MilienElayne
Forum Replies Created
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Just found this: http://aerialdanceclasses.com/
There are some vids from this site on youtube to advertise it. Not actually in as a member yet, not sure how it works, but I will let you guys know! Just fell head over heels in love with lyra in my last beginner aerials class when I tried it for the first time. Feel so natural!
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You could always check out silks performances on YouTube. That’s how I started learning pole before I found more comprehensive sites (like this one). There’s also a series of French books with lovely pictures illustrating moves for a few different apparatus. The ones I’ve found so far are silks, ropes, static trapeze and hoop.
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You flew into the wall?! That would have been awesome to catch in video! l’m weird and think pole falls, bloopers and injuries are cool as, but I also like having my blood taken and am an adrenaline junkie, so maybe that’s just me. Hope it didn’t hurt too much. I don’t know about sizing. I like mine tight and splitting is rare, apparantly, but I think mine were too small for me or my hands are just freakishly proportioned – skinny but large? Lol.
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Thanks ladies for replying!
I lose my mind when my hair is out. I forget how to do things I’ve done a million times…it’s like having my hair out puts my balance off and lets my mind ooze out of my skull. https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_lol.gif
Walking around the pole can be a good thing. It builds momentum, helps you catch your breath, stalls for time, keeps you warm and it can look really good cause you can make it sexy https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_smile.gif
I’m consciously trying really hard not to fidget right now! For the most part it’s not working…but getting there. It’s less of ability and doubt anxiety now for me as my pole moves are getting better and more performance anxiety. I am practicing dancing to a whole song with NO FIDGETTING. Ok, so that makes me forget to put tricks in there and I stall for time with floor work and dance moves that look no good on me as I have no butt to shake, but I CAN do it. I am also forcing myself to trust my grip and work out when sweaty is TOO sweaty for safety and when I can just work through it. You can work through it! There’s always sweat. No pro is sweatless! (Or are they? Zen state, anyone? https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_razz.gif) With aerial chopper I really had a huge mental block to work through because of my (mental!) grip issues and hand wiping up-pole fidgets. Now I just don’t think about it and make myself flip straight over even at the top of really tall poles. Chopper is safe, or so I tell myself. I’ve done it over and over. I do it everyday. If my hands slip, I won’t plummet and if I did freakishly lose all hand grip completely and couldn’t just slide down I could catch with my legs. These things I have to tell myself sometimes with old moves and constantly with my new ones. Exude confidence and you’ll start believing it yourself. And now I can do them. Even if there’s a little sweat on my hands I slip maybe an inch and grip tighter and the next bit of pole is drier and I stick somehow and just keep moving. I don’t know how, and can’t give blow by blow tips… but working through mental blocks like these do make me realise how much I can actually do and then it builds from there. You get these moves you never thought you could and the little things don’t matter anymore. I’m still freaking out with extended butterfly (though I am strong enough), need to use grip product for handspring attempts and am nowhere near split grip moves like pencils and jacknifes because they’re new and my grip suffers because I over think it. I can’t get over how some people on YouTube and here hold moves perfectly when they’re so obviously slipping slowly down the pole… I’d freak out! Shouldermounts I am still excessively wiping and rosining my hands and shoulders up… *sigh*
I did rely on gloves heavily for a few weeks. But I have split every pair of gloves I’ve had so far. With unsplit pairs I get frustrated because they tend to slip on my hands if I change my grip mid move (like jamilla to butterfly and jamilla to hero…hero is my glove splitter move). This might be a fit issue, but I’ve tried their different sizes. They’re good for spin mode where you place your hand and keep it there til you lift it off and replace it…and for one trick at a time on static where you’re stationary holding a pose, but for combos and especially moves where your hand has to slide, they suck. I haven’t even attempted static spins with them. I have similar issues with all other grip products though – they’re good for some things, and not for others. I’ve only tried the matt gloves, not the slick ones. Maybe you’ll have a better fit and/or a different experience with them. I say give everything a hearty shot, cause you never know what might work for you.
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Ah! I couldn’t stop giggling at my mistake. LOL! Snow is awesome, I love snow! It’s pretty rare here https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_razz.gif
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Hi fellow Aussie! Where abouts are you? I’m in Melbourne.
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Oooh! Awesomeness!
Thanks so much for the updates, guys! Keep them coming!!!
