Charley
Forum Replies Created
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At 26 she is doing a lift to a split grip flag to aysha, 1:25 – it lloks like she is just coming into a horizontal flag back up into an aysha variation, 1:41 is Jenyne's sit to brass monkey tumble, and 337 is a flag lift/press to brass monkey.
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Is there a link? I tried a google search and that didn't bring anything up. I'd love to check this out!
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That was soooo hot and sexy! I wish I could move like that. Made me think of some of Alethea's body rolls. OMG! Alethea and Shakira in the same vid rocking out some sexy pole would be soooo awesome!
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YAY! Glad the tips are helping!!!!!
Remember the key here is persistance with out over training. My rule is no more than 5 times a day – after that I'm just getting tired and I won't be able to hold it anyway.
Once mastered I try to make sure I do 3 iron x's a day just to keep it solid.
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In my experience boots get beat up quite quickly, I suggest them for more floor based dances rather than pole based dances.
I like pleasers a lot probably more than Ellie's, although Ellie's have served me well but I have broken the platform and heel of many an Ellie shoe and have had so far decent luck with pleasers.
The pole eats the vinyl on the boots so just be prepared for that – if you're using the boots as a grip aid – perfectly fine – just realize they aren't going to hold up at all. Like I said, I use boots for non pole work – oddly – so they stay nicer longer.
I am a size 6 and am the rare girl who wears a size FIVE pleaser and my Ellie fives could be smaller but I'm told they don't make child sized stripper heels, lol!
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In my experience boots get beat up quite quickly, I suggest them for more floor based dances rather than pole based dances.
I like pleasers a lot probably more than Ellie's, although Ellie's have served me well but I have broken the platform and heel of many an Ellie shoe and have had so far decent luck with pleasers.
The pole eats the vinyl on the boots so just be prepared for that – if you're using the boots as a grip aid – perfectly fine – just realize they aren't going to hold up at all. Like I said, I use boots for non pole work – oddly – so they stay nicer longer.
I am a size 6 and am the rare girl who wears a size FIVE pleaser and my Ellie fives could be smaller but I'm told they don't make child sized stripper heels, lol!
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I didn't get a chance to read everyone's responses yet but I will.
I think part of what makes pole dancing unique and desirable to do is that it is sexy, it does have a stigma. Pole dancing takes "pole dance" out of the strip clubs and away from men, it's no longer only being used as a phalic symbol and girls are no longer being forced to dance on it.
Whether we agree with sexy dancing,pole dancing or whatever…we can all agree that at the end of the day the message here is women making a choice to do something because they want to, not because they are financially being held hostage by an establishment to do it, because it's their choice.
Women making choices about their bodies is a good thing no matter where you're from.
Unlike many forms of dancing, pole dancing can be performed and enjoyed at a basic level – it doesn't require a prerequisite of any other training to do it and to look beautiful. Pole dancing puts all of us in a room in tiny clothing with our bodies and our emotions exposed and we as women learn to support each other rather than attack each other, we learn to love ourselves for who and what we are, accept our imperfections with humility and self kindness and accpet others for their strengths and weaknesses. We might find ourselves admiring and befriending those we never would in the real world, we strip away the book covers and everyone is the same but yet different in their own beautiful ways. We learn to let go of the body conciousness we walk around with, learn to let go of the feelings of inadequacy and learn to let others in and trust them. So much is done for women in pole dancing classes that is so beauitful.
I think that openly discussing the elephant in the room will force the women listening to truly hear what you have to say. I think if we try to clean it up or overly mainstream it that people look at us and think "yeah, that's nice but what about the women doing this for money in clubs naked?" And instead of telling them that "stripping" is wrong…why not discuss the truth about it. Stripping is an occupation that many girls choose to do because it's the only job with a flexible schedule that can earn you high income. It's immensely difficult to dance naked in front of wanton men and deal with begin groped and propositioned all night, or rejection – there is a lot of rejection that comes with stripping. Educate them about that. Educate people that the reason many girls begin abusing substances is because they need to in order to perform their job, it's no different than the factory worker who abuses perscription drugs to ease his pain on the line, a woman's pain stripping is just different and in some ways the same, spending 8 hours a night in 8 inch heels is hard on the feet and back.
Many of the great pole dancers came from strip clubs. That's okay. Think about how strong you have to be to self teach yourself pole tricks all the while dealing with drug addicted people, handsy customers, bars charging YOU to be naked…The strength of character it takes to leave that kind of sad but yet comfortable environement is A LOT. they leave the money behind and all they take is this ability to perform and dance beautifully and they openly gave it to everyday women who have a CHOICE to dance or not.
It's evolved into a mind body workout that all over the world gives women strength, courage and their sensuality back to them. The choice to pole dance is ours to make and should be respected. The addiction to pole dancing is so strong once you do your first baby spin around the pole – the control you learn to have over your body is intoxicating…the more we advance as pole dancers the more control we physically gain and that control in my opinion leads to mental and emotional control. That's why I love pole dancing so much. It's not just tricks but what those tricks mean to me each time I nail a new one, how good it feels to dance around and be pretty, the feeling of knowing I'm making a choice to have a healthier body and the friendships and connections I've made with women I wouldn't otherwise meet who have also exercised their right to choose this as their hobby and workout.
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I love Natasha so much! What an amazing and inspiring routine! Every time I see her dance I just want to jump up on the pole and go at it!
