OLENA POKLONSKA: FINDING A NEW PURPOSE THROUGH MOVEMENT

From a career in law and academia to building a dance and fitness community followed by more than 290,000 people, Olena Poklonska’s story is proof that life’s most rewarding chapter can sometimes be the one you never planned.

There is a tendency to think of life in straight lines. We choose a profession, build a career, raise a family and, somewhere along the way, are expected to have worked out exactly who we are and where we are going.

Olena Poklonska’s journey challenges that idea entirely.

A mother of five, highly educated legal academic and former university law lecturer, Olena had already built an accomplished professional life before moving with her family to Ireland.

What she could not have known was that starting again in a new country would eventually lead her towards an entirely different purpose — one built around movement, confidence, community and the simple joy of dance.

Today, at 44, Olena is the founder of Fit&Glow, a rapidly growing dance fitness and wellness community that has attracted more than 290,000 followers on Facebook, alongside expanding audiences on Instagram and TikTok. Her videos have reached millions around the world, with several surpassing 11 million views.

But behind those extraordinary numbers is a much more personal story of reinvention.

Starting Again

Before Ireland, Olena’s world looked very different.

With two university degrees and an advanced academic degree in Law, she had established herself within academia, teaching Law at university and pursuing a career that had required years of study, discipline and commitment. Moving countries changed the landscape completely.

Starting again somewhere new inevitably means leaving behind familiar routines, professional networks and the environment in which a career and identity have been established. For Olena, however, that uncertainty also created an opportunity. Ireland gave her the space to look at herself differently.

Family had always been central to her life, and as a mother of five, her responsibilities were considerable. Yet with the encouragement and support of those closest to her, Olena began exploring something that had always made her happy: movement and dance.

Initially, there was no grand business plan or carefully mapped-out career change. She simply rediscovered something she loved. Gradually, however, she began to recognise just how powerful movement could be. Music could transform the atmosphere of a room. People could arrive at a class feeling tired, self-conscious or unsure of themselves and leave smiling, energised and standing a little taller. Dance wasn’t simply exercise. It was connection and it was confidence. And, increasingly for Olena, it was purpose.

The Birth of Fit&Glow

Around two years ago, Olena made the decision to take that passion further and embark on a professional journey within dance and fitness.

That decision became Fit&Glow.

Beginning with dance fitness and later expanding into Pilates, Olena developed her classes around a refreshingly straightforward philosophy: exercise should not feel like punishment. Movement can be joyful. Fitness can be social. Exercise can make people feel good about themselves rather than constantly reminding them of what they believe they need to change. As her classes grew, Olena began sharing that same philosophy and energy online.

The response was remarkable.

Fit&Glow’s Facebook community has now grown beyond 290,000 followers, while its presence continues to expand across Instagram and TikTok. Videos have accumulated millions of views, with some exceeding 11 million. For a venture that began only a relatively short time ago, those figures demonstrate an extraordinary level of engagement. Yet ask Olena what matters most, and she looks beyond the statistics. It is the woman who finally finds the courage to walk into her first class. It is someone returning to movement after years of inactivity. It is the person who sees a Fit&Glow video at home, turns up the music and starts dancing. Those individual moments are the real measure of success.

Reinvention at 44

Perhaps one of the most powerful elements of Olena’s story is the point in her life at which this new chapter began. At 44 years old and as a mother of five, she is building a career that barely existed in her world just a few years earlier. In a society that frequently places artificial timelines on achievement, Olena’s journey offers an important counterpoint.

There is no deadline for discovering a new ambition.

For women in particular, years spent balancing careers, relationships and family responsibilities can sometimes mean personal aspirations are pushed further down the list. Dreams are postponed until the children are older, circumstances improve or the elusive “right time” finally arrives.

Olena’s experience has shown her that motherhood and personal ambition do not have to compete with one another.

Olena’s academic career gave her discipline, responsibility and perseverance. Motherhood developed patience, resilience, organisation and strength. Dance provided somewhere new to put all those qualities.

Family, Ireland and Finding Home

Olena is also quick to acknowledge that her transformation has not been a solitary journey. The support of her family has been fundamental to Fit&Glow’s development. Their patience, encouragement and belief gave her the confidence to pursue something unfamiliar and continue when the path ahead was uncertain.

Ireland, too, became far more than simply the country to which the family relocated. It became home. And unexpectedly, it became the place where Olena discovered a new sense of purpose. That experience is one reason she hopes her story reaches other women standing at their own crossroads.

Recognition Through the Relentless Magazine Sports Awards

It is this wider story of determination, reinvention and positive impact that makes Olena’s recognition through the Relentless Magazine Sports Awards particularly significant.

The awards celebrate achievement across sport, fitness and the wider communities surrounding them, recognising not simply traditional sporting success but also the people whose dedication, leadership and determination inspire others. For Olena, that recognition represents far more than the rapid growth of Fit&Glow.

It acknowledges the journey behind it. A journey from law and academia to dance and fitness. From relocating to another country to creating a new home. From pursuing a personal passion to building a community capable of reaching hundreds of thousands of people.

Most importantly, it recognises the ability of movement to make a genuine difference in people’s everyday lives.

The Next Chapter

Olena’s ambitions for Fit&Glow are continuing to grow.

She wants to develop the community further across Ireland and beyond, bringing more people together through dance, fitness and wellness while retaining the sense of accessibility and enjoyment that inspired the project from the beginning. Yet behind the business ambitions and extraordinary social media reach lies something much simpler.

Fit&Glow represents the confidence to keep discovering what makes you feel alive. And perhaps that is why Olena’s story resonates beyond fitness.

It is ultimately a story about permission — permission to change, to explore, to rediscover yourself and to acknowledge that the person you were ten or twenty years ago does not have to determine everything that comes next.