I was 11 when I fell in love with dance. I immediately became addicted to the adrenaline from performing in front of others, whether it be in my living room, a talent show stage or on a football field.
At 21, I was introduced to pole fitness. Falling in love with the risque dance moves and flexible gravity defying tricks, I decided to give it a go. This blog is to simply document my feedback, failures and accomplishments, ALL to better myself! Enjoy!
Today, I kicked my butt! Woo! I started with co-teaching Level 1-3 with Deseree in Irving, and stuck around for Hip Hop Booty Pop cardio class, also taught by Deseree. It is so much fun learning how to isolate your muscles and dance it out with your friends while laughing at yourself in the mirror!
From 8:00-9:00 is Level 4-6 pole class taught by the bad ass Amy Henderson. I love her intense classes, I always learn a lot from what she has to say. I missed the awesome warm up because I was learning the ropes around the studio but was still sweating and warm from Hip Hop Booty Pop, anyways!
Below is a video of what we covered today in Amy's class: Candy Cane into Scotsman. Scotsman would be cool, if it didn't make me have a wonky freakin' foot! You'll see, it's like a dang bird claw. I gotta fix that. ASAP. Everyone seemed to struggle with it, it's a tough move. If ya don't believe me, let me see YOU try it :)
Wow, a lot has happened since I've last posted! Where do I start?! HMM, I guess with the part where I GOT CERTIFIED IN POLE FITNESS LEVEL 1 & 2!
Karyn Pentecost, the founder of The Girls Room LLC asked me a few months back to consider becoming certified in Pole Fitness: Levels 1 and 2. I OBVIOUSLY responded with a gigantic "YES!" And it could NOT have come at a perfect time. A week prior to Karyn's proposal I had been dumped and cheated on by my boyfriend and best friend of two years. Completely blind sided and heart broken, I turned to pole fitness and used it as my outlet. I felt empowered and liberated, and it helped me really buckle down on my technique. That being said, I still have a long way to go but learn more each and every day.
Looking back at my entire pole fitness journey with The Girls Room, I am so thankful for whole experience. Had I not spent that $50 on that 5 day fit-pass, I would have never known about this magnificent, underground world of badass, elegant athletes. My membership was an investment in my fitness, my health, and my hard earned money. The money I busted my ass to make went to bettering myself, and that's how I justified my expense. Legit, right? Thought so. :)
About my training process -
I have spent this past weekend following Karyn and Deseree at the Frisco and Dallas location, and have learned so much. Friday evening I sat with Karyn, one on one after teaching 6 beginners the basics of pole fitness. The girls learned Indian Swing and Warrior, and one girl even got a good climb in! My solo session with Karyn was very beneficial and inspiring. It takes strong women to do what we do, as well as start your own business and I can learn a lot from the women within the pole community. Which, by the way, there's more of us in this tight, loving community than you'd think!
Saturday I shadowed Deseree with two FABULOUS bachelorette parties! And let me tell you, we had a BLAST! I cannot wait to throw one for my best friend, Pam in May! We spun and booty popped all day in the studio, learning the basic level 1 & 2 tricks while also mastering some super sexy chair choreography! I just realised almost all of my sentances end in explaimation marks-Guess that's how you know I'm excited. Today (Sunday) Karyn held a Level 1 & 2 workshop in Irving, where we molded a fresh newbie into a beautiful beginner level dancer. I was very beneficial to me to experience a clean slate to help guide in the beginner levels that I'll be teaching.
I haven't uploaded a couple of videos since my last post, so I've included them below! Please check them out and get a taste of what goes on at The Girls Room and stick around to see videos in the future of beginner levels 1 & 2 and The Girls Room, Irving!
Thanks for reading and I hope to see you at the St. Pattys Day competition and showcase at The Girls Room Frisco, 3.16.2013 6:00-9:00!
