majikmyke
Forum Replies Created
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Prplegrl 10 that is indeed a gorgeous tattoo. The artist has done a wonderful job. Love the clarity and depth of the flowers. I can understand the meaning of your creation. Beauty and sadness at the same time.
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Club Dynasty thank you for the compliment. You pose interesting questions which have given me thought over the last several days. Sitting down for coffee and conversation with you could potentially take a long time.
Speaking only of the tats shown here; my opinion would be that an individual who “plans” and “executes” on a large tattoo is very confident and comfortable with themselves. This type of tat is a long term project in which the owner has a defined visual clarity as to the end result.
In broad terms, these ladies know who they are, and are not trying to be someone they are not. They have a multifaceted awareness of self that is anchored in reality. Creativity, aesthetic art, artistic flair, personal growth, seeing and understanding different view points of others, and having little time for contumelious negative people would be a fair general description.
Your question is challenging if seeking only a single answer. My opinion would be that the true answer contains elements of both questions you posed. Your tat to me is reflective of beauty and reminds me of a Chinese scroll. The art is narrow and vertical telling a story. It has symbolic meaning. Polekats tat is contemporary to me. The multiple overlapping colors are impressive especially the art work over her spine. I would imagine this shows beautifully when she is poling with her muscles engaged.
More later. I enjoy your questions.
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Club Dynasty (CD) you have posed a most intriguing question about tattoo’s and poling. I have been poling for almost two years with a short five month lapse when I had spinal surgery (not related to pole dancing or fitness training). CD, the tat on your back is incredibly beautiful. What interests me about the question is my background and age. I’m not young, but really love to pole. The short answer to your question is, yes! After a few months of poling I began thinking about a tat? My first instructor had a beautiful tat with stars that cascaded from her shoulder down her back.
A little personal background will help you understand the transition in my thinking. As a young man in the military in the late 1960’s we got paid once a month. We went out got drunk, did stupid guy shit, and around 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning wound up in a tattoo parlor. A lot of guys got tat’s. I never did and frankly wasn’t interested. There was a lot of peer pressure. Once the hangovers wore off most of the guys thought their tattoo looked like crap. They were not happy with them. However, the next month when we all got paid, we went out got drunk – well, you get it, repeat above process!
Placement of the tattoo’s and quality were severely lacking in my time. As such there was no desire on my part. Through my working career it never entered my mind. Tattooing seemed to actually drop out of favor for a number of years. Then in the late 1990’s and early 2000 seemed to start a revival where you saw more women with good quality small tattoo’s on the arm, shoulder, lower leg, or ankle.
The concept of tattooing has transitioned from being an individual male macho thing to group identification, memorial to someone of remembrance, to the outright creative artistic concepts of the wearer. The quality of the tattoo artists themselves has improved vastly when you see some of their work and the depth of color and vividness it shows.
To this writer there is still a vast difference between what you see in tat’s on guys versus tat’s on the ladies. In general, from my observations, guys seem to do a cluster of tattoo’s on the arms, and/or neck are to show. Often, whatever has been tattooed is jumbled together and poorly recognizable. Ladies on the other hand seem to treat tattooing as if decorating a room. They tend to put a tat where they want it to show when they want it to show. They don’t generally clutter. Their tat’s are well thought out drawing the viewers eye to the tattoo and it’s significance, creativity, and coloring. The tattoo often has meaning to them.
The beautiful long tattoo’s of CD, MeganJoan, Lula Geddes, PoleKat, and tacha666 would all display well when pole dancing. The danger of having a beautiful tattoo is the desire for another. I think that if you have a large creative tattoo you must be very careful not to do another tat that draws the viewers eye away from a creative piece of body art. It sort of goes back to the minimalist thinking about how to decorate a room.
I have given serious thought to a tattoo; maybe a snake on a vine from my shoulder winding down the back. MeganJoan’s thigh tat gave me a new idea about location.
You asked a very interesting question, Club Dynasty. I think you ladies are incredibly creative. And, look, you can teach an old dog new tricks. Thank you for letting me reply to your interesting question.
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yes.
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Poledanceromance’s (PDR) thread above clarifies what I have been trying to say. I’m really glad that my first instructor insisted that I participate in the floor work, and not treat me differently from any of the other student poler’s. My instructor made the classes fun for me as I’m sure PDR will for any male dancer. If you “want” to pole dance, then you need to see and do the entire scope of what’s required. It’s the only way you learn your strengths and weaknesses, and explore what you don’t know. Nicely written and expressed, PDR!
