The show went really well despite the fact that I didn’t get there until 1/2 hour before house open and completely missed tech. I never do that. (And YOU should never do that guys. It’s bad. I had a school emergency tho).
So yeah, had no idea where my marks were or how we were spacing for the stage or what the floor was like (SO many turns, so high a risk).
BUT, Maki (troupe director) told me beforehand, “Just be confident and emotional. You perform a lot, you’ll be fine.” And I suddenly DID feel like I’ve performed a lot, and would be fine. And I was.
But seriously, y’all, never miss tech.
I’m way in the back, checking what everyone else was doing (the theme of this show, basically). photo credit: bae
So here’s an optimal way to slack–I’ve been bad about blogging because I’ve been spending too much dancing!! :D!!!
Body and pole is doing “bingo” (complete with cards) where you knock out spaces on your card by completing class-taking tasks. Examples are taking class with a certain teacher, or an aerial art (pole, hoop, fabric). There’s also conditioning, flex, and time-specific tasks, like taking one before noon on a weekday, or after 8pm.
At first I was like, “whatever, I’mma do me–I don’t need a card to get my butt to class!” but honestly, seeing the progress on a card is completely addictive. I went from being like, “okay, I’ll black out 5 in a row and get 20% of a package” to “OMG I’M SO CLOSE, I can black out this whole card of 25 classes and treat my bellydance girls to a pole party!”
The promotion ended Tuesday and here’s what my card looked like:
Photo credit to Armando at the front desk who had to painstaking verify that I actually DID go to this many classes/have this much time on my hands. Thank you!!
You guys I was one space away from a free pole party. I WANTED THAT PARTY. But Brenna is a hugely popular instructor and I couldn’t make it into one of her sold out classes 😦
But anyway, I took SO many classes–let me quickly give you an overview of my favorites while they’re still fresh in my head.
1. Liquid motion
This one was a HUGE discovery for me. I always stare longingly at pole girls who do fish flops and slinky split transitions on the floor, but like, in the same way I longingly watch gymnasts do kips and shit on the uneven bars: beautiful, but where the hell am I going to learn that?
HERE. HERE IS WHERE YOU CAN LEARN THAT. B&P has these classes in the big rooms so you have plenty of room to roll around and make it nasty. Not only did I immediately add tons of cute, stylish moves to my repertoire, I also got a nice lowerbody workout–re: a break for my calloused, calloused hands–and they have kneepads and stuff too, so you can have all the fun of oozing around on the floor but none of the rug burn or bruises. Highly, highly recommend. It upped my pole freestyle game after ONE class. (I took this with Emily Sanderson who can do absolutely no wrong in my book, but Jeni Janover teaches it too and I’ve only heard good things!)
PS. In case you doubt the power of mixing things up a little, here’s a three-day bruise tracking photo series that documents what multiple aerial classes for three days in a row looks like.
Day one: some flag spins
Day 2: intro to hoop
Day 3: Hoop level 1 (repeated hip flexor mounts–ie. named something I can’t remember)
2. Pole Level 2 with Kelly
Remember what a hard time I was having with Level 2? How every time I get there it’s a bunch of Level 3 people and it’s more a “review and combine your moves” atmosphere than “literally learn where your hands and feet go for these moves” type thing?
Yeah, Kelly’s class was a huge game changer for that. For each move she gives three versions: the straight up version (a leg hang, for instance), a way to make it harder (windshield wipers), and a way to start working towards it (leg hangs from being on your back on the floor).
I mean, I always KNEW I could do leg hangs from my back on the floor to practice placement, but when the teacher doesn’t say that out loud and I’m the only one on the floor… that shit is embarrassing! It made the hugest difference to have legitimate options for everything so I never just had to stand there, hanging my head in shame, or feeling bored with a move I already had down. Fabulous, and exactly what my morale needed. Thank you Kelly!!!
3. Flex Level 2 with Isaac
Oh jesus, here we go. So, you’ll notice looking at the picture on my card that Isaac’s face is on there. He’s in the studio for only a couple of classes–mainly advanced flex and contortion. I was really trying to fill up this card, so, I swallowed my pride and attempted an int/adv. flex class that I had no business being in.
