Since she was 3 years old, there was no Plan B for Kaufman School of Dance alum Helen Gratch. 

“All I wanted to be was a dancer,” Gratch said. 

The professional dancer, who goes by the stage name “Shimmey,” performed with Usher at Super Bowl XLV and appeared on the HBO original series “Hacks” after making a name for herself in a particularly unique style — pole dancing.  

After training in ballet, jazz and modern dance as well as attending a performing arts high school in Chicago, Gratch said she expected to move to New York after graduating to join a modern dance company. But her plans changed when a USC professor paid a visit to her school. 

“They’re like, ‘We’re starting this new dance program. You should come audition,’” Gratch said. “[I] never thought I’d be on the West Coast at all. Never had even been to L[os] A[ngeles].” 

When Gratch joined the inaugural class at Kaufman, she continued her dance studies and learned hip-hop and heels styles. Aside from technique and performance, the dancer said her biggest takeaway from her time at Kaufman was the mentality of open-mindedness.

“In the dance world, there is this very conventional way you go about joining a company or getting into the entertainment industry and music videos, backup dancing, stuff like that,” Gratch said. “Because we were taught so many different styles, it just kept my mind very open to where I could end up in the dance world.” 

Gratch was particularly drawn to what she called the “more sensual and sexy side of dance” and started go-go dancing at clubs in West Hollywood during her junior year. Consequently, Gratch, partnered with close friend and fellow Kaufman alum Ardyn Flynt, began merging the freestyle and improvisation culture that nightlife introduced to her with the hip-hop styles she was studying at Kaufman. 

Flynt, who is also a professional choreographer and dancer, said she admires Gratch, not only for her passion for pole dancing, but also for bringing the art form to larger stages and thus, highlighting the stigmatized style. Flynt described Gratch’s dancing as “entirely captivating.” 

“The technique that she has from such a diverse range of dance genres, [Gratch] has translated to pole in a really uncanny and remarkable way,” Flynt said. “She has this sort of versatility of range that she manages to synthesize within the way that she does pole dance.”

But, after earning her Bachelor’s of Fine Arts in 2019, Gratch hit a roadblock looking for post-grad work. Unable to find jobs with the styles she had been practicing her whole life, the industry seemed difficult to navigate. In an effort to escape the pressures of post-graduate life, the dancer decided to try something different. 

“I was just getting burnt out with dance, so I took a little break, and I was like, ‘You know, I see pole dancing in the clubs that I’m working at. I’ve always kind of wanted to try it, push myself more physically, get the heels, do something that feels like a very solo endeavor,’” Gratch said. 

And after four months of training, Gratch had her big break when Grammy-winning singer Victoria Monét contacted Gratch to teach her pole dancing for a music video in 2022. From that point on, the dancer’s career continued to “snowball,” thanks, in part, to her training at Kaufman and before, she said.

“Because I have all this dance training, I can pick up cues, I know how to listen to direction and I can speak up for myself,” Gratch said. “When these jobs came up, I did feel like I was ready for them.” 

Gratch’s mother and retired school teacher, Michelle Ney said her daughter has always been one to take risks. 

“She’s always been very driven, but wanting to do it her own way,” Ney said. “I just love that she still surprises me with what she does, but through it all, is just very Helen … Her dancing is very beautiful, no matter what form of dance.”

Although it is not in the conventional way she expected, the dancer’s formal training is far from wasted. In pole dancing, Gratch uses traditional techniques like keeping legs straight and feet pointed as well as the freestyle elements of her USC hip-hop training. 

“It was really exciting to be like, ‘Wow, this thing that I just started is suddenly now getting me the jobs that I’ve always wanted to get,’” Gratch said. “It was also a little bit of an identity crisis, like, ‘Oh my God. I thought I would be getting jobs because of what I’ve been training in for years, but I was using all my dance training just through the new medium of pole.’” 

Similar to how she embraced the art form, Gratch said she feels that the pole dancing community also accepts dancers with open arms after finding “judgement” and “self-hate” in the dance industry. Gratch said despite the initial difficulties she faced in the traditional industry, she encourages up-and-coming dancers to explore the unconventional. 

“Everyone’s pole journey is so different, and I found that pole dance is so much more inclusive than the normal dance world,” Gratch said. “You do one thing and everyone applauds you. There’s no gatekeeping. We all want each other to succeed because it looks different on everyone.”