Pole Dance Challenge Week 4 (plus corde lisse and gymnastics)

Last week I chose a different style of music for my freestyle dance as suggested by one of my students. I danced to Nero – Guilt. I enjoyed it as it was nice for a bit of a change. I’ll probably go back to rock tonight though! I feel that my freestyles are slowly becoming less repetitive and I am actually starting to enjoy doing them now so that’s good. I might even start posting the videos soon!

Last night was the last Corde Lisse class for a few weeks. It was a good class working on back balance (which I still can’t do), budda and catchers into key of stomach neatly. Since there is no gymnastics for a few weeks I took the opportunity to use the space and crash mats to do a bit of handstand and cartwheel practice. We had a little gymnastics club going on in the corner of the space at the end of the corde lisse class which caused some amusement. I was quite pleased with my handstands and cartwheels, they do seem to be improving steadily so that’s good.

Pole Challenge Week 1 (plus other updates)

This week has gone by fast!
Well I started my pole challenge after class last Tuesday. I was worried that I wasn’t going to be able to do it as I had forgotten to charge my mp3 player and camera and both were flashing low but luckily they both held on! I danced to Avenged Sevenfold – Gunslinger. Watching the video back I wasn’t as horrified with it as I thought I would be! I started off ok although I did start running out of ideas pretty quickly. I have been watching videos this week for ideas so hopefully tonight it will be a little less repetitive (although I’m bound to have a mind blank as soon as I start). I’m not posting the video. I’m thinking I’ll make a montage in a few weeks time when there will hopefully be some improvement to show!

I will post a video of the opening dance at Miss Pole Dance Australia though. This video is my new inspiration. If I can get to be even half as good as these ladies then I’ll be super happy!



In other news corde lisse has been going quite well. We have been working on pickups and meathooks which I really like and they have been improving nicely. Last night I had a little play on the aerial hoop as well which I enjoyed (much to my surprise – I hated trapeze). Tempted to go to a one off hoop class at some point.

On Saturday I did a gymnastics class. The gym where I teach pole has a competitive gymnastics squad and I was allowed to join their training session. It was great fun and I think it will really help my pole as I plan on going every week. I was working on handstands, cartwheels and straddle levers. My legs ached loads on Sunday! Looking forward to next week.

Pole progress

It’s been a whole month since I last posted! Oops! I’ve been quite busy with my poling and feel that I am making progress (albeit a little slowly). My aysha is coming along. It still needs a lot of work but I’m getting it more regularly now and I know where I’m getting it wrong when it doesn’t work out right so that’s good. My genie is there now, I just need to remember to point my toes! The shoulder mount lift is coming along slowly. Sometimes I can manage to lift it all the way up from sitting but mostly I’m getting part of the way up. I had a practice session on my own at the studio on Friday night and was pleased with that. I videoed it all which was helpful as I can look at the footage and see how the moves are looking and spot what I’m doing wrong.

I went to a mini pole jam / practive at 360 pole dancing in Bristol on bank holiday Monday which was fun. There was a Chinese pole up as well as the normal poles which was good, especially as it was a 3 meter one. I haven’t had a chance to go on a decent height Chinese pole for ages.

Corde lisse is going well. I couldn’t go on Monday night as I was ill which was annoying but hopefully will be back to normal by Monday. I hate missing classes.

I have finished bootcamp for a while now as I am going into full pole competition training mode. As my Friday night practice worked out so well last week I plan on making it a regular fixture for a while so Wednesday has become my rest day.

My pole classes are hopefully picking up a bit now that August is over. I’ve had quite a lot of new enquiries over the past week or so, so with any luck the classes will get a bit busier.

Lots of activity!

Well last week was a busy one. I was back at Corde Lisse on Monday after 5 weeks off and so found it quite tough going. It’s good to be back though and it was nice to see everyone. Looking forward to tonight’s class although I don’t have much energy at the moment!

My pole classes on Tuesday were quite, August has officially kicked in! As I only had one person in the later class I managed to get a little bit of practice in which was good. Also now that I am using semi-permanent poles I don’t mind so much when I have less people than expected as I haven’t lugged heavy x-poles up the stairs and put them up for no reason!

Bootcamp as usual on Wednesday. It’s going pretty well, I can definitely feel that my overall fitness has improved.

Went to pole class on Thursday as normal. I was quite worn out by this point so was quite glad that it was heels week and we spent a lot of the lesson working on a spinning sequence. I did have a go at shoulder mount from sitting and nearly managed to get all the way up, I will have this soon, it’s so close. I also managed a few ok-ish ayshas. The longest I held one was about four seconds so not too bad.

