HollySatine
Forum Replies Created
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hm. maybe the unscrewing thing was an issue specific to the one I tried out, or maybe to an earlier version. I don't know how old it is; it belongs to the studio I attend.
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Oh and another funny reaction I got recently was from my grandmother. She has started losing a bit of her memory and saying some pretty funny things. She's seen some of my videos and a lot of my pictures, which were all showcasing pretty advanced moves (in that I was upside down in most of them) so she knows how much athleticism it takes. And yet the last time I talked to her on the phone and had finished telling her about a show I'm going to be in, she said, "You know, you'll never have a problem finding a job with the talent you've got. Men love to watch stuff like that – you could be very entertaining and people would pay to see that." Somehow I don't think she was talking about Cirque du Soleil…
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I usually don't mind getting the mixed reactions because I'm at the point where the people who don't already know about it don't matter enough to me for me to care about what they think. Also, I think that in general, the people who are going to be openly judgmental about it aren't worth my time. However, at the same time I don't feel the need to spread any rumors about me being a stripper (not that there's anything wrong with those who choose that line of work, I just don't happen to be one of them), and I want to express how much more impressive and rewarding pole dancing actually is compared to the common misconception about what it actually looks like. But in trying to paint that picture, it has become tiresome to automatically tack on "but I don't strip," "it's actually more like ballet/gymnastics" and stuff like that. So I think I'm going to start saying "I practice aerial dance" instead of "I pole dance" since I will be starting lyra and silks classes anyway in a week or two.
Although I do have to say, probably the funniest reaction I've gotten so far was from one of my close friends when I first told him I was starting to learn pole. When I said I was taking pole classes, he said, "Wait, there are classes for that kind of thing? Doesn't it just…happen?" (meaning I guess that he expected that girls just walked up to poles and started grinding or something). He was cool about it though. 🙂
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If you act like a child, you should be treated like a child. And what do you do with a child that's throwing a temper tantrum? Ignore it. Eventually she'll get bored.
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I don't have too much to add here but I will say that the SSA pole was the first stage pole I ever tried out, and I was really surprised at how unstable it felt – it wobbled quite a bit, the plastic base pieces popped up and down and were noisy, and (not sure if this has been said yet) you couldn't spin in a certain direction while on it or the pole would unscrew out of the base (scary!). And that's without even doing anything crazy on it. And I don't know if this is a thing with the SSA or all stage poles or what, but when the pole was on spin mode it didn't seem to spin very freely – not like it was getting stuck, but like you had to really throw your weight into it to get it to keep spinning. One thing I've always loved about PS poles though is the pin to switch between spin and static; I wish it were that easy with the XPole! I have yet to try XPole's stage pole, but I will be dancing on one for the first time tomorrow and am very curious to see for myself how they compare.
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That's perfect, thanks! I had seen your latest pictures Amy (love them!) but somehow totally missed that first entry. Can't wait for tomorrow – wish me luck! 🙂
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Have you seen this tutorial for it yet? He calls it the "full moon trick" and he doesn't use the twisted grip either: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk3blUmSS1I
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When I started pole a little over a year ago, the studio I attended required that we come up with a stage name to use for our videos (I was in a beginner choreography class and we got to shoot a video of our routine at the end). I decided on Holly Satine because I always liked the name Holly, and of course that's also the name of Audrey Hepburn's character in Breakfast at Tiffany's. Satine is the name of the main character in Moulin Rouge. I liked the idea of putting together names from two characters that were both independent and a little adventurous, but that also represented contrasting characteristics – vulnerability, sweetness, sassiness, and sensuality.
