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Great article!

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How jealous am I of you right now, learning with her?? And all you guys who are off to pole jam!

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I always figure people bring their different strengths to pole. For me, I have a dance background so that’s what I’m going to bring to my poling – I’m reasonably strong and fit but for various reasons there’s only a limited number of big tricks I can do so I try and throw them into routines where they’ll have the most impact but make everything else dancey. You can often tell when watching clips on the youtubes what people’s backgrounds are too – the links that Amyxshi posted for example; I happen to know that Amy has a degree in dance (so we’re talking years of training!)and that definitely comes through in her pole. At a guess, I’d say that Oona (who is amazing btw! I’d not seen her before) has been a competitive gymnast some time in her not too distant past because of the way she moves and the way she gets into her moves. Other people you can tell have a more exotic dancing background, others a more acrobatic past. Anyway, I think what I’m trying to say is that if your strength is tricks, then there’s nothing wrong with that.

Having said that though, I find that "freestyling" is quite a good way to practise your transitional moves. Just putting on a song and dancing round to it helps get the juices flowing. The more often you do that, the more comfortable you’ll feel with it and if you get other people going at the same time, you’ll feel less self conscious:) And remember there are plenty of different types of dance you can draw on for inspiration – there’s traditional pole dancing kind of moves, throw in a bit of latin or ballroom type footwork or flourishes, if hip-hop’s your thing I’ve seen some pretty awesome hip hop pole routines, ballet type routines, belly dancing, etc etc. It doesn’t have to be all about the bump and grind!

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I haven’t got a pole but it seems likely that I would name it if I had one:) https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_cheers.gif I like to name things and my workmate thinks I’m a weirdo for naming my car but that’s pretty common…right?? https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_scratch.gif

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We were lucky enough to se her perform live earlier this year – it may have been that routine even, definitely the same song anyway. She was fantastic but does use grip aid of some description if that makes a difference to anyone in terms of trying it out? There’s one routine of hers on the youtubes somewhere where she does a knee hold to the Village People song YMCA and does the arm actions – I totally love it! She’s definitely worth tracking down more routines of if you guys like that one – her name’s Kym and she works for Girlfriend Fun Fitness I think?

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Thanks for watching Veena https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_biggrin.gif I tend to be much more dance focussed in my pole routines because I have more a dance than acrobatic background/ability and I’m stoked that I could finally get one of my routines up here finally, albeit not in the best of filming technology;p

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Thanks guys:)

Empyrean, this was my 3rd time performing pole in a show (once in a predominantly pole show and now twice in burlesque shows) but it doesn’t get any less nerve wracking!! Luckily for me I was the 2nd act on so I could relax and watch the rest of the show once I was done:)

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So unfortunately I didn’t stick the ayesha in the end:/ But out of the whole audience, including people from my studio who’d seen me choreographing and practising the routine, only one person noticed that it didn’t quite happen and that was mostly just ‘cos he’s a fellow poler who knew I was nervous about getting it. Part of the problem was that the stage ceiling was significantly lower than I’d practised on so I wasn’t even sure I was going to be able to do my caterpillar climbing that precedes the move! Anyhue, c’est la vie and all that and I’d done an impromptu performance at my studio for a small class of newbies when I went in for final practising on Wednesday night and nailed the ayesha then so that’s something:) And by all accounts, the rest of the routine was a crowd pleaser https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_thumright.gif

And you know what this means right? I have to put the ayesha in every routine till I get it perfect:) https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_cheers.gif

(ps. my sis took some pics for me but they’re not so good and her fiance also took a bit of vid on his phone. When I’ve got some time, I’ll have a fossick through and see if I can find anything worth posting here:)). Thanks again for support and suggestions!

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Thanks for all your suggestions people! I was practicising last night and the normal butterfly (Amyxshi, this is what we call the lotus ) at our studio) seems to be a good move to head into if my balance isn’t right. My routines are generally quite dance based rather than trick-based so I like to choose/place my inverts for maximum impact if I can and I think the butterfly will be a pretty good substitute.

I will let you all know how the show goes!With a bit of luck I can get some pics too:) Thanks all for your support – shows are so nervewracking bu awesome fun at the same time! This will be my 3rd time performing pole at a show and this is definitely my most ambitious in terms of moves so wish me non-sweaty hands for tomorrow night:) https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_bounce.gif

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Sissy, normally I would steer well clear of using anything that wasn’t solid in a show but the wow factor plus the fact I can stick it *most* of the time makes me want to try it:) I’m just a cautious person by nature so want to cover contingencies so gathering alternate options just in case seems like a good plan to me!

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When I was first learning the hip hold, I learnt it with my hands actually holding onto my legs (as is done in the jade split), which helps you get used to the feeling of squidging the pole in the right place. So I inverted, only hooked my first leg round while still holding onto the pole, lowered the other leg down towards my face and grabbed on round the back of that leg to create the grip. Once that was steady enough, then I’d lower the other leg and grab round that and pretty bingo, look mom no hands (on the pole). From there, I progressed to gripping my first leg with both hands (ie one leg was still free) and then one day I was like "Hey, I wonder what would happen if I just didn’t hold on with my hands" so put my hands out so there was a bit of grip under my inside arm too(ie. arms going opposite way to legs) and so my journey to the hip hold was complete:) I don’t know if this is how anyone else works up to it but it worked a treat for me::)

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Holy crap, Felix never fails to make me drop my jaw at her performances. I wish that everybody in the world who has misconceptions about pole had to watch at least one of her routines so they could fully appreciate the sport at its epitome!

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Thanks so much for the motivation Joni:) As soon as I’ve got my next show out of the way, I’m going to go hard core on praticising the cartwheel again and will let you know how that goes https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_compress.gif

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To be fair, she looks like she bends in ways that most regular folks don’t https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_eek.gif

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Yay you! And your original problem is exactly what I’m struggling with currently so it’s great to hear that it’s not an insurmountable problem!!