Dance Moms is on Netflix, so there goes my week.

Posted on by Cathy Vandewater

I just discovered this show. Not really feeling the fake mom drama/bickering/blahbityblah, but the dancing? The pressure? The real talk on technique? Yasssssssss.

Deep thoughts I had while watching Dance Moms for the first time, in no particular order… with some Abby Lee gifs to help illustrate my feelings.

1. Fuck you, mom, for not putting me in dance classes from age 3. I could have had my splits 20 years ago.

too old

2. Actually I’m sorry mom, dance classes like these probably would have made me hate dancing and would have crowded out all other interests in my life. 7 hours a day? Like seriously?

3. If I were a child, I would find it really confusing to see two authority figures screaming at each other in front of me.

4. Maddie. Wow. It’s beyond technique. This kid just speaks movement, fluently.

she's a star

5. I feel like there’s a lot of life lessons happening on this show, that I wish I would have learned earlier. For example: corrections aren’t personal–the move should be what the move is intended to be. If you don’t perform it properly, you’ll get corrected. No reason to catch hurt feelings.

6.  I feel like it’s the job of families of kids who perform like this to remind them that they’re important as a person outside of dance–but not to contradict corrections they’re getting (ie. “You’re dancing PERFECTLY, your teacher doesn’t know what she’s talking about”). I think kids are tough enough to handle picky corrections on one thing (like dance) if they have a strong support system reminding them that they’re worthy and loved for 100 other reasons (outside of how well they do that one skill).

7. Like, Maddie though. Are you serious? And her attitude is so killer too. I feel like I could learn a lot from how this kid operates–rolling with the punches, trying her hardest for simple the love of doing it right (not to win approval, etc), being fearless.

Let’s take a moment and appreciate her.

8. Don’t argue with your teacher. She’s right. Even if she’s being mean about it. Kendall, you ARE sticking your rib cage out.

shut up and sit down

9. Accept what looks like a loss gracefully. When Maddie was passed over for the starring spot of a music video (one that required more posing than dancing), she actually won the opportunity to dance her butt off throughout the whole thing–which was a spotlight on her true talent. Because she kept a good attitude, she danced beautifully and in my opinion, totally stole the show.

u mad?

 

10. It’s a long game–win or lose competition to competition, dedication to clean technique, hard work, and pure enjoyment of dancing wins over time. Again, totally obsessed with Maddie and it’s showing, but, you can tell watching this kid that dancing naturally feels great and right to her. You can’t hold that kind of talent and attitude down. It’s just too fun to watch.

i would kill myself if i didn't dance

Other notes from the week: I tried spinning for the first time. My ass is KILLING me (those seats are really hard) but so are my quads, thus I’m thinking this might be good cross-training for improving my extensions.… a never-ending project.

How’s everybody? Did we all catch Leigh Ann killing it over at PopSugar? Totally doing this workout at home on Saturdays when I’m too lazy to go to the studio.

Also, love these guys proving that just because we make it look easy doesn’t make it so.

XOXOXO

POLE PLAY DATE.

Posted on by Cathy Vandewater

OMG you guys, I had a pole play date!

Turns out, my friend Irene who’s an aerialist (she’s been on 8 apparatuses and counting) and a poler lives somewhat nearby to me! (though honestly, nothing is truly nearby Bay Ridge).

Since she has a photoshoot coming up, she wanted to come by and practice poses. So we had a POLE PLAY DATE (PPD).

I snapped a few pics so she could see which moves were photographing well, but honestly, the slaying-ness is undeniable and I just had to post, poor photo-quality be damned! (I shot these with my iPhone from where I was lazily stretching on the floor)

Check this out, and feel ungraceful by comparison:

She can also flag, so she also taught me how, kind of!

I shocked myself by getting a variation of it on my first try–my legs wanted to go into a stag position and I was feeling it, so I stuck with it. I can also do it with one leg straight, but, it looks less dancery.

The trick is to support your rib cage with your lower arm. You have to create a shelf with your tricep/elbow area to rest your upper body on. Then just hang on tight with the top arm (locking the pole in your armpit) and push away with the bottom one, and amaze yourself by being able to lift your legs. It’s really not as hard as it looks, shockingly).

Ugh, I miss my normal sized ponytail.
Ugh, I miss my normal-sized ponytail.

NB: I sent this picture to my dad, who thought it was a spin (because how else would I hold myself up unless momentum was helping, THANKS FOR HAVING FAITH IN ME DAD).

I wanted my dad to think I was a boss, so I shot this video of the trick while working on the freestyle I promised you guys (no, I didn’t forget!). It’s over on Facebook because I didn’t wanted to get muted/in trouble on YouTube or  Vimeo.

Oh, speaking of freestyling… I shot like 7 or 8 full song videos from the other night. I just hated all of them.

Why? I’m very disappointed in myself with the lack of variety. I think this is a clear sign that I  need to be taking classes at a new studio and expanding my repetoire of moves, because the ones I have are TIRED.

