show you movement.

I can break down the technique.

I can explain where your weight is going, what initiates the movement, where the connection is happening, and what your body is doing.

But eventually, I’m going to stop giving you all the answers.

I’m going to ask questions.

What are you connected to?

Where did that movement actually begin?

What happens if you change the pressure?

What are you feeling?

Why did you make that choice?

And does it actually feel like you?

Because I don’t want dancers leaving my classes only remembering choreography.

I want you leaving with a deeper understanding of your own body and your own movement.

Sometimes that means I correct you.

Sometimes I challenge you.

Sometimes I make you slow something all the way down and find out what the hell is actually happening inside of it.

And sometimes I give you the technique, step back, and tell you:

NOW FUCK WITH IT.

Because my job isn’t to give you my answer.

It’s to give you enough technique, tools, questions, and permission to start discovering yours.

I’LL TEACH YOU THE LANGUAGE.

YOUR BODY WRITES THE STORY.

THE FOUNDATION BEHIND THE FILTH

My relationship with movement began at 10 years old with classical ballet.

I went on to study at the School of American Ballet in New York City for four years on a full scholarship, training inside a world built on discipline, precision, control, and technical excellence.

My path was leading toward a professional career in ballet when a serious injury changed its direction. I broke seven bones, and the future I had imagined for myself suddenly looked very different.

But movement wasn’t finished with me.

I continued my education at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, where my studies expanded through ballet, contemporary dance, and psychology.

And then my movement world started getting much bigger.

I stepped outside of classical dance and began exploring breaking, popping and locking, voguing, animation, gliding, and freestyle movement. Each language gave my body something different—another way to understand rhythm, texture, isolation, expression, individuality, and control.

Then came an education no traditional dance program could have given me.

THE CLUB.

I spent 14 years dancing as a stripper.

And I don’t separate those years from my dance education.

The club taught me things about sensuality, presence, improvisation, audience connection, confidence, vulnerability, sexuality, performance, and instinct that I could never have learned standing at a ballet barre.

At the same time, I continued studying my craft—earning training and certifications including Cleo’s Rock N Pole, Liquid Motion, FabPole (aerial pole & silk hammock) and master-level breathwork, with additional certifications throughout my career.

I competed in the pole world, earned professional status with USPDF 2017, competed with Pole Sport Organization 2018-2023, and earned titles including Miss Haute Velour Carnal 2022 and Dance Filthy USA 2024.

But eventually, performing and teaching weren’t enough.

I wanted to build something.

In 2020, I opened Ninja Pole Fitness, where I spent years developing dancers, teaching movement, and continuing to study how bodies learn, connect, and express themselves.

And inside that studio, another idea started taking shape.

In March 2024, the first version of Sultry Filth entered the room.

What began as one part of my teaching eventually became the culmination of everything my body had learned—from the ballet barre to the floor, from classical technique to freestyle, from the club to the pole, from performer to teacher to studio owner.

More than three decades of movement.
More than two decades of teaching.

And I’m still learning.

Because I don’t believe becoming a teacher means you stop being a student.

EVERYTHING I’VE LEARNED LIVES SOMEWHERE INSIDE THE METHOD.

AND I’M STILL EVOLVING.

Sultry Filth isn’t the ending of my movement story.

It’s where everything I’ve learned finally had permission to exist in the same place.

The ballerina is still here.
The freestyle dancer is still here.
The stripper is still here.
The pole dancer is still here.
The performer is still here.
The teacher is still here.
The studio owner is still here.

NONE OF HER HAD TO DISAPPEAR FOR THE NEXT VERSION OF ME TO EXIST.

And I think that matters.

Because I ask my students to explore parts of themselves they may not completely understand yet. To question what they’ve been taught. To get uncomfortable. To become curious. To let their movement change as they change.

I can’t ask that of you if I’m not willing to do it myself.

So I’m still training.
Still questioning.
Still performing.
Still teaching.
Still getting uncomfortable.
Still discovering new parts of my own movement.

Sultry Filth will continue to evolve because I will continue to evolve.

And if there is one thing my entire movement life has taught me, it’s this:

YOU DON’T HAVE TO ERASE WHO YOU’VE BEEN TO DISCOVER WHO YOU’RE BECOMING.

NOW, WHAT ABOUT YOU?

You know where my movement came from.

But Sultry Filth was never created for you to repeat my story.

I WANT TO KNOW WHAT’S HIDING INSIDE YOURS.

What happens when you stop worrying about what your movement is supposed to look like?

What happens when you trust your technique—but give yourself permission to fuck with it?

What happens when you stop copying sensuality and start discovering your own?

What happens when you become curious about the parts of your movement you haven’t met yet?

I can bring you the technique.

The Method.

The questions.

The tools.

And a space where you’re allowed to explore.

But what you uncover inside of it?

THAT PART BELONGS TO YOU.

YOUR FILTH BEGINS WHERE IMITATION ENDS.