It was…. humbling. As you’d expect any flex class to be when people are doing chin stands and split bridges. But Isaac has a really relaxed, soothing attitude to flexibility (he said multiple times during the 1.5 hour class “don’t kill yourself, we’ve got a lot of minutes left”) and gives plenty of variations to make things harder or easier. Like with Kelly, I always had something to work on, even if I couldn’t quite sit my ass on my head like some people in class 😐
Funny moment: he came over to me while I was doing a foot-grab pigeon thing and said, “Are you an aerialist?” He was adjusting my arm/shoulder placement as he said this so I immediately blushed and said, “…yes” thinking he’s noticed my muscles. “Then we really need to fix this shoulder situation.” (ie. SHOULDER FLEXIBILITY DISSSSSSS). That’ll teach me to have an ego, haha. Again, #humbling.
BUT… the class overall was an incredibly intense, focused session and I think I’ll try to start going regularly. Isaac sets a very supportive tone for everything, and has a really nice way of encouraging everyone (later that same class he moved me to a better position and said, “YES! Now that will get you in the circus!” which is quite possibly the best compliment I’ve ever gotten in a dance class ever, haha).
If nothing else, this class really inspired me to try to hold poses longer and use breathing to get into muscles I’m targeting, because it really makes all the difference when you’re pushing your absolute limits (which I was… eek!).
Okay wow this post got long… I’ll tackle reviewing another three next time!
Here’s a teaser image of a bruise I got attempted hoop level 1 for the first time!
And a video of me taking intro to fabric! (REALLY REALLY FUN, HIGHLY RECOMMEND)
OH, and the Fire Blossoms are back in action because Maki’s back from her world tour of Silk Roads! We have a show this Saturday night–here’s a sneak peek of our routine 😉
Finally… how good is the Hollaback Girl portion of this video? I literally cried. (Disclaimer: the linked video is total nonsense and has nothing to do with dancing).
When bae plans like 3 days worth of activities in NYC when it’s 9 degrees and you look at each other like… want to just, like, leave?
Don’t get me wrong–we’re both poor, so we got a really cheap room. But the door on the bathroom was broken, and they upgraded us to the penthouse. Ie. rooftop. Ie. motherfucking jacuzzi, THIS IS NOT A DRILL.
Valentine’s is just around the corner, and if you have a bae, you’re probably doing what I do every time I hear a sexy song come on the radio: mentally rehearsing the sexy routine you MIGHT do on Vday but probably won’t because choreography is hard.
Here’s the good news though: a super sexy dance does NOT require fancy tricks. Bae will likely be just as impressed if you flip your hair and climb the pole than as if you did a bird of paradise or some double jointed Marion Crampe shit.
But I know how annoying it is to get some vague tips for HOW to do a routine and like… you don’t have any moves for a routine in your skill level. So please: as someone who once taught routines at bachelorette parties, let me get you on this.
You can use all of these moves or just a few of them and even repeat yourself. If you’re flowing and feeling yourself, it will look awesome, so don’t get too hung up on execution or difficulty. I’ll keep adding more throughout the week, and add some gifs of the moves so you can get the full affect.
I’ll also put my money where my mouth is on this and make a short routine out of these moves to prove it can be done–and that you can look damn good while doing it.
1. Walking
You can kill like 15 seconds of your song just by walking. Here’s how to make it worth watching:
-Start off of the pole. Key time-killing tip.
-Walk slow (duh), drag the toe of the foot you’re stepping with (HACK: this helps you keep your balance in heels or while exaggerating your ankle cross as you saunter).
-Pause to bend over your front leg, drag your hands up it, and flip your hair. (Slo-mo ben and snap, shoutout to Legally Blonde!)
-Do some more bending when you make it to the pole: when you’re about arm’s distance away, drag your hands down the pole as you bend over with straight legs and an arched back. Dip your head and roll it half-moon to the other side and SNAP that hair as you come back up. (Pro tip: definitely roll your head to the SIDE of the pole, lest you smack your face on the pole).
-Work a pole walk. Again, the focus here is WASTING TIME. Walk incredibly slow. Keep it interesting with hair and body touching. Again, bae will be enthralled if you are legitimately feeling yourself, don’t worry about popping tricks.
2. Half pirouette
These are great because they look fancy without the risks attached to a full pirouette (ie. getting stuck, losing your balance, hitting your leg on the pole–these are all things that would definitely happen to me with my luck during a sexy performance).
And here’s the other great thing: when you end up with your back on the pole, you can kill MORE TIME doing stuff you’ve already done because it looks different from a new angle. SCORE.