Anyway, I did do like a 10 second or so sequence to a Sam Smith song that I ended up liking, so I’ll include that below.

A word on Sam Smith: I saw the “I’m Not the Only One” video a few weeks back and was absolutely gutted by it. While I was dancing to it, I didn’t really have a word in mind–instead, I was trying to capture that push and pull of a bad relationship: it’s making you miserable, but you need the moments of happiness more than ever because you’re so unhappy. The cure is the poison, etc. (If you know me, you know I have a lot of experience with this.)

If you haven’t already, go watch the video, if only for Chris Messina (moment of silence for the bad boy hotness he has going on here.)

And finally, here’s a clip of me remembering that I hate men:

I actually shot a few takes to this song, but the others are on my iPad after my phone ran out of space. So maybe I’ll find something I like to post later. (Though chances are I will hate literally all of those videos too).

What’s new with you guys? Staying motivated or feeling anti-exercise right now with all the fitness hype in the air?

XOXOXO

My belly dance troupe at Rakkasah East!

Posted on by Cathy Vandewater

Some spacing issues buuuuut, not bad for how nervous we were! 😀

Really excited for the next show because our new choreo is inspired by the gang (lite) movie The Warriors, and our custom is basically tribal fusion street wear (re: black pants and BASEBALL CAPS, wheeeee). Of course I was thrilled about this because it’s just the excuse I needed to own snapback… which I immediately bought from a street vendor two blocks away from the studio on the way home from rehearsal. THAT IS HOW EXCITED I WAS TO BUY A SNAPBACK.

snapback 1 snapback 2

It feels really good to finally own some Brooklyn swag because I’ve earned it. This fall marks my 8th anniversary in BK… and I have yet to live in Williamsburg, Prospect Park, or Park Slope! (So far it’s been Bed Stuy (2 places), Clinton Hill, Fort Greene (but like, the bad side of Myrtle), Sunset Park/Borough Park (where I famously got groped), and finally, Bay Ridge).

Oh, this is off topic, but ALSO on my home last night (after my snapback purchase) I saw this severely-injured looking mannequin at a TopShop in Soho. Like, what happened here?

It’s not 1994 anymore, why are we still seeing Skeletors in store windows? Just saying.

mannequin

mannequin 2

And to further cement this post’s status as Most Scattered Blog of All Time, did everybody see the Black Friday sale happening at Body and Pole?

I don’t know about you guys, but I really can’t afford their normal $40/1.5 hour class rate, so I am ALL OVER IT.

Also, out of towners–they do “staycation” packages where you can train as much as you want during a weeklong visit, and THAT is on sale too. Worth looking into!

XOXOXO

I wonder what would happen if I practiced every day…

Posted on by Cathy Vandewater

Just a thought. I would probably get better, right? This might make a good 30 day challenge, a la 100 Sandwiches, but less sad and offensive.

I FINALLY put up my pole this weekend–after tons of drama with a missing top insert and a faulty X-joint, and it was kind of stupid the amount of progress I made just doing stuff over and over for an hour.

Here’s some clips of shit I was working on, including struggling into something resembling a floor handpring and patenting The Sad Juliet Spin. I probably didn’t invent it, but can I name it tho?

I was also working on chopsticks—OW OW MY RIBS–and hands free back bends (the power of Indian Burn compels you!!) but I can’t show you them because that was from practicing before my evil neighbor came home and thus I was listening to music at an audible level that got my video banned from YouTube 😐

PS. If you’re been wondering where I’ve been for like a month, I had a big show I was rehearsing my buns off for with my bellydance troupe for a show call Rakhasa (sp?). We don’t have a video of the performance yet, but here’s a teeny snippet of an early rehearsal that I’ll probably get in trouble for showing you, whooooops. I’m in the blue tank:

And here are some pictures of the show, wheee:

Oh and one last thing…. does anybody get why this is funny or do I have the world’s most obscure sense of humor?

My bank constantly calls to remind me I’m poor, so I put its number under “Yo Bitch.” That way every time I see my missed calls I get a little chuckle. Anyone? Anyone?

yo bitch

A girl from class took my picture!

Posted on by Cathy Vandewater

As I wrote before, I’ve been having stupid bad back pain. I’ve been mostly trying to ignore it and go about my business, but trying to get through pole classes was too hard. So I’ve (very begrudgingly) stayed away from classes for a while.

It was a really nice surprise then, when I went back to the studio for the first time in a couple of weeks, that a girl from my usual class ran up and said she’d been looking for me. She’d taken my picture during a choreo class. I had no idea! She apologized for being a “stalker” haha but honestly, how sweet is that?! And the picture came out FIERCE. I don’t really have any photos of me just doing my thing, so it was an awesome surprise. Anyway, thanks Jenny!! Here’s the pic–she sent it to me in two filters so credit for the below artistry goes to her, not me.

