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!

Get more spin: 5 tips

Posted on by Cathy Vandewater

Hey guys!

I got a question regarding getting more spin and I’m on my lunch break, so super super quick, here are my five tips for getting more spin out of your… spins. (I’m writing this too quickly to be a wordsmith, LEAVE ME ALONE).

Note: these are all tips for a STATIC POLE, though most of the momentum rules (long and short levers and sweeps) apply to spin too.

1. Lengthen your levers

As in, extend your arms and legs as you “fall” into a spin. The greater the weight you put into your fall/kick off motion, the faster and longer the spin.

2. …and then shorten them

As soon as you kick off the momentum, you’re going to want to pull your arms and legs in. Picture a figure skater–you know how they start a spin with their arms out and then cross them over their chests until they speed up into a tornado-like blur? That’s what you’re going for.

3. Work your walk

You never want to jump into a spin, but a good, strong three-step walk into a leg sweep (always on the outer leg, unless you’re doing an inside hook, ex: a Front Hook spin) will add some power to your “fall.”

4. Lean out

Again, the more weight you have to throw into your spin, the better. If you pull your hips away from the pole, you’re adding to your “kick off” weight as you fall. More good news: a nice saunter/lean combo looks super sexy and effortless. Just keep your head up to avoid looking like you’ve had an attack of narcolepsy.

5. Tighten your core

Good form (abs in, chest up, eyes forward) will help you stay “up” as long as possible while spinning. Sloppy form (forgetting to engage your shoulders–ie. The Dead Hang, looking down, hunching your back/core/chest) will drag you down, literally.

6. Watch the grip aid

While it’s important to have grip (never spin on sweaty hands), an overdose on Dry Hands is a sure-fire spin killer. So is too much squeezing from body parts other than your hands (like a behind the knee catch on a Back Hook or ankle grab on a Fireman). If you find your spins coming to a dead stop in mid-air, do a quick check-in with your contact points and make sure you’re keeping things light.

That’s all for now–hope this helped! And if you have any spin tips or tricks, please feel free to share them below.

XOXOXO

Dear Prudence Talks Pole Dancing

Posted on by Cathy Vandewater

…and I kind of want to hit her.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH.

Okay, first off, I get that Prudence’s duty is to this woman and her life, and not the sport of pole dancing.

But, on behalf of the sport of pole dancing, how are we ever supposed to be legitimate when awesome, reputable people are hiding that they do it?

I mean, I get scared of what people will think sometimes. But then I remember why I do it, why I love it, the positive changes I see in people who take my classes… and I pick my head up and say “Yeah, I pole dance, and there’s nothing wrong with it.”

To be fair, I haven’t tried hoops or silks or other aerial arts. From what I’ve seen, aerial pole and these sports seem to have very similar moves.

But, not everybody is all about aerial with pole. I know I’m certainly not. Flow it my faaaaaaaaaaaavorite. If I couldn’t pirouette, sway, do some fancy footwork, spin… ew, I wouldn’t even want to do pole.

But I’m guessing Prudence (or anybody else who’s got very firm opinions on pole but who’s never tried it) would not understand that.

I believe that intent comes through, in any manner of expression, especially dance. If you use pole to express your sexuality, it’s going to look sexy (unless you’re doing something very wrong).

But if you’re using it to express, oh, I don’t know, any other color in the whole rainbow spectrum of human experiences and emotions, I think that will come through too.

Costumes can also project a lot onto a performance.

I don’t know. I think my advice to this girl would be to enter the competition, dance her ass off in the manner that suits her, and hold her head high about it.

But maybe I’m biased. What do you guys think?

No class tomorrow–we start the new schedule next week!

HT,

Cathy

That awkward moment when a new student says, “What should I do to look like Jenyne Butterfly?”

Posted on by Cathy Vandewater

Uhhhhhh…. dedicate 5 or 6 years of your life to pole and develop a taste for pain?

...not quite Natasha Wang yet, is it?
…not quite Natasha Wang yet, is it?

