HI, Isisandshiva. Love your screen name!
I don't know what a Venus is. But if you'd like to be able to keep up with the class, I think you would benefit from some strength and endurance training of the muscles involved in the holds and inverts. Unfortunately developing the strength to do advanced moves can take a long time. But if you want some safety advice that you can employ right away, my suggestion would be to stop doing moves that you seem savvy enough to know you cannot do safely at this time. So, obviously there's skin pain from friction. But if you feel pain in your muscles or joints, STOP. If you feel afraid that you're going to lose control of a move, STOP. If you try several moves that require a lot of exertion and your muscles get very fatigued, STOP. There's nothing more dangerous than temporary muscle failure during an inverted move.
I agree with Mini that you should consider expressing some of your concerns about safety to the instructor. Also bear in mind that there are a lot of fun, beautiful moves that can be done on and around a pole without having to invert, or do other activities that your muscles may not be currently prepared for. If your instructor does not address your safety concerns/fears in a proactive way, maybe that particular studio is not the right one for you.
Veena has a strong emphasis on safety in all of her work. So if you don't feel safe in your current class, just remember that Veena's lessons will teach you fun and pretty moves you can do at your current level of poling, will give you strength and flexibility training that will help prepare you for more advanced moves, and her lessons probably cost a lot less than the lessons at your studio. If nothing else, you could use the Veena lessons to become stronger and more advanced, and then return to your current pole class later on when your body is better prepared to handle performing the difficult, strenuous, and advanced moves your instructor is teaching. But by that time, there's always the chance that you could end up being more advanced than the instructor!
If your shoulder is giving you problems, that may be your body's way of asking you to stop hurting yourself. Maybe you and your friend can do the Veena lessons online together. I am sure you'll have a better time practicing moves that you can do, than you are while you're forcing yourself into dangerous positions that you can't successfully pull off.
By reading your post, I feel that you already know the answer to your question. Take my response and Mini's as confirmation of what your body and intuition have already declared.
Take good care of yourself. Don't risk the health of your shoulder. You could possibly turn a minor injury into a severe and permanent one if you don't honor your body's present limits. And there's always the risk of landing on your head, twisting your neck or wrist, or having some other fall-related injury even if your shoulder is fine. Whatever you do decide to do, just please think about your safety first. The rest can come in time.