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I agree with Tropicalpole’s statement. FoolsErrand’s (FE) description is laid out very well from a male perspective, with the exception that if someone is really interested in pole they will mentally make, or at least attempt to make the necessary changes required to perform the maneuvers. FE is so correct in stating, “Pole is a near-perfect physical activity.” His thread is well written .
From my experience all the pole instructor’s I’ve worked with would be quite direct in telling a student why they aren’t gripping the pole well with their legs if the shorts were too long. Unless a male coming to pole has a ballet, or other professional dance or arts background, I would imagine they will encounter one or more of the conditions stated by FE.
Pole for men requires a huge mental shift in attitude, physical awareness, and elasticity. You have to “want” to do pole to learn to do it well. The “want” is the mental challenge. If a guy has the “want” then he can learn and make the physical changes. Pole is not about brute force strength, but, to me at least, learning to engage and use muscles you don’t use consciously.
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Based on my personal experience most men who pole do well with upper body strength moves, such as “shoulder mounts.” Most women have the advantage in flexibility and lower body movement. Which explains why moves done by women always look good. Understand, when I say “most” I’m referring to the average poler like myself and others who attend the studio. I’m in no way referring to professional male or female pole dancers.
When I first began poling my instructor insisted that I do the floor work in class along with the ladies. I was in relatively good shape when I began poling. I had a decent core structure. The floor work had me using muscles I never knew existed, and within the first six weeks I lost 5 pounds. I didn’t need to lose any weight. I enjoy doing the floor work from the physical point of view, but I don’t think that it looks good when men (specifically me) do it. The benefit to me is a perceived increased in flexibility.
I think that you will teach a man the same as you would a woman with the basics. Start from the beginning. I have to admit that getting up on the balls of my feet and walking around the pole was awkward and feminine (to me) initially. Soon after I realized that you had to be on the balls of your feet to correctly enter the pole maneuvers. After a quick discussion with myself I got over this, and my maneuver entries improved. He’ll figure out his strengths and weaknesses.
It only takes a few pole lessons to realize the different groups of muscles you’re engaging simultaneously. If he stays with it, in relatively short order, both you and he will notice a transformation of his body. Pole is an incredible total body exercise experience. This is way more challenging than the gym or weights! I hope you and your boyfriend find this helpful.
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I do the high heel repairs at my workbench. Thank you, lilredrobinhood, because I never thought of using a piece of furniture to wedge the toe part under as a holding tool. Simply ingenious! Caution on using vice grips – I used them once on the heel of a shoe when doing a repair, and crushed the soft pad where your heel rests. It eventually returned to normal shape, but the ladies in the studio felt/noticed the crushed pad when they wore them right after the repair.
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Let me begin by saying that the previous studio I attended had about 10 to 12 pairs of heels available for the ladies to wear in class if they wanted to. Some of the shoes were in disrepair, and there wasn’t anything happening to improve that situation. That’s where I was able to help. A number of the shoes were Pleaser’s.
The hardest part about working on/repairing the platform high heels used for pole fitness is establishing the “hold points” after gluing or an epoxy application. It’s just not as simple as gluing two pieces of wood together. I use various small clamps and masking tape to create holding pressure where needed. This type of shoe repair is a “thinking” repair. Think it through first, and then act!
As mentioned in this thread epoxy comes in a dual cylinder tube that pushes out in equal amounts as poledanceromance has said. You mix it and then apply it. Depending upon the repair it can, in my opinion, be very messy and difficult to work with. Many of these shoes are specialty items with glitter and sequins on them that I doubt you want covered with dribs and dabs of brown or gray epoxy.
I think a better answer than epoxy to AprilPoleKitten’s question is using “Loctite GO2 Glue.” It has a long snout so that you to get into the inner shoe area and spread a bead of glue around. The glue has a decent “open” work time which let’s me finish the repair, and clamp it or tape it secure so that the repair can dry. Using super glue will be awkward, because of the lack of “open time” using this product.
The pole high heels undergo tremendous abuse in practice and dance performance sessions. It’s not that you personally are hard on the heels, it’s the environment they’re being used in. The most important thing I’ve found in making pole high heel repairs is to first establish how you are going to anchor and secure the repair after it’s been glued. I would not recommend taking the shoes to a cobbler unless it’s for stitching the leather. The cobbler has no reference to what pole shoes go through. This is not just a repair when it comes to gluing, but a “rebuilding” of the shoe to withstand the endurance and harshness of the pole fitness environment.
