[Charley]

You’ll be glad you started on a 50mm!!!

Definitely go for classes. Everyone is so different and you’ll see that. You’ll begin to see that everyone takes to different moves easier than others. Some of my beginners struggle with spins but are great at getting themselves around the pole and dancing – where as I have other students who excel at spins but struggle with foot movements and transitions. Everyone is so different. You’ll start helping each other and working together.

Classes are such a fun experience plus you have guidance as Fluer pointed out.

[Charley]

I burn about 570 calories in 2 hours of pole dance. I burn about 170 calories in 45 minutes of bike riding (for fun, no crazy hills or speed.)

So it depends how long you go, how much you do and as Fluer pointed out the better you get at it the less you’ll burn.

It’s a great idea to eat something small before a pole session – not only do you want to have the energy but your body will burn a few more calories too.

It’s good to know how many calories your body needs. I just found out that I should be getting 2000 to 2500 calories per day.

A big thing that a lot of people do wrong is limit their calorie intake AND workout and expend a lot of energy – this makes them weak and slows down the bodies process of converting fat to muscle.

If anything the best diet I’ve seen coupled with exercise is the "hypoglycemic" diet. Eat 6 small meals a day keep your body fed and watered and it will do so many wonderful things!

[Charley]

The logitech HD Webcams are great! They are around $100 right now

Also look for the Sony Webbie MHS-CM1 – retailing for $200 or less.

The Flip’s are really nice little camcorders – you can get them in HD as well.

Aiptek makes okay camcorders for really cheap – I’ve fooled around with a couple of their models. There AVS-Go HD has some pretty good reviews.

I have got a really low end web cam and for the most part it is okay. I think it’s blurry the color isn’t great but overall it picks up movement good enough for youtube – some clips do tend to studder – even in my uncut vids you can see where it freezes up sometimes. I use my cell a lot as well and get the same results. Personally for YT vids I don’t think super great quality is too important just as long as it gets the point across.

And for an even cheaper route – you dont NEED HD there are a lot of decent standard cams out there for $200 or under.

[Charley]

My favorite dancers are…

Deb Riley
http://www.youtube,com/lifeofsmileyriley (I think?)

Tess from Pole Lushes
I think her youtube name is Pole Lush

Wendy Traskos
http://www.youtube.com/thepoledancer

*Note that the girls from NYPD are all similar in dance and style kind of like bobbi’s girls. They are all so bendy and amazing at NYPD

Pantera

Alena Downs
http://www.youtube.com/polejunkies

DancGoddess28 or dncegoddess28

If anyone wants to subscribe to my favorites I have a few who are off the beaten path of the mainstream people we see a lot
http://www.youtube.com/charleyisagirl

If you sub to favs there should be some older vids from dancers from like 2 years ago.

[Charley]

Ooh thank you so much for that!!! I will look into the Cannon.

I was reading on CNET that the Cannons seem to be getting better reviews than the Sony’s. I talked to the guy who directs a lot of our promos and short films and he said I definetly need mic input – I think it’s cool that Cannon has that feature on their more inexpensive models it’s hard to find that specific feature.

[Charley]

You are sooo lucky!!!!

COngrats! I love me some Pantera! I’ve heard nothing but great things about her I’d love to get a lesson myself.

Is she open to cities to tour? I am afraid Detroit wouldn’t offer her much =(

I’ve already got Wendy booked I can’t keep my students pay checks dry with workshops with these amazing dancers https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_lol.gif – who’s ever going to pay for lessons???? https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_lol.gif

[Charley]

Search http://www.cnet.com for a converter. Pazera makes one but I believe that is soley for 3gp to WMV.

It’s a pain in the butt – for me anyway – to shoot vids then have to convert them and many times I find that the file is corrupted and I need to redo the conversion.

Mac’s are awesome!!! I wish I had one – it would be so much easier to run AV software. My PC crashes a lot when I use FCP or Adobe (audio editing.) And with only a 60G hardrive I am FULL up.

[Charley]

Congrats on the new pole!!!