On Sunday I had a “garden” pole party for my birthday (which isn’t quite yet but this weekend was a good date to hold it). In typical British summer fashion it was pouring down with rain all day so the planned pole stage in the garden and the BBQ didn’t happen but I did manage to fit two poles up in my lounge by pushing all of the furniture out of the way. One of the pole was an x-pole and the other was a Chinese pole made by putting rubber tubing onto an x-pole and it worked nicely and went down really well with everyone.

General update

Well as you can see the blogging more often has been a failure so far! In fact July has pretty much been a failure and I’m glad to see the back of it! A lot has been going on in the past month which has left me lacking in motivation and energy but now I hope I’m back to some kind of normality and ready to go again.

My pole classes remain busy. They are no longer full but still have a healthy attendance so that’s good. It always goes quiet over the summer anyway so I expect it to get busier again in September. I’ve been working on re-designing my website and hope to have the new version up and running sometime this month. One of my students is due to do her PDC level 3 grading this month, she works really hard and has achieved a lot.

I covered a pole party for Robyn at 360 pole dancing in Bristol on Saturday. I haven’t taught a party for ages so it was quite good to get back into that.

My personal pole practice has been ticking along slowly. My no handed genie has improved (although is still in need of a lot of polishing and practice!) and I feel that I am slowly making progress with my aysha again, I think I will have it back before too long.

It’s my birthday this month so next weekend I am holding a garden mini pole jam at my house. The idea started as some of my students said they wanted to have a go on a stage pole and a Chinese pole so I said I would do something in the summer so that they could. I am planning on building an outdoor Chinese pole but haven’t had time as yet but hopefully I’ll be able to buy the rubber this week and get an x-pole up to use as a Chinese pole.

I am considering entering the UK Professional Pole Championships. This is a new national competition for instructors with three different levels of which I would be entering the lowest level – Instructor (the other two being Professional and Elite). The first round is by video submission for which the closing date is 31st August. I’m not sure if I’m going to be ready by then. I have picked a song and have part of the routine worked out but all of my moves require polishing and I need to be able to pull off that aysha convincingly. I’ll see how things go!

I haven’t been to corde lisse all month as I was late trying to book onto the last block and it sold out before I could book my place. The new block starts tonight though and I am signed up to it so looking forward to getting back to that. Hopefully I won’t have lost too much strength.

I’ve still been going to bootcamp every week. That’s going well, I can see improvement.

Activities Update

I must start updating this blog more regularly! I have decided to enter another pole competition this year so the training starts now and I will use the blog as a way to keep track of my progress.

My pole classes are going well. The second class is now full and has a waiting list for the first time ever and the first class is on its way to filling up as well. I have been considering putting on another class on a different day but not sure if I will be able to fit one in so still thinking about that.

My personal pole practice has been going ok. Been going to class every Thursday as usual. I have just about managed to get my no handed genie. I just have to tidy it up now. Still working on lifting my shouldermount and starting to go back and look at the aysha again. I have decided that I need to do a lot more conditioning as this will help with everything and I want my nice strong, tidy air invert back as it’s currently looking somewhat lacklustre!

Corde lisse is going ok. I have only been able to attend about once a fortnight for the past few weeks but I think I should now be back to being able to go every week. We have been looking at a sequence of moves, last night we were focusing on the figurehead which I think is one of my favourite moves to do on the rope.

I have still been going to bootcamp every week. Have been getting on well with that and can see improvement in my overall fitness so that’s good.

I haven’t been to parkour for a while which is a shame as I really enjoyed it but I can’t do everything and that was the thing that had to give for now. I’m planning on going back at some point though as it is great fun and hard work.

Update

I’ve been feeling ill for the past week so not really done a lot. Hoping to get back into it this week though starting with the return of Corde Lisse tonight. Circomedia aren’t running the Monday eve class in St Pauls at the moment due to availability issues and I (and most of the rest of the class) were unable to attend the alternative Thursday eve class in Kingswood that they put on so the instructor has started up his own classes on a Monday evening at The Island. I’ve never been to the island for a class before so will be interested to see it. I’ve seen in in photos and videos from my friends silks class and it looks like a nice space. Not as nice as the church in St Pauls but a lot nicer than The Albany so will soon see!

Pole wise I felt I was getting my mojo back a bit after a bad start to the year (I’m hoping the week off that I’ve had hasn’t put me back again). Robyn at 360 Pole in Bristol had a birthday pole jam a couple of weekends ago which was good fun. I like a good jam, it’s nice to catch up with people that you don’t see very often and see what everyone else is working on.

