FKA Twigs has credited pole dancing with helping her reclaim herself as a woman.
The British singer is well-known for her impressive pole-dancing skills, which she has shown off in a variety of videos, including the music video for Cellophane in April 2019.
FKA Twigs, real name Tahliah Barnett, spent the year before the video’s release learning the craft as she recovered from surgery to remove uterine fibroids and from sexual trauma.
“(Pole dancing) was linked to certain things in my past that helped me reclaim myself as a woman and really see my body, I think, for what it could do rather than what it looked like,” she explained to GQ magazine. “I’d spent the whole of my life looking at my mirror thinking, ‘Oh, I don’t like that bit’ or ‘I wish this was different.’ And when I was pole dancing, it was the first time where I was, ‘This is who I am. My sexuality is for me.'”
The 34-year-old revealed on Instagram in May 2018 that she had the surgery in December 2017, and described her experience with the condition as “living with a fruit bowl of pain every day”.
In December 2020, she filed a lawsuit against her ex-boyfriend Shia LaBeouf for sexual battery, assault, and infliction of emotional distress during their relationship between 2018 and 2019.
LaBeouf has denied the allegations and a court date has been set for April 2023 after mediation failed to lead to a settlement.