The shoes you use are well constructed, but the shoe adhesives used by the factory, while good for regular walking heels, is totally inept for the pole fitness environment. I hope this helps you and others.
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You have a lot of survey requests, but if you'd like another please send me one; gulfstream34@aol.com
I'd like to help you with your project.
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That is really great news SF. I'm sure all the others who viewed his previous performance and voted for him on the SV website would appreciate seeing his pole dance in the final round as would I. YAY!
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While my professional career was aviation my background is business management. Therefore, I strongly urge you to read, and re-read the posts written by "paintilady," "onceuponapole," and "Jellicrew" because they contain the essentials for the creation of the successful business that you desire.
As a quick demonstration; having read "paintilady's" post I can tell you, almost assuredly, that she is a young woman who possesses the skills to use a paint brush, hammer, caulk gun, and drill driver and accomplish things on her own. Obstacles rarely stand in her way. She has good business sense, is creative, committed, and adaptable business-wise. I hope she'll do me the courtesy of confirming what I've stated. I don't know "paintilady," or anything else about her, other than seeing her post here for the first time here.
You need to establish a business philosophy. Does your business philosophy fit with the market (area) you live and work in. You will need to write out a "business plan" whether you are looking for investor's or not. The plan is your guide. It will help you identify your market, your studio operating times, and your business constraints in the marketplace. You will have to do the math to identify your financial break-even point monthly, and seasonally. You need to have, or acquire, adequate cash reserves to cover months where you may show a loss.
The math is simple; total square footage of your "actual" poling area equals how many poles you'll have. How many classes per day, week, month. How much do you want to charge per hour. This makes up your total income per month. Remember, this may be very variable, so don't be optimistic.
Then it's your total expenses, or "overhead" per month; studio rental, electric, water, heat, AC, insurance, any menial fees such as banking fees, or credit card transaction costs. These become your "fixed costs" which you incur month after month whether your variable income is either high or low.
At the outset you will have "capital costs" which include the purchase of the poles, chairs, mirrors, lighting, interior construction (if any), crash mats or carpet, etc.
You have to be committed to your business, and you must be a superb instructor capable of communicating and working well with all sorts of people. Good luck, and success, on your venture.
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What a great male performance. I voted for him. Awesome strength, and smooth transitions!
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PH, I have enjoyed responding to your study and hope it turns out well. Let's get to the interview:
Are you a "discreet" or "open" pole dancer?
I am an open poler. I have no issues with how others may view me. Having said that I can understand the need for discretion for some pole dancers (pd) as it relates to the work environment. If I were to happen to meet someone that I pd with, and they were with an associate, if asked how I knew them I would simply say that we take a fitness class together. There are people in the business world with very closed minds and way too much starch in their panties. I think it's important around these people to use discretion.
Is there a difference between "exotic" pole dancing and "pole fitness?" What is the difference?
In the broad sense "exotic" pole dancing takes place in a strip club environment with an occasional pole trick, but lots of sexually enticing movements that put the dancers physical charms on display. While "pole fitness" is about a physical workout by learning different pole maneuvers and holds and combining them into an ongoing routine that demonstrates strength and stamina.
In reality these two universes collide; very often in our class warm-ups we'll employ the sexy hip movements, squats, and open leg thrusts of exotic dancers. Or, if the mood is right in class, the ladies will go to the high heels for the session (I go to a bow tie). These moves work a lot of muscles. In turn, exotic dancers employ an occasional trick they have learned from pole dancing/fitness. I say "occasional pole trick" because these ladies (primarily) are working an eight hour shift, and as we know we're exhausted after an hour or two of pole fitness. Imagine how they feel?
On the personal level I think all of us want to feel fit, vibrant, and sexy. Pole does that for you. As poler's we need to embrace the reality of where our sport came from, and not try to run away from it. Our job is to educate those around us of the attributes of pole dancing/fitness; low impact strength training for your entire body's muscle groups that hopefully will give you a sculpted appearance.
Do you think people should use their real names when they perform/go to classes, or should they use a stage name? Why?
People going to a class should use their real names. In a class you're associating with others who have similar interests. Pole dancers who are competitive I can understand them using and having a stage name if they want.
On the SV website here we all employ a "handle" or "stage name" for our persona. My "majikmyke" tag takes me into a different personal realm than my real name. We all have different interests, and when we think of a special name as it relates to that interest we mentally transfer our thoughts and energy into that specific area. It's where fantasy and reality coincide in a fun way.