My classes are still going well, it was a quite one last week but I was actually quite glad as I was feeling ill and felt like I was going to fall off the pole every time I touched it! Hopefully that has gone now as I am expecting this week to be back to normal attendance.

I have been given the go ahead by my venue to buy some semi-permanent poles so I hope to get those ordered this week and fitted soon. They will really speed up my set up and packing away times plus I won’t have to lug three heavy x-poles around with me which I am looking forward to.

So hopefully fully back into the swing of things this week.

UK Pole Dance Day

May 1st was UK Pole Dance day. This is an annual event done by the performers society, Equity. The idea of the day is to promote pole and get people involved. I wasn’t going to do anything but decided (somewhat last minute, just three weeks before) to hold a free taster session. The session went quite well. Three of my regular students came along to help out and have a play on the poles. I also had four people that had never tried pole before. Two ladies and two men who one of my regular students had brought along. Everyone seemed to enjoy it, I know I certainly did.

The day that before a couple of friends had been round my house for an afternoon of pole. We all worked quite hard and did quite well. It was fun and something I hope to do more often. I have a scaffold pole ready to make a Chinese pole for the garden so I’m hoping for a good summer so we can make use of that.

Pole on Thursday went well. I was pleased because I got the genie pose with one hand. I hadn’t attempted the genie at all for at least a year (at which time I couldn’t do it at all) so I was pleased that I got the one handed version. I will now be working towards no hands which hopefully won’t take too long (I did manage it for about a second on Saturday during the pole session at home). I’m glad I got a new move, it’s made me feel better about pole again as I had been back in a bit of a rut after a horrible start to the year followed by my shoulder injury that stopped me doing a lot of training.

My classes are still going well. The 8:15pm class is full and I have been getting new enquiries so hopefully I can get a few more people to join the earlier class as well soon.

I haven’t been to parkour since as my Friday nights have been busy but going back this week. There is a pole jam in Bristol on Sunday to look forward to as well. No Corde lisse at the moment though as the church that the classes are held in is in use for other tings for a while so the classes have been moved elsewhere and to Thursdays which is no good for me. I have put my name down for a master class with Jukka Juntti though so hopefully that will go ahead.

Dodgy Shoulder

I haven’t done much over the past few weeks as I have a recurring shoulder injury which has come back to bother me. It’s really quite painful and it’s never lasted this long before so I think I will need to go and get it looked at.

I went to corde lisse last night and took it easy. I missed the week before and will be missing next week so didn’t want to miss three weeks in a row. I got on quite well really. We looked at Teardrop which I managed to do first time, much to my surprise! We were also looking at Hocks drop but that was from a twisty shoulder type thing so I gave that one a miss and just practiced double hocks instead.

My pole classes have been a bit quiet lately but I was quite pleased about that the week before last when my shoulder was particularly bad as I only had to teach one small class. I’m expecting it to be a bit busier tonight though so biofreeze at the ready when I get home! The only personal pole practice I’ve done over the past three weeks was one practice session a couple of weeks ago.

Hopefully I’ll get his shoulder sorted soon. I want to do pole practice!!

Back to it

I had not been to corde lisse for the past two weeks due to personal problems so it was nice to be back on Monday night. Jonathan was taking the class this time and he has us working on his swing into catchers which I have now managed to get back (from the floor, still not much success up the rope). I was pleased with that as it annoyed me that I had managed to lose the move. I’ll have to remember to practice it every week so it doesn’t go again! After that we moved on to looking at a double pick up. It’s similar to the swing into catchers but wraps both legs rather than just one. This is used as a prep for propeller. I didn’t manage to do it although I don’t know why I found it so much harder than the catchers pick up. I did have a go at the propeller wrap from a different way in, I didn’t do that well with it, I think because it was towards the end of the class and I was tired because I have done it before.

I haven’t taught my pole class for two weeks, again due to the personal problems. I’m back teaching next week so looking forward to that. I told my students the reason and they were all understanding so hopefully I won’t have lost any. I’m expecting both classes to be nearly full if everyone turns up.

I went along to pole class last night. It was heals night, I haven’t worn mine for ages so had to wash them before I went because they were all dusty and dirty! I was quite rubbish at the movements in isolations that we were doing, it’s not something I do often but probably should as it will help with fluidity. Other than that I was mainly working on my twisty grip Aysha. It’s still really hit and miss which is annoying me. I know I can do it, and when I get it right I can do it well, holding it for around ten seconds. However, that only happens perhaps one time in twenty. The rest of the time I’m doing something wrong and topple straight out. I didn’t practice any of the Becca Butcher stuff last night as my shoulder still hurts from the workshop. I am hoping to do some of it tonight though as I have a Chinese Pole session with some friends.