3. Spins
I highly recommend spacing these out. They’re exciting in moderation, but clumped together they lose that affect. You also want to be very careful not to anticipate a spin while doing a sexy-ish dance: fully let yourself fall into it, and don’t give it away by sneaking an extra step, etc. The appeal here is having fully control of the spin and riding it all the way out to the floor. (Then woohoo!!!! Enjoy more time wasting opportunities on the ground! Roll around, tick tock yo booty, stripper push yourself up–so many possibilities).
4. Spins Pt. 2:
Get some contrast between spin 1 and spin 2, if you can. If you’re doing a front spin, try a back spin for #2–falling lady is nice and simple, and looks really different from a fireman or attitude spin.
5. Climb
Again, the appeal here is the control you have while. Don’t even worry if you can’t do much once you get up there: focus on climbing slowly, with a bit of body wave and some head rolls, if you can. Then sit for a bit, stretch out your legs if you can, and try some waves or see saws to get back down. Again, if you’re selling it with hips and hair, you do NOT need tricks.
Once on the ground, rinse and repeat the first three steps! You have half of a routine!
Pirouettes are such a reveal in pole. They weed out the polers from the pole DANCERS, in my book.
It never stops being shocking for me seeing advanced tricksters perform stilted, stuttering pirouettes. They race through them and seem a little panicked before getting back into their comfort zone (insanely difficult pole tricks that make pirouettes look like baby stuff), but the impression is made.
Not my most beautiful or technically correct example but the only one I have a gif of. #priorities.
So why are so many incredible pole dancers struggling with pirouettes?
A few hypotheses:
Racing to the good stuff. Pirouettes are considered “fillers,” so the averaged jazzed new poler will want to skip over them and get to the more impressive, upside down stuff.
Balance confusion. Most spins in pole require being OFF balance (ie. letting hips pull to the side to generate momentum/centrifugal force, etc etc). This doesn’t work so well with pirouettes (but I’ll get back to that in a minute).
Spotting confusion. Where am I looking? Fuck it, let’s do something else.
One too many banged elbows and knees. See the above conclusion.
Inability to relinquish control and relax. I mean this is a sport that requires full body death grips on the pole so like… relaxing into a tension free, friction free turn with no push/pulls can be freaky.
Whoops, that was more than a few, but oh well. Let’s talk pirouettes–off the pole.
It wasn’t until I attempted a little ballet that my pirouettes on the pole stopped confounding me. This is not a coincidence. I fully believe that to be able to do a pretty pirouette on the pole, you need to be able to at least stand still in a pirouette position without holding onto anything (ie. a position you’ll end up in at any ballet class ever).
No seriously, try it. Stand with one leg in passe (bent, toes touching the standing leg at the knee, either parallel or a little turned out, do you). Then rise up onto the ball of your standing leg. Hold.
Can you do it?
Are you annoyed if you can’t, but you think “If I only had a pole, I could totally do this, just let me hop on really quick”?
NO, bad poler!! BAD!
Here’s why you can do it on the pole and not free standing: your ass is cheating.
Maddie Ziegler like “lol u mad”
That’s the bad news. The good news is, you have no incentive to continue to cheat because the signs of your cheatish cheating are obvious, so you might as well, like, not do it.
The ugly truth: if you’re cheating pirouettes (ie. relying on your pole), your standing leg is probably bent. Your supporting arm is probably supporting you WAY too much (ie. half your weight is on it and it shows in your shoulder). Your body is likely not fully centered over your standing leg, but rather slightly to the side–your comfy, familiar spin position. You might be SURVIVING your pirouettes but they feel unpredictable, uneven, out of control, and you might even dread them a bit, not knowing how they’ll go at the crucial moment.
Let’s fix that!
Assuming you know the basics of how pirouettes work, let’s do some quick trouble shooting:
Straighten up. Practice this off the pole, and correct your form in the mirror. Your hips should be even (one hip not higher than the other), abs should be in tight, chest and head lifted and aligned as though pulled on a string. Now lift a leg into passe. Got that? Try to rise up onto your toes.
Spot. I had a pole teacher once instruct me to look at the pole for a spot, and it works for me. As you go into your pirouette glance at the pole and lock your eyes there until the last possible minute. Whip your head around and look for the pole again. Try to do this at eye level (not up or down) to help keep your alignment.
Practice letting go mid turn. Is your weight centered? Let go of the pole and find out! A good drill for pirouettes is to use the “waiter” hand on the pole to initiate the turn and the release that hand for the turn. Were you able to complete it? If not, what happened? Which side did you wobble to? Work to identify and correct your weight imbalances. It’s worth a little practice, I swear.