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I believe that all of the moves in the lessons, including stretching exercises, are meant to be done in order. Your plan sounds good to me – 30 minutes of warm-up and strength stuff, an hour of moves, and a cool-down with flexibility stuff is how my pole class that I attend is structured, and it works for me! Veena has a lot of different options as far as types of stretching in her lessons. When I practice at home I just make sure to stretch the muscles I use during the practice to keep from being sore and getting injured, and I also add flexibility stuff at the end after I'm warm. As far as strength moves goes, I usually do several variations of pull-ups on the pole, plus a few hitch kicks (which are basically shoulder mounts, except that you don't invert – you just use the shoulder mount grip to kick your legs up and bring them down slowly. Doing these in class really helped me to get the shoulder mount later even though it took a long time to develop the strength just to kick my legs up and get a feel for how the move works). Anything involving lifting your legs up and out in a pike or straddle is great for ab strength too – you just do this from the ground to the side of the pole and keep your upper body level while you hold on to the pole (in a baseball grip) and raise your legs, keeping your shoulders down away from your ears. I also invert a couple times when I'm at home to make sure the pole and my skin are grippy enough to try other moves, so this helps with strength building as well. And as far as number of moves goes, I think it's important to take your progress rate into account as you go – the more advanced you become, the fewer moves you might be able to work on during your practice depending on how hard you're working and how much you focus on each move (when you start out it's easier to breeze through the beginner moves). But it all depends on what you discover works for you. Certain days I will only focus on a few moves (or even just one depending on how much time I have) and others I try pretty much everything I feel safe trying that I haven't gotten yet.
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I will definitely try that. Thanks everyone!
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Thank you so much. I definitely want to get a 45 in the future, but the performance is really soon and I'm not financially ready to get a second pole because I would want it to be an X-Stage (and they're wayyy more expensive than a regular removable pole!). As far as I know (I've been looking!), there aren't any studios near me with a 45 either…
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I completely agree – honestly, with how expensive mats are, I feel like a 2" mat almost isn't even worth it. I feel so much safer on my 5" mat than I would on anything thinner, especially since I usually don't have anyone to spot me at home – and I still wouldn't want to fall head-first from the top of the pole on it!
Also, I'm only just starting to work on handsprings/cartwheel mounts and I'm totally fine with the extra squishiness.
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Maybe this will help? http://jmichellemarketing.com/2011/09/pole-dance-insurance/
…and here's the direct link to their site: http://www.insurance4poledancers.com/
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Thanks for the information!
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…Oh and should our submission videos include two poles as well?
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Do you have any idea how many dancers you will be able to accept to participate in the showcase, and when those performers will be notified?
Also, should the submission video be the same routine we would expect to perform at the showcase?
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Everyone will have different opinions on this, but I say definitely go with either PS or XPole.
Personally, I have a 50mm chrome XPole Xpert (bottom-loading multi-piece spinning+static) in my apartment at school. I have small, sweaty hands, but when I was deciding what kind of pole to get, I bought mine because the poles at my studio are 50mm as well; I knew it would be really frustrating if I got the 45mm for home practice and struggled on the bigger ones during class because of it. At some point in the distant future, I would like to get a second pole (probably an Xpole stage in 45mm brass!) so that I can learn how to work with that as well, but for the time being I am very happy with what I have. I still have grip issues sometimes, but that usually means I'm not warmed up enough (or the pole isn't warm enough). But that's fixable.
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@chem – WOAH. THOSE ARE SOOO COOL! I want…. 🙂
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Thank you! I know the spackle in our living room is pretty new, but I have no idea how old it is in the other rooms…I'll have to ask.
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I think everyone does it a little differently. Personally I do the opposite – I listen carefully to the song first for inspiration and really try to fit the choreography to the song. That way it flows better and the moves can more accurately interpret the lyrics or the mood of the piece. If I have a certain combo I'd like to do I can usually find a place for it, but I never choreograph a whole routine (or even most of one) without at least picking a song first. When I'm stuck and can't think of what to put where, I just listen to the song over and over again and try to imagine myself dancing to it until I come up with something that fits. It also helps to have a list of moves and combos I know handy so that I can go through that for ideas as well – it's especially helpful when trying to interpret a song because you might have five different ways of sliding down to the ground (for example), but one of them might go with the words (i.e. "falling" vs "slowly sinking," etc.) better than the others, and it's good to be able to have that in front of you for reference. But I think that, in general, choreography is a pretty personal thing.
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Somebody actually thought I was a stripper just last night because I mentioned pole…
A guy I know trains and teaches at a martial arts institute, and he knows I pole and said I could probably benefit from some of their classes. Last night I decided to go to his gym for a class schedule. I was interested in one of their conditioning classes and was asking the guy working at the front desk about it, and he sounded really discouraging – along the lines of, well if you can't do a push-up or a pull-up then this class really isn't for you, it's really intense, it's for fighters, blah blah blah and I sort of felt like I had to defend myself. So I basically said, yeah I do those all the time actually, I've been taking pole classes for over a year now and half the class is conditioning. And he said, "Wait, you mean there are classes for that kind of thing?"