Rope and Pole

Rope on Monday went quite well. I was doing a lot of conditioning type stuff which I did alright with, especially as my shoulder has decided to start playing up again. We also looked at ankles. I haven’t done ankles for ages so it was good to go back and look at it again. I only did it low down with my shoulders on the floor but it went a lot better than it did the last time I tried it. We did it on the silks instead if the rope so I think that helped.

My pole classes last night went well. I had 6 people in the first class and they all seemed to enjoy it. They are all picking things up quickly and seem keen. My second class had three people who are all at intermediate level as they have been coming for a while so we looked at some more unusual stuff that I tend not to do very often so that was fun. We also did some work on learning the routine which they picked up well. It looks really good when they all do it together in time.

I didn’t have a chance to do any personal practice of the things I have been working on but demoing the more unusual moves was good practice for me as I hadn’t done them for some time.

Lots of pole and back to rope

So far this year my poling has been going quite well. I have been doing a fair bit of conditioning which I really need as I seem to have lost a lot of strength, where I could previously do five air inverts in a row I now struggle with just two. But hopefully this will come back soon as long as I keep up the conditioning. When I was doing regular conditioning before I noticed a big improvement fairly quickly so hopefully the same will be true this time.

My Aysha has been coming along nicely. I managed to hold it for a full ten seconds at the weekend and then at my class on Tuesday I managed to hold the aysha before moving into a straight edge! At class on Thursday I couldn't hold it at all though but I'm hoping that was because I'd already done a load of conditioning and attempting to lift into shouldermounts before hand.

My classes on Tuesday were busier this week. I'm still getting lots of new enquiries as well so hopefully numbers will continue to go up.

I was back at rope on Monday after what seems like ages off. It was good to be back although I seem to be taking a while to get back into the swing of it. Hopefully I'll do better next week.

Pole and Rope

I haven’t been doing that much lately. Monday was my fist Corde Lisse class after missing two weeks (the first week due to other commitments and the second week because of my reoccurring shoulder injury). We have a different instructor for this block. He taught a block a while back and I really like his style. I didn’t realise how much I ached from it until I started teaching my pole class on Tuesday evening!

My Tuesday classes are going well. They have gone slightly quieter over the past couple of weeks but that seems to be down to illness. My 8:15pm ladies are doing really well. I now have three people in that class who are inverting. They all have poles at home and seem to be good at making sure they practice between classes which really shows.

My own pole practice has gone a bit hit and miss at the moment. I am still going to my friends class on a Thursday but I have been suffering from severe grip problems due to the cold weather plus my shoulder injury wasn’t helping matters! I have been working on my Aysha some more, it’s still hit and miss so keeping at it as I am determined to get it nice and strong. I have also been working on trying to lift into my shoulder mounts as I am quite confident with my shoulder mounts now so I need to be lifting into them nicely. Easier said than done though! I can get my feet off the floor but that’s it so far. Still it will happen as long as I keep practicing.

Not much pole and some corde lisse!

My pole class has been quiet for the last two weeks. I’ve put the 7:15pm on hold until October as its been empty and last night and the week before I had just three people in the 8:15pm class. Those three are all progressing really well. I’m starting to prepare one lady for inverts and think she will have the basic invert in a couple of weeks.

I’m doing a pole photoshoot tonight so that I have some nice new photos ready for a re-vamp of my website. Once I have the photos I’ll also make up some flyers and do a bit of advertising to hopefully increase class numbers again.

Last week I didn’t go to any pole classes. I went to a Dom Joly talk and book signing on the Thurs and then competition practice was cancelled on Friday due to lack of people. I did a bit of practice at home instead on Friday night, mostly going over the first section of my routine for the competition.

Monday nights Corde Lisse class went well. We were mainly working on Figurehead which is quite a simple move but it looks really nice. We also did quite a lot of conditioning as well which I like doing. The instructor, Gareth, has lovely pointy toes which you don’t see much in circus performers but it makes the moves look so much nicer then the usual circus flexed feet.

Lots of pole and a little bit of rope

I did my last pole hen party on 4th Sept (I have since changed insurance companies and am no longer covered for parties so can’t do them any more). It was my biggest one ever with 12 people taking part, one of whom was male, and all of whom were dressed as old ladies ! It was fun, they all seemed to enjoy it.