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Lil blondie – that's how Alethea explained it too – but I'm holding mine much more like a flag and I had no idea there was an *easier* way to do it. I started watching everyone do their X and was like "dang, okay!"
Alethea actually said to me – "I don't know how you're holding this right now, must be brute muscle."
I'm not saying the iron x isn't hard any way you slice it, just that the way the Be Spun ladies do it – makes more sense and is so much less taxing and if I had known this before I'd have had my X much sooner. I totally thought I had to flag out. BECAUSE it didn't look like an x on all angles…
Have a good straddle will help with this too – my stradlle sucks and I feel I have to tip further towards the floor than I would if I had a great straddle – so while you're working on this beast of a move – good idea to also improve your straddle…if it needs improving and mine does – lol!
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Hey Mizvix – I thought the same way but Alethea had said you want to keep the torso facing slightly upwards and the back rounded rather than arched – I hold mine with my back arched.
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I love when Barbie smacks Ken for geting too handsy!
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I have seen the commercial for the pole move box and I think it's a great resource the price is simply too high. I would pay even $100 to have a COMPLETE listing of moves but three times that?!?!
I know wikipole has some issues but we can all submit pictures, videos and moves to it. It works like a community, It's a little confusing on how to do it at first but I encourage everyone to make a profile on wikipole and add your knowledge and variations to it.
Studio Owners/Instructors, it's a good idea to keep a running file on your own computer of moves too. It's a pain to keep up with I know and mine is a little outdated right now but when you're bored kinda go through it and see if you can anything anywhere.
The biggest issue I've run into because I learn so many beginner things is keeping the beginner and intermediate lists organized – I have a Master list, beginner, intermediate and advanced list and it just keeps getting bigger – yeesh! lol!
And because pole is evolving so fast, kind of another reason NOT to shell out $300 for flash cards unless you get lifetime updates, lol!
I just want to say I do however appreciate ALL the work that went into the Pole Move Box and the time it took to photograph all of those moves and rank each move.
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You can do an iron x with either a chinese grip or a twisted grip. I do mine with twisty grip and I know Veena does hers with Chinese grip. *I'm working on the chinese iron x – it's so awesome and much harder*
So to begin, you need to be rather strong and well practiced in either grip. If twisty grip causes pain for you – don't do it and be sure you are lifting into all twsity grips to avoid injury and keep in mind that you are not in nuetral alignment when you do twisty grips so your dismounts are as important as your mounts – you don't want to be just letting your body fall out of twisty grip.
I suggest beginning with the a dismount from the pole in your preferred grip. I prefer to practice this coming out of an extended butterfly because you are closer to the position you need to be in to hold the x.
From extended butterfly, turn your head and torso towards the ceiling and slowly, control your dismount with legs in straddle down as far as you can safely go and bring yourself back up the pole- maybe this will be iron x, maybe you'll be shy of it – it doesn't matter because eventually it will your iron x.
Be sure to have a friend or spotter there to help you – if you come down too low and find it difficult to hold have someone assist you down if you are using twisty grip because again you are not in nuetral alignment and hard come downs can injure your rotator cuff and wrist.
Be sure to keep your belly facing the ceiling – I hold my x parralel and my belly isn't facing up and Alethea called me on it – explaining keeping the belly facing more towards the ceiling with a rounded back is much easier to hold so I am still currently working on those tweaks.
Hope this helps!
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Hey Kat, I also thought about the pole move box but to be honest there are so many great free resources out there with simple pictures and move names that I cannot justify spending that much money on a box of flash cards.
Check out http://www.verticaldance.com , the pfa website, www,poledancecommunity.co.uk and http://www.wikipole.org. This sites have a number of moves, pictures, videos, etc. And if you've got the time you can compile all the resources together in a single binder or atleast file folder on your computer. I know I've taken from all of those resources and then added a ton of my own things to it.
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Vitamin A and B are supposed to be good for flexibility as well as Glucosomine. I know some dancers who drink joint juice which is supposed to be good for those with arthritis. Check out Yoga Body Naturals – they sell a supplement for flexibility – I haven't tried it but I've heard it's good.
Nicotine and caffeine are both bad for you but I know a lot of dancers who smoke to stay skinny – a dancers diet consists of smoking and tea/coffee so while I think those two drug affect flexibility I don't think it's so much so that you wouldn't be able to train to overcome it. This is ust my opinion not basedon any facts, lol!
Another thing about flexibility is that you have to also increase your strength – it takes a lot of strength to do the splits. I had an interesting conversation last night after aerial yoga about it. Not sure what kind of training you're doing but I practice resistance stretching every other day and then do yoga, passive stretching, static stretching on in between days. The foam roller helps at ton too – not sure if you're using one but it breaks up the myofascial tissue and will help you get more flexible – Veena added foam roller lessons here.
Being WELL hydrated will help you too – drink LOTS of water before you stretch – I mean don't water log, and take breaks to drink water while you're stretching.
I think for me – I need a couple of days off a week too – if I just do some kind of stretching everyday I am so sore and get so tight so rest is good for your body too. Also make sure you are stretching all the muscles – calves, quads, all 3 hamstring sections, hip flexors and abductors. Sometimes we only stretch the center hamstring and forget about the inside and outside.
Hope all that helps 🙂 I do resistance stretching with Ottersocks on this board and for foam roller exercises and stretches you can check out Veena's lessons.