Meet Jehan Izhar of The Stage in Pomona

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jehan Izhar.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I have been an athlete and a performer my entire life. I grew up as a martial artist- My sister and I were on the first internationally competitive all women’s Tae Kwon Do team. When I wasn’t training at the dojo – I gravitated towards the stage; I was a writer, a storyteller, and a poet. I directed my first play in high school when I was 16 years old, and it was around that same time, I taught my first fitness class. I didn’t know at the time that I was walking directly into my destiny. I had no idea until I got to college that I had a talent for coaching people. At UC Santa Barbara I majored in Dramatic Arts with a minor in Exercise Science. Everyone asked what I was going to do with those two seemingly separate fields. I had no idea I have perfectly groomed myself for a career in the circus.

I graduated as the #1 student in the Exercise Science department and was recognized as “most likely to impact the industry” – that same year I won the Santa Barbara New Plays Festival for my solo performance piece “Rice Pudding” – which was an autobiographical play about growing up in a feminist Muslim family in Southern California.

My life had many unexpected twists and turns after graduation – but I never stopped writing or performing. I also continued my studies in Kinesiology by earning a Master’s at Cal State Fullerton…along with any and all fitness and athletic certifications I could manage. I found that I had a talent for working with clients whose needs went beyond the norm. While my friends went on to train at local gyms – I was working with cancer patients, older adults, injured athletes, and developing specialized fitness programs for clients who struggled with mental health issues. I found that it was my artistic approach to coaching that helped me to excel. I was creative with my programming and my goal was to help my clients to discover what they loved about themselves, their bodies, and their abilities. I started to attract more and more artistically minded clients. Around the same time – I began my own training in aerial circus arts and pole dancing. This happened completely by accident. I walked past a studio one day and decided to try it out – I fell instantly in love. However, I also recognized that there was a huge need in the aerial and pole community for the kind of professional education of coaches and safe training methodology that my own studies had taught me. The deeper I got in the world of circus – the more opportunity there was for me to teach and develop effective training protocols for performance troupes and circus training centers around the world. I helped to write the first aerial fitness program that was approved by the American Council on Exercise, I spent three months teaching pole dancing and developing coaching curriculum at pole dance studios in the Middle East, and I have led over 30 teacher training seminars at pole & aerial studios across the US and Australia. Home is where the heart is though – and it is here in Pomona where I have my home base and local training center: The Stage. The Stage is a local (and global) forum in Pomona Ca, serving the needs of aspiring artists and athletes. My aim is to provide coaching, counseling, education, and opportunities for diverse peoples in the performing arts and athletic community. We offer a safe and supportive space for our students to empower their bodies and express themselves on stage.

Has it been a smooth road?
It’s never a smooth road! Most of the time, I feel like I am trying to run up a hill made of quicksand.

My biggest struggle was the long term illness and death of my mother that consumed the majority of my twenties. About one month after I graduated college, my mother was diagnosed with stage 4 inflammatory breast cancer. This completely changed everything I thought that I was going to do with my life. I moved back home. I worked only part-time so that I would have the ability to help care for her. I performed in the circus to escape the heaviness of my home life responsibilities. This however, taught me the healing comfort of the creative process.
Many of us are dealing with hardships in our lives and the stage is a place we can come to and allow our emotions to flow into our movement and become art.

My mother died when I was 27 – the grief was intense, but it is what drove me to open my studio. I had no resources and no experience running a business – only a passion to share my love of circus arts, my ability to coach, and the desire to create a safe space for others to empower their bodies and express themselves. We had to build our stage and our community from literally nothing. It took years of no sleep, living day to day, an incredible amount of personal sacrifice – and many many hard lessons learned. However, my greatest gift was the level of dedication and commitment I received from students in my community who desired the stage as much as I did. It wasn’t just me who sacrificed to make this dream possible – it was everyone who stepped foot in the space as well. We are still building, still working, still sacrificing – but now we have so many great achievements behind us as well. I know my mom would be proud!

So, as you know, we’re impressed with The Stage – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
The Stage is definitely a hidden gem – we have been producing underground circus shows for three years (formerly under the name Jypsy’s Performing Arts). Each season I run a course called “Act Creation” – in this course I come up with a socially or politically relevant theme and I put out an open casting call to aspiring performers of all ages (over 18), backgrounds, and levels of ability. Throughout the course, I help the performers to develop their own acts which tell their personal story and their interpretation of the theme. While I specialize in working with circus performers – I take people with ANY and ALL talents that they wish to share on stage. I coach performers with musicality, stage presence, costuming, movement technique, and choreography. At the end of our eight-week course, we put on a full black box circus production and all students can invite their friends and family to come and witness their transformation and support their art and their story. So far we have produced six sold-out Act Creation shows and we have more in the works! My goal is to re-define community theater as a place where people the diverse people in one city come together in support of each other’s self-expression – in a world where technology rules communication it is important to maintain places where we can literally physically connect and enhance our feelings of empathy and understanding of others around us – even the ones who may live outside of our own bubble.

I offer weekly classes in aerial arts, pole dance, and fitness geared towards performing arts. I also coach clients individually and offer education and training for instructors and other coaches in the industry.

My passion is for helping to make people’s on stage dreams a reality. Sometimes I work with world-class athletes, and sometimes I work with a group of grandma’s who want to surprise their kids with a trapeze routine – regardless, I’m here to work with people who break the mold – and who are ready to dedicate themselves to the physical aspect of the creative process. It takes hard work, sweat, time, dedication, and complete re-structuring of one’s ego….but those moments under the spotlight are so worth it!

Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
We are so lucky to be located in the heart of the Art Colony in Downtown Pomona! The arts colony is so supportive of our endeavors to empower our community through the arts and we are surrounded by so many other artists and creative-minded businesses. There is always something fun going on – whether its concerts at the Glass House, our monthly ArtWak, gallery openings, parades, or guerrilla photo shoots …you never know what you are going to encounter when you take a trip out to Pomona. The people are friendly, curious, and so supportive of our seemingly whacky circus show ideas. Some people in LA have never heard of Pomona, others don’t know that there’s anything to love about it – so I encourage you to open your mind and your heart to a new experience and come out and immerse yourself in this district thats bursting with creativity.

Pricing:

• We offer a newcomers class on Sunday mornings. Sign up to start your pole and aerial journey for $99/month.
• Act Creation courses run seasonally and generally start at $199 for the 8 week course – ending in your chance to perform in a live show!
• We offer private performance coaching, fitness training, and yoga therapy. Contact us for details!
• We have a number of weekly aerial, pole, and fitness class packages. Drop in class rates are $25-$30 and class passes are $99-$199. Contact us to find the pass that’s right for you!

Contact Info:

• Address: 163 W. 2nd Street
  Pomona CA 91766
• Website: www.thestageglobal.com
• Phone: (909) 742-9453
• Email: Manager@thestageglobal.com
• Instagram: @thestageglobal
• Facebook: @thestageglobal

Image Credit:
Daniel J. Sliwa

Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.