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I love that rockstar to butterfly and can’t wait to try it. I am also dying to try the triple spin to butterfly TrophyWife had in one of her latest vids, I love it! I hate non-pole days (calves are BURNING from over-use, I have to work late shift and I feel like puking because I binged on sugar…lol)
To work out how to do the rockstar I just watched Karol’s in her second beginner to intermediate pole moves vid on YouTube at 4.12 over and over: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XC19xBqfeYk&feature=related
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What is that move at 1.48?! It’s like a Brass Monkey / Cupid hybrid! Is 1.56 like a twisted grip reverse aysha…from a shoulder mount!? Love chopper to thigh hold swing into like a no hands marley, looks so impressive (but not really that hard) at 3.32.
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Inverted crucifix was the first move I saw online, thought was going to take me years… and I set my heart on learning it, and it was actually the first move I did! I taught myself basic invert straight up and made myself take it to an inverted crucifix over a week when I got my pole over uni holidays. Psycho, dangerous, stupid…I know. Don’t hurt me! https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_razz.gif
Then I got obsessed with Aysha and it’s taken me 2 years but I finally decided I could and would do it and I’ve just got the forearm version and not just for two seconds to take a photo! YAY!
Then there are the moves I’ve always and still kind of do think are crazy impossible: Superman, Jade Split and that up pole upside down banana split. Still hate Superman and am almost giving up on making it smooth and consistently mine, but I can Jade (with much effort, and I have no hip contact…what’s with that?!) and I can newly banana split! Still can’t wrap my head around being upside down and doing a front split on a pole. That’s just INSANE! When an instructor said I could probably get into one I said: "No way, that’s crazy talk!". I also told her she was bonkers when she said my leg hook was good enough to do a cupid no hands. Ha! Wish I could show her that she was right and I got her ‘crazy’ suggestions the week after. So tempted to blow all my money on more private lessons to see how much crazy stuff we could do pole jamming. I seriously need more real-time really here pole buddies… or maybe just need to get a life https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_razz.gif
I am so very straight, but I am not at all ashamed of being bi-poler in the head, pole is HOT!
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I’m working on it, but I can’t say I love it or that it looks any good on me, but it sure is impressive and hot when done slow and strong by someone else! I would LOVE to get a SM hold / dismount / stall to go straight out horizontal. Can anyone here do that…and how?! Is there a trick besides being massively strong and controlled?
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I have had pretty shocking grip problems and still do if I’m anxious. I can go from super gripping trickster to slipping sliding beginner and back again in the space of five minutes. Some people love shaving cream, hairspray, Mighty Grip, antiperspirants, sports grips, Dry Hands, iTac…there are heaps of products and I’ve tried as many as I can get my hands on. Nothing works for me except rosin for grip, windex to clean my pole and astringent face wash to rid my hands of the day behind me and prepare for the pole-night ahead! Also, the more I pole and the less I think about my hands the better my grip gets in a session. Improving my grip strength is helping the most though. I think you just need stronger hands for the more ‘slippery’ finishes.
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You’re right, static does not directly translate to spin very well, and vice versa. Going back and forth between spin and static classes used to do my head in. Some things look horrible on me static and so nice on spin and again, vice versa. That’s why I’m taking lessons from one of the first lot of Aussie polers to master spin https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_smile.gif
Everything is usually very grip and hold when I am on a spinning pole. Your body stays mostly still in a pose (except to transition to another move) and the pole spins you, then you step down to dance or transition and go up and hold again. Some moves actually have completely different holds when you move to spin. I actually hold my front hook and my back hooks differently when I use spin mode. Spin mode is also harder, in my opinion. For example, a chopper on static you can get some momentum to swing you up and you can just slide off in the same position, on spin mode you have to lift up fully then tip it over and be able to lower it back down the same way you came up (if you hook the leg, you may spin out of control when you start as you’re much smaller and closer…you can’t really handstand off when you’re going fast… and sliding down will hurt on landing and is just not pretty). Practice static (I mean don’t use momentum at all) and then with a push off first to learn the hold for the move you want to translate, then try to take smaller and slower steps into your moves. Turns are good entrances, like a pirouet or a Kate Moss (step around? not sure what it’s called here). To do a mount (jump up?) like a sit, you can stand and sweep one leg around while pushing off with the other then lift up and sit. You can use the various fireman type spins to start a climb (but step into it gently/slowly at first using the one leg sweeping method). Booty climb (leading with the butt and spinning ‘backwards’ is my favorite so far. If you’re on pole already and need to swing your leg, either do it super slow or learn how to ‘step through’ – instead of sweeping sideways, move your leg from the back to the front (so hard and weird on spin, I can’t do this yet). Some people can just teach themselves how to take moves to spin mode, but I get tangled and so confused, plus I am lazy…I much prefer my lessons https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_smile.gif
I think I have one spin specific vid up, I should do some entrances and exits that I’m talking about on that. I’m no expert though… I’ll be making another in a few weeks when my next test comes up, probably, or maybe sooner if I get excited by something new. Keep going with it. Spin looks hot!
