[Charley]

There is an aerial place here in Detroit too, maybe we can all do a dop in Saturday night when you come https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_biggrin.gif

[Charley]

I agree with most everyone else, get a pole that has the option to spin; and you can just set it to not spin. I have a spinny/static pole and I rarely use the spinny option.

I have the Platinum Stages removable pole in brass, and I LOVE it. I have had it up for years and it hasn’t come undone. (I just make sure to tighten it every month or so, just in case!)

The only downside to my pole is that the finish is weird.. I don’t know if it’s just brass poles in general, but it has finger prints and hand-swipe marks that never go away. So it’s not perfectly shiny anymore, like it was when I first bought it. But I can deal with that!

You have to treat brass or it will tarnish…have you tried Brasso? Give the pole a good clean and polish – I bet it looks as good as new. https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_biggrin.gif

*If you can afford a spinny option – go for it, it will improve the resale value of your pole and you may just like it. We have 1 spinner in the studio right now and some students find it helpful to be able to use it figure out their body position.

[Charley]

Whatever you do not get a stainless steel LM pole, especially if you live someplace that gets a winter. LM’s are the slippiest stainless steel out there and they are tough to work on when it’s dry or cool.

If you want stainless steel get a platinum stages super pole – it will be much grippier and friendly.

[Charley]

I am a fan of 1 student per pole. We have 6 poles so class maxes out at 6 – our space is a bit tight – so more than that could get crowded. We get students from other schools often too and they complain about pole sharing.

Most of the time new students don’t stay on their pole for the whole class but I do try to lots of movement exercises and give them a lot of time on each move to ask questions and try it on both sides.

I have done 2 and 3 to a pole before and found that worked well too, the only problem was over time many students started spending more time tricking than dancing and in a large class it can be difficult to fully impart the importance of moving and using all your spaces not just your pole.

Aside from that a good studio should be able to cater to EVERYONE and a good instructor should be encouraging EVERYONE and spending extra time with those who are having a harder time.

The class should be fun and light but also safe and a good work out.

[Charley]

I teach mixed level classes for this reason.

I get a number of different people with various backgrounds that I end up with people who can do different things.

I have two classes I teach Pole tricks – I work individually with students and we set goals together and I teah Sexy 101 – this is a choreographed class workin with what you already know and putting things together and dancing.

I have people coming all the time that say they are advanced then I notice they can’t do many more basic/intermediate moves. So, for us teaching mixed level allows people to stay in classes together and it allows people like yourself to join in with us.

[Charley]

Bertysbooboo and I did Stripper 101 with her last year, loads of fun. She lives locally to us. I’d love to jam ith her sometime.

[Charley]

I let people bring in CD’s or Ipods. Our classes are usually open to just about anything and most people have music on either their phone or an MP3 player and msot people carry those items with them.

I also have a sheet where students can request songs too but I haven’t put it out much lately.

For Intro classes music is much more of a background element than something used for dancing. I don’t make anyone dance until they have had a few classes first. We do some choreo dance (1 min or so) and for that we usually use a top 40 song.

[Charley]

Stainless LM’s are the SLIPPIEST poles on the market in my opinion.

I have a black LM that I haven’t used in forever but it had decent grip too grippy sometimes. Back then I had a n issue with sweating quite a lot and thus not being able to do much but since I have started doing warm ups and I have also started using an anti perspirant on my hands.

[Charley]

Also – the FUN POP is the one I use for parties or Intros or Jams because it’s safe. A little bit of something for everyone.

It’s always funny when "Stayin’ Alive" comes on…

[Charley]

Hi Jessie,

You can make playlists in itunes – which is my giant task at the moment. I have very specefic playlists at the moment I am working on because I have gotten requests and have had a hard time finding the songs.

Right now my playlists are:
70’s Rock
80’s Rock
90’s Rock
Heavy Dark Music/Grunge (Tool, Prick, Tea Party, Deftones, Korn, nirvana, etc)
Fun Pop – this an everything list…Prince, Madonna, J.Lo Def Leppard, T-Pain, ACDC, Eminem, Depeche Mode…a compliation of poppy upbeat stuff disco, 80’s, 90’s, Now all clean edits
TOP 40/Now all hip hoppy, rap, pop, r and b, mainstream music people like…t-pain, sean kingstons, Black eye peas, lady gaga, Pink, J. Lo, Eminem, Dr. Dre, Snoop, Usher, Akon etc (most of this also exists in my FUN POP list too
Slow and Sultry slow and sexy songs any genre

[Charley]

THANK YOU GUYS SOOOO MUCH!!!!!!!

YOu guys rock! GREAT suggestions.

[Charley]

I have the same struggle…I love slow, dirty and rock…

I always encourage students to bring music to class. I also try to have a wide variety of music, 70’s + 80’s rock, 80’s pop, 90’s pop, top 40 rap/hip hop/r&B (this is where I lack)

My new sexy 101 class will focus on sensual movement so I will play a lot of slower stuff like
Usher – U got it bad
Soundgarden – 4th of July
Tool – Imagine
Tea Party – Messenger
Birthday Sex – Jerimeh

[Charley]

Oh my I so wish!

[Charley]

Laybacks should not be done in the first lesson or even the 6th lesson or the 10th lesson. There are a million things that will bring you to a layback.

You should start with basic movement around the pole with both feet on the ground.

[Charley]

What I did was this…I created a private photobucket account and posted to forums that way. With a private PB account you can keep things private and no one cansee your album just what you post on the forum.

This site allows you to upload and this site is a pole community with mostly women, the men on here pole dance as well.

If you decide to do youtube start with a private vids, shareable up to 25, he can check them out this way and you can only share with a limited amount of people.