Jenny pic 2
Jenny pic 1

Oh and here’s me just running through some flow stuff from class. Yeah, I know, it’s the same old same old. I’m feeling stuck, especially with this mysterious back stuff. I want to get going on harder tricks, but inverting (and any kind of prep stuff that I so desperately need to KEEP my invert) kills my back. I’m really not exaggerating when I say I’ve been struggling to get through warm-ups with tears involuntarily leaking out. It has not been a good time.

The GOOD news is: flow stuff doesn’t hurt at all! Weirdly, sitting still actually hurts much, much more than anything I do with climbing or spinning, so that’s encouraging. I also think I’m starting to see ballet paying off in terms of lines and general grace (as always, LONG LIVE BALLET), so, those are a few more good, happy thoughts. I just hope my back either heals itself or just breaks already so I can go to the emergency room, which is all my catastrophic insurance probably covers.

Anybody else ever have back pain? Let’s play “guess the diagnosis”! :p

16 times that dancing is the literal worst.

Posted on by Cathy Vandewater

1. When you get a note you don’t understand (what does “quiet collarbones” mean I should do?)

2. When you go over the hard part of a dance over and over and then mess up the easy part in a performance.

3. When your teacher says, “one more time!” for the 900th time and you’re starting not to believe her.

4. When your feet are dirty and you have to put your nice flats on.

5. When “warm ups” are code for “flexibility contest” (it’s a silent contest, but a contest nonetheless).

6. When a sequence is so fast that if you think, you just missed it.

7. When you get multiple notes at the same time and you can’t seem to do one without messing up the other (your shoulders lift when you try to straighten your knees, your feet flex when you try to keep your face soft, AHHHH MY BRAIN IS EXPLODING).

8. When a movement just doesn’t look the same on your body as it does on your teacher’s.

9. When you randomly can’t do the thing you totally did yesterday.

10. When your body just flat out won’t do something and you have little hope that it ever will. (Re: dinosaur arms.).

11. When the floor is too sticky, the pole is too cold, and nothing is working.

12. When you learn a dance in class and try to practice it home but blank out on 3/4s of it.

13. When you’re waiting in line to do something in front of the class that you’re definitely going to suck at.

14. When the teacher calls out a correction for “some people” and you look down and you’re the one who lost your turn out.

15 .When you remember to pack everything except your sports bra.

16. When you only nail it if no one’s looking and you forgot to hit “record.”

Now your turn!

Poleography 9/9/14

Posted on by Cathy Vandewater

If it looks like I’m dancing through debilitating back pain in this video, it’s because LOL, I am. More on that later.

I was really into this choreo (and this SONG, mah gawd), but it’s super fast, so I sadly shit the bed with most of it. I mean, there’s only so much you can learn in 45 minutes. But I totally have this song on my ipod already and I can’t wait to practice it more when my pole is up, so, we’ll see if it gets better!

The pole tricks in this one are a fan kick, 2 gallops (variations on chair spins where you walk your legs), a juliet spin, and a “switch split” which I’d never done before–you lead with your outside leg and then kick it back as you bring your inside leg forward in one quick snap. Pretty snazzy!

Aside from that I was LOVING the locking (which I never get to do, wheeeee) and a little moonwalky-sequence. There is also some mild twerking in this video, so hide yo’ wife, hide yo kids! Again, I was dancing through some pretty intense low back pain, so, sorry if this looks a little geriatric.

Tatiana–the instructor filling in for Kelly and the choreographer for this bit–is the one in the white top, so please refer to her for how kickass this SHOULD look.

Poleless so obviously dying.

Posted on by Cathy Vandewater

I am between poles and it is DESTROYING MY SOUL.

I left my 50mm at a friend’s house because his apartment is huge so he was going to let me shoot so tricks there. Buuuut we misjudged his ceiling height and have to order an extension. So, it’s chilling there because I am not paying for another $20 cab ride to get it home again.

Meanwhile, I finally got around to putting together my new 45mm this weekend (WHEEEE) and discovered it’s missing the connecting insert for the top dome.

I am currently making this face: 😐

Anyway, let’s talk about people I’m stalking on social media right now.

First, THIS GUY.

You may remember Paul his earlier work: playing the clarinet on the pole:

He also plays sax.

Just, the whole concept of  casually playing a musical instrument on a pole? Love it.  It’s also awesome when people are funny, but also obviously very skilled.

And then there’s THIS girl, who I saw on Huffpo (I typed just “Huffpoo–Freudian slip?!) and then immediately watched all of her videos on YouTube.

At first glance, she just has amazing things to say about being a woman/girl but then LOW AND BEHOLD: my Spidey/Poler sense started tingling and there it is: homegirl has a pole in her house.

Because duh, articulate, hilarious, sexy chicas know what’s up with pole and aerials. Are you really surprised?

Anyway, because I physically can’t pole right now, the universe is being a dick and trolling me with all the excellent pole music. So I’ll just dump another song here:

PS. Got my remi sit from a sweet new knee hold combo we did in class the other day–CANNOT wait to show you guys.