Do you think pole dancing should be a family sport? Or, reserved for adults?
Pole dancing should be for family members when children are old enough to develop the skills and muscular development necessary to challenge them. This can be through the SV website, or through the class environment. Having made this statement there are some caveats attached, and they are; the SV website, and the classroom. The SV website is covered in the next question.
In pole dance/fitness the classroom environment is predominantly women. Make no mistake about it – this is the ladies gym! This is women's private time, and many can be unfiltered when they speak and say things. I have no issues with this. Entering children into a pole class changes this environment. We're certainly not going to use private adult descriptive language in front of children in a class environment. Then there's the issue of sensual/sexy dance (high heels). Again the free environment that many women seek with pole dance now becomes constrained when children are allowed to participate. This is much more controlled by the parents if they're using a pole at home and the SV wesite, Veena's instructional videos as the reference.
Do you think Studio Veena should be 18 plus? Why/why not?
A portion of this was answered above. However, complete access to the website for those below 18 should be restricted. This has nothing to do with Veena's instruction, but everything to do with the "forum" section.
Like the classroom environment where it's the "ladies gym" the "forum" section many times contains adult discussions and references not suited for those below 18. The forum section can be a private area where the ladies, or men in some cases, may want to discuss personal things in an uninhibited manner. I have seen references on the forum portion here at SV that says, "ladies only – please." As adults we are mature enough, and can act with discretion, and say to ourselves, "I'm not wanted here." While we as adults can say this, most children cannot!
I don't think many of the SV participants would be comfortable writing and discussing issues in an unfiltered manner that their children would have access too. Therefore, the SV website "forum" and "blog" sections should be restricted to 18, or older.
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PH, I'm real interested in how your project turns out. As a male, I can only answer a few of the questions regarding pole clothes and shoes.
What would you consider "pole appropriate" clothing? What makes it "pole appropriate?"
There is a wide selection of pole clothing available for women, but for men it's a limited, very limited selection. For the ladies, pole appropriate clothing, along with proper fit, is that which doesn't let the ladies upper parts fall out when they invert, and keeps the lower part covered when they do a showcase, or a split. For guys, it's keeping the lower parts from inadvertently going on display, which is generally reconciled with a good fitting pair of underwear.
The skimpiness of the clothing is inconsequential, but the importance is how effectively it works to conceal. In pole, at least for most of us with limited pole experience, you need to have good skin contact to do the holds.
I have only found several limited sources for men's pole shorts, and they're not really pole shorts. One pair I have are yoga shorts. The others are lined boxcut men's bathing suits that work adequately. You need to have skin contact, and longer shorts don't do it for me.
In my opinion good quality sports clothing covers the aforementioned specific areas. At the studio's that I attend I have not encountered anyone wearing sheer, or see through type outfits. Based on the ladies that I pole with, I don't think this would be tolerated in a pole regular class. In private sessions where people are free-styling it would be alright.
Is there a difference in "pole appropriate" clothing/ shoes for men and women? Why?
When the ladies at the studio go to the high heels then I will generally put on a clip on bow tie. I think the heels add a sexiness and finish to the ladies moves. The moves are the same without the shoes, but the shoes change the visual for me significantly. Plus, when the ladies do holds on the pole the shoes seem to elongate the leg, and accentuate the finish of their pointed toes. It's as though the shoes help to enhance the appearance of a straighter leg.
There seems to be this historical aura surrounding pole dance/fitness about really skimpy clothing. The really skimpy clothing comes into play in erotic pole dancing. For that entertainment I direct you to a strip club. Unfortunately, pole dance/fitness gets tarred with the same brush as erotic pole dancing. If you're going to a pole dance/fitness studio to see skimpy clothing, trust me, you'd be better off going to the beach. If you really want skimpiness, buy an airline ticket to a beach destination in Europe. Enjoy!
The lack of total sports clothing coverage for poling is due to the necessity of skin contact with the pole. You will hear this unanimously from everyone who poles. I can tell you that it's not fun putting your exposed skin against a cold pole when you begin a training session.
PH, the other questions surrounds shoes and I really can't answer them. The same applies to this segment of your project as the previous one I answered regarding why I started poling. I know that I speak for the others on the SV website in wishing you all the best on the successful completion of the project. Very happy to spend the additional time to respond to your survey questions. Thank you.