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Making an iguana mount not totally awkward
Hi Veeners and Veena! I'm thinking of entering a very exciting (to me) amateur pole competition, and one of the required moves is an iguana mount. I was just wondering if anyone has or knows of any videos with an iguana mount performed attractively in the middle of the routine? The whole bending over, fumbling for the pole thing seems pretty hard to sell.
I'm fine with the move itself. I don't quite have the strength to do a complete deadlift into it, but I can get by with the teensiest of hops (like seriously, just going from flat foot to on toes is enough momentum) and then press up. My problem is the bending over and grabbing the pole part without making it look like "Oh look I'm interrupting my dance to prepare for a move"
I was practicing today, just going into a sexy squat thing, then folding down, and sort of doing this windmill arm thing (hard to explain but it wasn't too weird) to grab the pole with one arm then the next. I suppose with practice it could look passable, but I'd love to think of something more creative.
There's going to be a workshop for the entrants to help us figure out how to incorporate it (and the other compulsory moves) into the routine, but I want to come up with something uniiiiiiique! Because I think I'm a very special snowflake. And also because I'm going to be one of the least experienced and skilled in the division. But mostly because I think I'm a very special snowflake.
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15 Replies
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Google Pantera. She is the only one I have seen use it routinely.
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Can you do an inguana dismount?
You could always do:
CAR -> Iguana dismount -> Iguana mount -> bow and arrow/something similar and move on?It would show off a controlled descent and save the fumbling for the pole as you’d already be holding it.
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If you look at Shacko on here there is a vid of a routine she did at our pole show and she does the iguana mount in it. The vid is on both my profile and hers.
And awww to the snowflake, that's so cute! x
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The first (and really, only decent) trick in the movie Dancing at The Blue Iguana is Darryl Hannah doing an Iguana Mount. She doesn't do it very well — legs bent. But you can at least see how not to do it. LOL.
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When I want to work an Iguana Mount into a routine, I walk over to the pole, stand in front and bend one leg while keeping the other straight and bending at the waist and running my hands down the straight leg. Then I straighten both legs, stay bent over, grab the pole, and mount. The last part I do quickly so it flows.
I also agree that doing a Reverse Iguana Mount and then back up into an Iguana Mount would be a good way to go!
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Finally free to take a break from my drama-filled life to reply. Thanks everyone for the ideas! It's good to know that the regular bending-over-and-grabbing-the-pole-thing can actually look nice in a routine. I guess it will just take me lots of practice to build some flexibility and learn where the pole is so I can get it smooth.
Coming down and then back up is also a pretty good idea. I wonder if I could be strong enough to do that without touching the ground by October. Hmm, maybe not unless I turn into Jenyne… I was planning to go with a CAR, lunchbox, bow and arrow, twisted grip aysha combo, but there's no reason I couldn't then go back into a split grip lunchbox and reverse iguana then back up, is there? (Well, except I can't do that yet, but still…)
DedeJoy, that explains why my studio calls an iguana mount a Darryl Hannah! It's clear to me now!
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Oh yeah that would put me in a split grip, not a proper pencil/iguana grip. Back to the drawing board!
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I think what makes iguana mount look so awkward is the "hop" up in straddle. If you learn to just lift, I like lifting from a pike instead (legs together and straight). You can also pick one leg up into a standing split and then mount up that way (you end up in a horizontal split in iguana mount). For now, you can use the momentum of the top leg in the split, like kicking into a handstand. This way you don't have to do that frog hop to get up there.
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Ooh, that is pretty. Maybe I can get my hamstrings that flexible and my shoulders that strong. Also, that's a seriously awesome Jenyne video. I just took a page of notes on it. She is so creative!
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Isn't she? I love her<3 It's one of my fav videos 🙂
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That's funny Cinara that an iguana mount is a compulsory move..Is that normal? To me its one of those moves that doesn't look pretty enough for the effort required…but having said that, I have flexibility issues, everything looks prettier when you're really flexible. And I would think that the dismount/mount would be a nice option……:-)
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And forgot to say congratulations on the comp!! I have my first competition performance this weekend! Yay!
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Yeah, considering there are only 5 compulsory moves, an iguana mount seems like an odd choice, but maybe that's the challenge.
Good luck with your comp and hopefully you can post a video! You'll be awesome!
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My iguana mount is horribly ugly. I feel I'm either not flexible enough or have the core strength to lift myself up. I can currently do it with a big jump into it and that looks really sloppy. Any tips? 🙂
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