Millionaire Social’s Pole Fitness Classes Upset Nervous Neighbors

Dance Graduates Will Host Dinner Theater Performances.

In a Charlotte, NC strip mall called the Long Creek Village shopping center, Amiah Nicks’s new business opened in January. Called the Millionaire Social, it is located near a Food Lion grocery store, a daycare center, and a dance studio for minors. In addition to classes on cabaret, pilates, silks and lyra aerial acrobatics, the academy teaches pole art dance. Although Nicks insists that her studio is not a strip club, according to the Charlotte Observer, neighbors aren’t convinced.

“I don’t want to offend anyone,” Nicks assured the Observer. The fact her establishment is still being renovated, with an official grand opening planned for her 40^th birthday on April 20, has not reassured the locals. With the windows not yet covered, passersby can see black walls decorated with plumes of feathers, as well as the purple silks hanging from the ceiling, and what is commonly called a stripper pole.

It is this last item that has inspired locals to take to the Nextdoor app and air their concerns. In some cases, neighbors have expressed support for the dance studio and even admiration for the skill required to become proficient at aerial rope dance. Others disapproved of the ability to see students in dance attire they felt inappropriate for the eyes of their offspring. Further confusing the matter is Nicks’s personal TikTok account, where she has discussed opening a gentlemen’s club since 2022.

Nicks explained her TikTok posts to the Observer as referring to a business venture in Kings Mountain that she has decided not to undertake. With more than 10,000 followers and an account that pays per click, she waited until after the interview to remove the posts that mentioned her possible “gentlemen’s club.”

Nonetheless, confusion remains since Nicks refers to Millionaire Social as a dinner theater on TikTok, a dance and night club on Instagram, and a “cutting-edge dance institution” on its website. To the Observer, she described it as “a performing arts program for the entertainer” led by award-winning and certified pole sport fitness instructors. The studio has not officially opened to the public yet, but its first series of pole dancing classes started on January 29 and its eventual graduates will perform at an upcoming dinner theater attended by family, friends, and the general public.

Open to women 18 and older, the Millionaire Social website states that classes are available for multiple skill levels in four-session packages priced from $80 to $550. Budget-minded students can sign up for a 35-minute class for $25. The Millionaire Social Yelp page promises a “one-of-a-kind dinner theater experience that seamlessly blends extraordinary performances with delectable cuisine.” The ever-changing groups of performers will tackle a range of themes designed to satisfy a variety of attendee tastes.

If Nicks’ promises of a non-adult entertainment establishment prove to be empty, Zoning Administrator Solomon Fortune assures that the business “would not be in compliance with the conditional plan and previous zoning ordinance.” Unconcerned, Nicks told the Observer that pole dancing had helped her regain her confidence during a difficult time in her life. “And I’ve seen what it has done for other women, too.”