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I didn’t mean to be rude/harsh. https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_redface.gif
I love Aussie polers, but I personally find a lot of American polers’ performances more engaging. I’d love to go to the US and meet all the fantastic pole ladies there!
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She hooks her foot in the end on the pole, I thought, when she takes it out into extended butterfly, but to get up, yeah on her arm. I’d have to try it to see. I reckon you can totally do it, you’re so strong! I mean a controlled flag dismount?! Last time I tried Hero to Butterfly I was doing it on spin mode for some stupid reason, so that’s probably why I had trouble pulling into it. Heh. The Allegra is really hard on my leg, not the arm that’s holding my entire weight up. I do hook my leg over my arm to get back up, and that takes a bit of effort… but I have a huge bruise on my thigh the size of a city from the Allegra, but my arms and shoulders are fine https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_smile.gif Every move will be harder for some in different areas, I guess. This is such an awesome combo!
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Thanks so much, Amy!
Wow. This looks really impressive! Similar technique as Hero to Butterfly now that I can see it. Would have to have very strong and flexible shoulders (at least, I think so)! Just doing a static Hero to Butterfly nearly put my shoulder out (strong side Hero, weak side butterfly – am now training my weak side Hero to match the strong butterfly) and spinning it would be so much more difficult. My rockstar is strong on the correct side for me to go into strong side butterfly, so I might give this a slow, careful shot when I’m not hungover and exhausted? https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_razz.gif
Be careful, ladies!
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I would like to clarify that all of Australian poling is not predominantly done on spinners and we don’t all use skinny poles! In Miss Pole Dance Australia and the heats there is one static pole and one spinning and you have to use both, and the makes vary. I believe Miss Pole Victoria contestants perform on 50mm x-stages and Miss Pole Dance Australia contestants will be using anchored 38mm brass poles. Perhaps for performances spinning pole might be prefered by some Australian professionals, but that’s personal choice. At the major studios in Victoria all girls train on static pole and then can progress to spinning pole at the same level, if they so desire and if their studio offers spin specific classes. I take both static and spin classes. Poles at both Pole Divas and Pole Princess studios are 50mm, as far as I have seen (I haven’t been to every studio in both chains or taken to them with measuring tapes and cirlce formulas).
There are so many extra variables when your pole is spinning: You have to get used to possibly getting dizzy, I don’t, but some girls have real trouble. I hear girls telling each other to spin the other way to unwind…heh heh. I think it’s similar to motion sickness. You are holding yourself static while the pole spins, so you need more strength and really need to warm up your shoulders. Most stuff I would consider to be aerial (equivalent to taking it up a few climbs on a taller pole). Yes, you’re lower down and have just stepped off, but you’re holding yourself up the whole time for combos and even if you touch down, you’re back up again straight away. You have to learn to control your speed… you can start slow or fast and depending on your body position you can make the pole spin slower or faster when you’re already on it. A general rule for speed is the bigger your shape is the slower you go, and the smaller and closer to the pole the faster. So, to slow down if you go crazy fast do a layout/plank, for example. If you want to speed right back up, do a pole stand or fight the momentum and go crazy fast in a drama queen. Always hold on with your hands when learning a move (even if you’re pro at it on static) on spin mode and treat it like a beginner move because with momentum you can fall off easily. If you’re going too fast and don’t feel safe, ABORT! In my spin classes we don’t invert for ages and the first one is a chopper (lifted from a straight line/pole up and then lowered straight back down with no hooking!) because it’s big, and then a CAR because it’s also big…and I’ve only just incorporated a CAR on spin (in class, at home I have a slower moving pole and let myself do and be crazy with my pole) even though I’ve been doing it for over a year in static classes.