As long as you check your pole you shouldn’t have any trouble at all. I’ve seen both X-poles and PS poles come down due to using them in spin mode. You really have to check poles – LM’s can also come down as they are also friction mounted. As long as you are mindful and check your poles stability – you’ll be fine https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_biggrin.gif

I prefer X or PS for grip over LM – I find that the mirrored finish stainless is MUCH slippier than a matte stainless steel.

I have the black LM in a corner collecting dust – it was a good first pole but I am glad that I moved on from it. I would like the spin option and the pole burn was pretty bad on LM powder coated poles but they were super grippy!

[Charley]

I am really surprised they are sticking like that. If a student came to me and told me they’d like to progress further up the pole – I would certainly listen to what they have to say and evaluate them. It may or may not end in the result they’d like but I’d listen and see what they can do. I would do all that I could to come to a reasonable scenario where I am comfortable with teaching them and they are not bored.

There are some studios that are sticklers for sticking with the program and no deviations – I personally think that pole lessons even in a group setting can still be personalized.

[Charley]

I’m the favorite and I do feel badly over it.

My mother was very tyrannical and just awful to me so my dad and I became best friends. He saw how mean she was me – she was never terrible to my brothers ans so he befriended me. My mother has since passed away leaving our Father our only living parent therefor me the favored one. I am the eldest of three so as a young child I looked over my brothers, fed them, cared for them when my mother couldn’t. She was bipolar. She was addicted to her own unhappiness because she was medicated (several years too late) she couldn’t enjoy being happy and took herself off the meds. She denied having a problem. She was verbally abusive and mean. I feel bad for her, I always have. I cannot imagine being so addicted to my own pain that I inflict it on others – that happiness makes me uncomfortable and that I cannot connect with my own daughter for fear that she is "better" than me. Not being able to take joy in your children because you feel it is a contest and wish nothing but the worst for them so that you are somehow better must feel awful.

At any rate I spent much of my younger years begging for someone’s approval, anyones! I desperately needed to be as special as my brothers were to her and I just never was. So my dad stepped in and became my best friend. I think he saw a lot of himself in me. We always got along – I can’t remember not getting along and thinking he was the goofiest, coolest person in the world.

Anyway with my mother gone that leaves my father the only parent and I am quite favored over the other 2. I don’t think in this case it’s unfairly so because my dad has always been emotionally available to all of his children and has treated us with equality. I think I just related to him more I pursued hanging out with him more than my brothers did. My brothers had a more nuclear situation than I did. They could go to their mother – I couldn’t (sad as it’s the same woman.) They weren’t necessarily closer with her, I think they just got along okay enough with each parent that they didn’t feel the need to cultivate a deeper relationship with either parent. They also never learned responsibility, they never learned to emot in a healthy manner and they certainly never learned the how to have deep friendships.

Because my relationship was so rocky with my mother I learned to work hard, I learned how to live on my own, I learned how to create boundaries, I learned how love someone who isn’t perfect and see the person for the disease. I also learned how to connect with other people and be empathetic – because if you think she was a bad mom she was an even worse partner. I feel so badly for my father never having the love that I have today with someone – never being able to truly share your life with someone – yet inspite of it all he continued to love her, he continued to love his family – all by himself.

So now I am the favored one but I think most of it has to due with how rocky things were growing up and the fact that I am a girl so I can empathize with my parent. We can have adult conversations and I don’t hide things from him. He can be my Father and my friend. I think my brothers just never pursued that connection. but if they ever needed anything my dad would be there for them.

My brother actually communicated (for once) to my dad about me being a favored child and my dad was really honest and frank with him about everything. Basically my dad doesn’t feel needed by his sons because they are so independent and how my dad being raised by a single mother more closely identified with women over men. They had a good long talk and I don’t know the details but their relationship has improved a lot. I think my brother making the effort to get know my dad beyond a parent made all the difference in the world and honestly it has made my dad so happy to be able to have an adult relationship with him – the parenting at this point is done so now it’s time for things to change. They have. I am glad my brother brought it up. I think due to the nature of male relationships I’ll probably always be closer to my dad because we connect on a different level. My brother is more about cars and money and toilet humor – all things my dad enjoys but I think that because I’ve helped him through a lot of things like a nasty divorce and the passing of my mother we’ll always be best buds.