Not the cute little guy with the smoothe butt cheeks shooting the bow and arrow, but the pole pose. Or hold. Or sit, whatever it technically is, hehe! I, myself get into easiest from an invert, then pushing with my 'kickstand' hand and placing my calve on the pole. In part of my practice video you'll notice my hands fidgit, this is where I almost eat it. The point is, I'm getting there! I'm super pumped about my progress and can't wait to practice it some more. When claudia was teaching it to us, she demonstrated SO many variations and possibilities with the pose. I'll get there.. eventually;)
This post consolidates both Friday night and Saturday mornings pole exercises.
This past Friday I attended my regular Friday evening class at The Girls Room, Irving. Instead of Deseree teaching class as usual, Miss Leah substituted. Deseree and a couple other of The Girls Room members indulged in a fun tropical cruise, we are all extremely jealous of their vacation but are so happy they got to spoil themselves! Leah made sure to incorporate floor work and choreographed combinations in her exercise routines, including a self-titled trick named ‘theMurgo’. Gorgeous! We had a great class. I was extremely warmed up and got a great cardio burn after everything was said and done.
The Friday level 1, 2, 3 class usually consists of a new member or two. New members are always so great to meet, for many reasons. I always enjoy introducing myself to new girls because they already have such admiration for the sport, and always have new questions. When I started my pole journey, I wasn’t really close with any of the other dancers which is unfortunate, so I try to make sure the girls feel welcome so there’s no girl-cattiness in the air, for all our sake! I always tell new members never to give up, because it’s really easy to in this particular sport. Some girls would say bruising up your arms and legs, and callusing the palms of your hands all in the name of grace and fitness isn’t worth it… But to pole dancers, that’s just our everyday routine!
Dancing to a new song is always fun, but a little scary. I like to be very familiar with the beat so I can be sure to hit as many as I can while dancing. I love free styling, but MAN do I feel the pressure when the camera is rolling! I always try to put it at the back of my mind that I’m recording myself, but also want to stay engaged so I don’t fudge up too badly while taping. You’ll notice a point in my dancing, somewhere around 4:00/5:00 minute marker, where I stop dancing, approach Leah, and return to the pole. “Songs not over, keep dancing!” she told me, so I hopped back on the pole. I was one sleepy and sweaty girl leaving the studio.
After dancing to one of Leah’s favorite songs, we decide to pole jam to “Pour some sugar on me”, one of the sexiest songs, ever. Call it old school, but I love it. My friends were wrapping up happy hour down the street, so when I told them I was ditching them for dance class, they requested I send them a little clip of when I did that day. Understand that Leah and I also just danced for nearly 7 minutes to the song prior, which has everything to do with why I boldly state “I’M F%^*ING TIRED” at the very beginning of the video. Anyone who says dancing isn’t a sport has obviously never danced for 10 consecutive minutes.
What I like the most about this video is that Leah and I are in our own little worlds. Leah’s dance style/technique is very sultry and elegant. Pole dancing was invented for women like her. Neither of us are stopping and comparing each other’s dance moves to one another, just simply feeling the music and rehearsing our most recently practiced tricks. I think we both do a great job of hitting the beat and making the most out of the song!
This video is a little project of mine created with a neat app called “Splice”. May have already mentioned it once before, but it’s worth mentioning twice considering how much I know I’ll be using it. In this clip I meshed 3 short videos together to the song of “Sons gonna rise” by Citizen Cope. I’ve been jamming to him a lot lately and though the song would look pretty sexy with my tricks I practiced that morning. Still exhausted and carb-less from the evening before, I filmed the days dance moves and viola, here it is. I finally feel comfortable showing my apprentice, although I’m not 100% in love with it.
I have a long way to go until I’m totally satisfied with all of my moves, beginner and advanced, but continue to get stronger and more fluid in my movements. Tricks that I failed at or struggled with last week were now flowing together for me, encouraging me all the more to try again and try harder. Hopefully tonight’s practice will share the great energy acquired on Friday and Saturday, and it’s effected by all the birthday drinks I had Saturday, whoops!