Lean a bit forward. Another trick from an old pole teacher: if you must lean, lean forward as you begin a piroutte–not from one side or another. I don’t know why this works, but it does, especially if you’re performing multiple pirouettes.
GET ON YOUR LEG. Sorry for screaming, but that’s the only way to deliver that sentence, right? Whenever I’m wobbling a bit I give myself this directive (which is short hand, in my mind, for centering your weight, straightening your leg, and pushing through that leg to pull your upper body up). It almost instantly helps to tell myself this. Magic? Who knows.
Do you struggle with pirouettes or love them?
I hated them (I always felt out of control) until I knew I would be tested on them for my teacher training. Then I drilled the shit out of them (with the above tips in mind) and almost never have a problem with sticking or falling out of them now. Muscle memory is real!!!
Do you have different tricks or tips than me? Or just not give a rat’s ass about these things? Let’s talk.
I finally have a month off from school, and I’m on the mend from an illness that took me out of commission for the holidays, but I’m excited to start training again!!
No goals or resolutions as of yet except to get back on the horse. I want to focus more on dancing and quality of movement in general this year, not trying to beat my body into submission to perform tricks like show pony. That way of looking at pole just kind of makes me dread class, ya know?
I want to focus on flexibility and conditioning, and maybe take some modern dance/more ballet to work on that. My gym now has BARRE (did I mention that? I feel like I’ve been prancing around telling everyone who will listen) so it’s been really great to get that kind of conditioning in before and after work with my regular month membership, and without stressing about class packages at the pole studio.
How was everybody’s holidays??? Any pole goals or dope gifts? Tell meeee.
And to prove I’ve been busy, btw, check out the movies I’ve been making! Like seriously. I shot all of this footage and I edited it into videos. I had to buy microphones and shit. This has been so new and seemingly out of my depth, but it somehow got done. You’ll be amazed at what you can do when you have to!
This one’s a “journalism” style piece about a burlesque dancer I had never met until our first interview–and who I had two days only to shoot because my professor made me change topics last minute. Imagine my delight when I got to her rehearsal and realized she’s not a lyra-er trying burlesque for a the first time (a mutual aerial friend told me she was a “hooper”), but rather a long time hula hooper trying burlesque for the first time while incorporating hoop into her routine!
This chick was a total pro and an absolute joy to shoot and watch. Sadly this video captures only an iota of her talent, but still worth looking at!
And again, here’s the final cut of that PSA I made about women walking home at night (based on the true story of that time I got followed home in my neighborhood and my dad’s suggestion that I wear men’s clothes on the street to ensure my late-night safety).
Missed all of y’all, hope everybody’s doing well, in the studio and out!
This is the best part about having a creative major: you get to/are forced to use your personal experiences to make stuff!
The assignment was to make a fake PSA, so naturally, I did one about something I care deeply about: street harassment and safety.
As you guys might remember, I had a close encounter of the pervy kind last year. And my dad (meaning well) suggested that I start packing men’s clothing with me on dates so that I could pretend to be a dude on the way home and thus be left alone.
That struck me as deeply fucked up, because how is it we live in a society where gender=safety privileges, and that’s acceptable? Like, fuck that.
So I made a movie about it.
Anyway, this is my second film ever (!!!) so please excuse any glaring errors. #learning.
I’m in final projects hell at school right now but I plan to fully binge on pole for the entire month of January when I get a break.
So the assignment was supposed to be telling a story using natural sound (ie. stuff that happens in a scene that you capture right while filming–not music of effects added after the fact). But, like… I had already asked my polin’ friend Irene to help me make a video for this class before I knew what the stipulations would be, so, this video was going to be about pole.
Sorry not sorry.
Huge thanks to my friends who did things at multiple angles over and over again, and a huge sorry to Irene whose dancing was very constricted by lack of light and the fact that I wasn’t allowed to pan for this project (ie. move the camera with her to capture her moves). She also ripped her leggings on an errant nail in my floor. I’m sorry my home is so ratchet and attacked your clothing, Irene 😦
Big ups also go to my PA Alan who played a game of freeze tag all day while we shot this because my floor was creaky and I was always asking him to move stuff out of the shot and then FREEZE or it would make noise captured by my giant, oddly phallic shot gun mic. The patience was next level.
This video is a hot mess but it was really fun to learn as we did it and pretend to be serious filmmakers. Here’s to more and better pole-themed movie-making in the future!
The Spin Diaries: Your Guide to Everything Pole and Aerial 