For somebody who’s literally never been on a pole before, I felt like it would be mean to let her think getting to that level is anything but extremely difficult and physically painful. (Think back to your first pole sits–remember how much that hurt? And how annoying it was that it didn’t even look impressive?)

This is what bugs me about pole, kinda–I’m really, really glad people like JB are rocking out and getting respect for our sport. But, people like her are essentially Cirque de Soleil performers. They’re freashishly masterful. FREAKISHLY.

And I feel like people don’t understand that. So you’ve got the people on one hand who equate pole with stripping, and the people on the other hand that see Jenyne Butterfly and think, oh, okay, she’s a few classes in.

I mean, I have a pole at my house, I teach beginner classes 3 days a week, and I practice on my own at least 3-4 days a week. And only now am I getting my knees straight on aerial stuff. After a year and a half of total obsession. A clean climb and nice, straight layback are the only things I have in common with JB’s aerial stuff, and I freakin’ teach (though, to be fair, my classes are completely on the ground, and I’m quite proud of my clean, consistent spins, transitions, flow, and floor work… or I wouldn’t be teaching it).

But I don’t think a new student wants to hear about that stuff. They want to skip walking and go straight to inversions like Jenyne Butterfly.

Oy.

On somewhat related note, do you guys feel like there are two camps of pole: spin girls and strength girls? If so, I’m definitely the former. Are you one or the other? A tasty blend of both, but with a secret favorite? You can tell me, I won’t say anything, I swear.

It’s funny, I remember watching a lot of Leigh Ann Orsi (I think she has a new last name now…) on YouTube before I started dancing, and being totally bored with the upside down stuff. I just wanted to see her walk and pirouette. Even though she’s at a serious competitive level now, I still like her early videos best because she flows like a MOFO. For me, it’s really the distinguishing characteristic of pole from other forms of dance… the way you move around it is just hypnotic. Gah, still gives me chills.

Is that weird?

(Yes, probably).

(I’m okay with it).

Anyway, I can’t wait to post a video of me busting my ass trying to teach myself an iguana hold, but I left my camera cable at work. So until tomorrow…. here’s a video of Recent Leigh Ann Orsi doing her thing. Which is apparently a shoulder mount flip into a split. Jesus Christ I hate everything.

Happy twirls!

Cathy

the constant problem of finding music for classes

Posted on by Cathy Vandewater

you guys. uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh.

How to say this. I like hip hop.

I like rap.

I shock and confuse many people with my knowledge of crip walking.

Yet, I’m sooooo not down with The Music Those Dang Kids Are Listening To These Days.

Honestly. It’s not cool anymore. I mean, why is everybody always trying to “beat the pussy up?” What did the pussy do to anybody? I can’t even.

So, the point is, I get requests in my class for 2 Chainz a lot. (I know, I find the numericals and zany misspelling of “chains” to be cool and exciting too). So, I go to pull a few songs for my ‘pod.

Here’s what I found. First few seconds of this song=head bobbing, I dig it!

Then came the verses.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH.

Same problem with “Ball” by TI. These hoes so drunk, huh?

How can I lead a class of women through a class with shit about poppin’ pussies blasting in the background?

WHAT DOES POPPING A PUSSY EVEN MEAN.

What the infinitesimal fuck. Seriously. I like hip hop and rap. So do my students. But why is it ALL written like women are never going to hear it? Is it really that hard for somebody to just write a single damn rhyme that doesn’t degrade and insult the ladies who just want to listen to it and dance like everybody else?

This isn’t even about feminism (although sure, we can take it there, buy me a drink some time). It’s about me wanting to play some good beats in my class and I can’t because seriously, I’m not going to have a class of my cool, smart, hard-working girls listen to shit about bitches and hoes choking on you-know-whats.

Damn it.

Okay, I feel better now.

Can you guys recommend any good pole songs? My chicas tend to like hip hop/R&B and my playlist is getting stale, but I seriously can’t find anything that’s not really gross and offensive. Like choking on dicks.

Class tonight, 7pm, Beginner Spins (week one)!

Be sure to sign up @ our new site–danceyourwaynyc.com/schedule.

Much love and happy twirls!

Cathy