My 7:15pm class on 7th Sept for some reason ended up empty so I made the most of the time to do some practice. My 8:15pm class was by contrast nearly full. Everyone is doing really well, one person came back after about six weeks off. She did really well and didn’t seem to have lost much strength so that was good. I also had a couple of new starters who seemed to enjoy it.

I went to pole class on the Thursday and did alright. I’m slightly concerned that my lunchbox is not coming back and I really need it to as I want to put it in my competition routine!

There is a new competition practice running Friday nights now so I went along to that as well. Was practicing my combinations for my routine and still trying to get that pesky lunchbox back (without success sadly).

I was back at corde lisse last night. We were mostly focusing on conditioning this week which was quite good. We have two instructors this time who are sharing the block. Tanya Scully who has taken the class before (and also teaches the Chinese pole classes that I go to) and Gavin who I had not met before so it will be good to see what he has to offer, I like learning off of a range of people as you get more variety and a mix of styles which I think is a good thing.

Corde Lisse

Corde lisse class went well last night. We were working on the same sequence as last week so I was mainly looking at the sitting man to walking man, double hocks and front balance to hip lock. I wasn’t entirely successful but made better progress than last week. My double hocks is getting stronger again although it’s still not back to where it was but it should be long now.

Rope and Pole

First Corde Lisse class in a few weeks on Monday. It went fairly well. We were working on the B move first of all which I struggled with, but so did most of the others so that was ok! Then we looked at double hocks to front balance. I was a bit annoyed with myself as my double hocks used to be really strong but having not done it for some time it’s gone pretty rubbish. Must try to practice it each week.

My pole classes on Tuesday went well. The 7:15pm class is now full and once some of my students get back from holidays the 8:15 will also be close to being full. Everyone is picking things up nicely and seems to be enjoying it.

Pole, Chinese Pole and Corde Lisse

I went to pole class on Thursday night. It was a good class, I nearly have my superman back and my knee hold will soon be there as I managed to almost do it, getting my hands off the pole, just need to lean out more and remember to push hips forward. Also got to see a run through of the instructors routine (which she was performing at an event on Saturday night) which was good. I like watching routines in person (as opposed to on youtube etc).

Friday night was Chinese pole. This also went pretty well. I managed several successful meat hooks and managed to complete the sequence properly as well. Also worked on the shoulder mount roll. This was less successful. For some reason I am much less confident shoulder mounting on the Chinese pole than on the ordinary pole. At the end I had a quick knee hold practice and got a photo. I have done better knee holds on the Chinese pole before but it was the end of the session and I was bruised from the previous evening attempts!

Monday night was the last in the current block of Corde Lisse. We were working on a little sequence which included toe climb, walking man, double hocks to front balance, spice move and lotus. I wasn’t getting on very well with it! I have done spice move before but chickened out this time, I remember the pain from last time! I was also practicing twizzle into catchers which I have lost.

Recent Activities

I haven’t been doing too much lately due to a shoulder injury.

My pole classes have been running as normal and are going well. Have had a quiet couple of weeks but last night I had six new people so that was good. They seemed to enjoy it so hopefully they will continue. I have moved a couple of my 7:15 people up to the 8:15 class as they are now learning to invert. Everyone in the 8:15 class is progressing really well. One lady has recently bought her own pole and the extra practice is really paying off as she is improving really quickly.

Corde lisse has been going well. I didn’t go this week partly due to my shoulder and partly due to it being at the other site for a week. We had been working on sideways slato which was good.

Activities Round Up

Last Friday was my first Chinese pole class in a while. The group has been split in two so its now smaller which means more pole time. I got on alright, we were still working on the usual bits and pieces so that was good. I managed a successful meathook on the left so was pleased with that.

Last Monday we the first of a new Corde Lisse block. We had a different instructor than normal so looked at some different things which was nice. For me it was mainly going back over All in the best possible taste which I managed to do. I think I had done it before but it was a long time ago so couldn’t remember it very well.

Tuesday’s pole class went well. A quiet one this week but everyone is making progress. I didn’t get much personal practice in, just the usual bits at the end. I’m finding that my body is really sticking to the pole but my hands are really sweaty and slidey which isn’t good!

I had been planning on going to pole on Thursday but I injured my shoulder on Wednesday so had to give it a miss.

On Saturday I had a party to do. They were late so I did some choreography whilst I was waiting as my late Tuesday group are keen to learn a new routine. The party went well and they all seemed to enjoy it.

Last nights Corde Lisse class went well. The usual instructor was back. We went back over what we had done the previous week, and I successfully managed to do the sideways salto which I was pleased about. We then went on to look at Catchers Arabesque and Figurehead.