Although all the pole talk is wearing thin on hims o maybe my bro has a shot at favorite https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_lol.gif https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_lol.gif https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_lol.gif

Ultimately I don’t think it matters anymore who is "favorite" we all have different relationships with our parents. We don’t relate to everyone the same way so we cannot expect our parents to relate to each child the same way. I think communication is the key and the more each party communicates the deeper and healthier the relationship can be, provided all parties involved are in a good state of mind. Do what my brother did and broach the subject – I am guessing your mother will surprised and really happy – my pops was.

[Charley]

Before you drop see if you can get an evaluation. Let them know how close you are to dropping. They might be reading it as you are just too hip hoppity to move on and pole instructors deal with a lot of people who think they are ready to do things they aren’t. I think if you really communicate with them and let them know you aren’t the student who is just being a trick junkie but sincerely feel ready for something more challenging they’ll listen.

I never allow moves to be done in class that are not being taught – it’s so unsafe and a lot of people are learning from youtube which means they have half of the move but not all of it. This is a big concern for me because I want everyone to be kick ass pole dancers but I also want people to be safe and smart about their body AND be pretty dancers.

From a teaching standpoint I teach moves is a specific order because they either work together or something is easier and trains the body up for the next move. It’s very important to me that my clients go through each step of each move and movement grouping – this will allow them to better understand how to combine the moves and how to fully perform, finish and dismount in several different ways – each move. Once that’s mastered then it’s a matter of making the new things flow into what they already know.

I think that while they may have a set way of doing things they need to look outside the box and at least talk to you about the situation. There are a number of reasonable results to be had from communication. For example if they still feel you are not ready to move on they can always give you things to work on like routines, spin mode, additional exercises, etc. Talk to them and be honest about how bored you feel.

Classes are so beneficial – having someone right there to correct you can be so crucial with certain movements.

[Charley]

This pole is only $11 cheaper than the REAL X-pole. I think Veena still has them for $300 and free shipping. This pole doesn’t spin either.

[Charley]

Glad you were able to find something.

PM me I might wanna buy your PS pole.

[Charley]

I looked at the instructions too. I would seem like this pole does not spin and while it is a bottom loader it is not the X-pole Xtreme – this KW pole comes with foam to put around the adjuster rod, in the UK the Xtreme has a metal cover for the adjuster rod.

I certainly looks like a cheaper version of an X and it looks like the dome has been traded for a plate like the PS poles. The pole retails at $249 so it’s cheaper than an X but after shipping and handling $40 – you may as well buy the real X that has spin mode.

I know I for one am boycotting this pole based on principle. I am so very disappointed with Vertical Leisure. The woman can’t pole dance and isn’t a pole dancer and through her viral marketing is making it look like we are bubble heads who want to dance around a "stripper pole."

I have no issue with her persay, I think she’s cute and sweet but i think the whole sexpot marketing scheme on behalf of VL is insulting to women who do this to lose weight, gain confidence and because they truly love the art.

[Charley]

Jamilla’s DVD’s are awesome but there some others out there that I love!

Vertical Dance is fantastic – great warm ups and cool downs – more athletically based and the breakdowns are very good plus she gives tips for every single move. Each move is very indepth. The best part is the movements are so easy to see and they are done in slow motion too. Fabulous DVD. The first set is amazing for beginners and focuses on building strength and stamina 1 move at a time.

Pole Cats – is another fabulous DVD, things are taught by how you go into them which makes is so much easier. For example the fireman and the attitude are taught back to back because you go into the same way. Very clear, easy instruction

Pole Tricks 101 – Pantera – This is a must have DVD. WARNING – it’s all advanced moves but a great watch if you’re not there yet. Not all of the moves are explained well and there is nudity but it’s Pantera for 1 and for 2 it covers a lot of moves not taught often like the split heel, the snap and spin, etc. Really good DVD but it does have nudity. Keep in mind this was one of the first pole DVD’s ever made so it was made more so for performers than home users but it’s a great DVD and Pantera Rocks!