So I basically said, yeah, there are classes, no, I'm not a stripper if that's what you're implying. And then we laughed about it for a minute. What made me feel better about the whole situation was that my friend talked to the guy after I left, and he said this guy actually felt like total crap for making assumptions. The best part? My pole studio is actually only a couple hundred feet away from the MMA gym, and this guy was totally clueless.
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I started because it seemed different and exciting, and it felt like I had a sexy secret! ;b
Now I do it because I'm addicted. I love watching my body change and perform all of the beautiful things I'm learning how to do. Sometimes when I watch my own videos I catch myself thinking, wait I'm doing THAT? Really??? That's me??? AWESOME.
Also, when I'm poling – or even thinking about pole – all of my problems tend to disappear for a few minutes. It's an excellent distraction.
…Oh, and I sound really interesting when I mention it at parties! Haha.
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I uploaded a video to facebook too and it was immediately taken down for the same reason. I fixed this problem by uploading it to YouTube ("unlisted" so that only people with the link can see it) and sharing the link on my profile. When YouTube took down a video I had shared on my blog for copyright infringement, I uploaded it to DailyMotion and posted it that way instead.
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Usually showing them a video of a professional pole dancer clears things up. I like to show this one because it's very non-sexy (even though she is wearing tiny shorts and platforms) but still extremely beautiful and impressive: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUOmIQ269-E
I haven't had too much of a problem with my family and my friends just think it's cool. There have been a few people that have been hard to convince, but honestly, that means one of two things:
1. They think it's slutty, in which case, f*ck them – I'm not a whore, so it doesn't matter, and they don't deserve my respect either; if they think this about me it doesn't change who I am or the amazing things pole gives me. The closed-mindedness only reflects badly on them.
2. They think it's sexy that I "strip" in my free time. Whatever – if this is what they really want to believe, then I'm flattered that's the image they'd prefer to have!
Either way, I'm not going to fight with people who refuse to listen and I'm not going to let anyone make me feel low just because I don't fit their conventions. It takes too much energy, and no matter what the situation, I still feel a little superior because I can do things they'll never be able to. After a more than a year of pole dancing and discovering what my body can do, there's nothing anybody can say to take that away from me. Sorry, pole wins.
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I wasn't allowed to wear much makeup when I was growing up (I also went to a small private Catholic school), except for special occasions like dances or plays where I had to wear a lot of makeup. I loved dressing up for the plays because I got to see what it was like to wear a ton of makeup and have it be okay – it was like turning into a different person! Sometime around mid-high school I started experimenting with concealer and eyeliner. But I never had problems with my skin so the only thing I ever really needed to conceal was dark circles under my eyes. My mom wouldn't let me out of the house if my eyeliner was too noticeable. I would look at other girls who wore more makeup and wish I could copy their "look," but for some reason whenever I would try I would feel really self-conscious about it, like I didn't look like myself and somebody was going to notice and call me out on it. So I never really wore much makeup until college, but by now I feel like I've really personalized my routine. For instance, I only ever wear concealer under my eyes and nothing else except transluscent powder goes onto my face. And I still wear eyeliner, but more heavily and only on my top lashes and the very outside corners of my bottom lashes (I never draw a line across my whole bottom lid unless it's for a show). If I'm really into it, or I'm going out at night, I'll do eyeshadow and mascara and I'll fill in my brows a bit, but I never cake on heavy makeup.
I don't need makeup to feel pretty; if I've been getting sleep, drinking water, and taking care of my skin, I feel good without it. But there are days that I wear it because I don't look presentable, and this is usually due to dark circles under my eyes. And even then, the main reason I put it on is because if I don't, everyone will ask me if I've been getting enough sleep, and that just gets annoying after a while – especially if I did actually get rest. As said earlier, it's more about packaging – I feel more put together and professional when I'm wearing it, and that's what I feel good about. I'd like to feel that put together all the time, but the other big reason I don't wear makeup sometimes is laziness or lack of time.