What else do you want to know? I’m just a pole baby still, but I’ll see if I can help https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_smile.gif
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Ohkie dokie… I believe I’ve made this up then? Damn!
@ deetron, Reverse Brass/Funky Monkey…Oh yes. Yes, I like that name. Describes that the hook is backwards and that it is crazy gravity defying monkey business!
@ poledanceromance and picturing landing on your head. LOL! Imagine my surprise when I first fell into this from a cupid when my bottom leg slipped off the pole?!
Dayanara and poledanceromance: I watched the vid with Alethea in it, it is definitely a Double Brass Monkey she does. She’s just facing a different direction. The knee hook for a Brass Monkey is with the same leg, but on the other side of the pole to a cupid/star, flying cupid, marley, knee hold and reverse brass monkey. It’s the same difference between a gemini hook and a brass monkey hook, I go gemini into a thigh hold into cupid into reverse brass monkey. It’s pretty confusing, ay?
I’ll put my clearer photos of both moves next to each other for ya:
Reverse Brass Monkey (or is it a Funky Monkey as I am gripping both ankles? Haven’t gotten a no hands version yet, which I would then call Reverse Brass Monkey)
Brass Monkey
Then there’s the other leg to look at and it’s positioning which is different from a cupid or marley. Here’s me trying to show the difference: http://ver3.studioveena.com/lessons/view/3203 … Veery clumsy. Will be working on this more.
Veena, thank you for your concern and advice. I honestly feel no pain or pressure in my knee or knee pit at all when I hold the ankle. I have been told by instructors to use the hand on the pole variation sometimes to give my knee a break and they don’t normally teach it with the hand holding the foot until Advanced 2 or 3, and I am just starting Advanced on Saturday. So, I have been well and truly told https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_smile.gif I had tried knee holds and cupid/star before I started classes and was messing around at home and never managed one because, yes, I was not ready and it was painful. However, a year on since then I have gotten myself strong one leg hangs using the knee pit on pole and don’t have to use my hip or other body parts to stabilize myself. I have also been taking preparation aerials classes which focus on static trapeze, so my hocks, as they call it, are quite good and strong right now. I engage muscles of almost the whole leg so that the tendons behind the knee are protected. Squeezing all of those muscles to get foot to butt gives better grip and is safer than just hanging by friction. Our instructors in aerials actually hold our ankles if we look like we’ve not got a good hock grip. But I suppose that’s a bit different from hanging off it. If I felt bad non-skin grip pain or worrying and uncomfortable resistance in my knee (as I do trying to get that Remi layback), I would stop immediately and wait until I was stronger or more flexible to try again. I did a no-hands cupid with my head and torso facing downwards accidentally yesterday when I let my hands go to wipe them on my shorts before trying to get into upside down splits, so I think I will train a no-hands cupid now and then I’ll pad my floor with couch cushions and go for a no-handed reverse brass monkey. Very good point, thankyou! I hope I didn’t seem to be trying to invalidate it by ‘excusing’ myself.
I must say that if you try a cupid to reverse brass monkey, PLEASE use couch cushions or a crash mat and move your leg past the front of the pole slooowly, because the momentum given by swinging your leg can make you pop off the pole, as I have done once before. You may not think you’re high up and might think you’re able to catch yourself with your hands, but it is a long, heavy and dangerous fall for your elbow, hip or your head. It is secure, but only if you’re in the right position, just like there’s a correct and secure position for a Brass Monkey. I would add a disclaimer to my vids expressing concern about the risk to the knee and the potential grip instability, but then everyone would have to do that for every single pole move in case someone who’s not done one before and may not be ready for it tries it without proper instruction or caution.
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Ha ha. Yes, I get confused so badly. I always have to translate different names I have seen or learned online for each move in my head in pole class when they say do this, this, this, this then this. It’s like speaking different languages. I don’t know where I saw it called a Skater Split. Twisted Ballerina is nicer and goes with Flying Ballerina better https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_smile.gif
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I think Flying Ballerina is the Skater Split with straightened legs and no hand gripping the ankle, yep.
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Oh, sorry Sable, didn’t see your reply. Is deep knee hang a move you’ve seen? Do you have a photo/vid? Or was it a name suggestion?
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I’m going to go with ‘Reverse Funky Monkey’, I reckon, until someone can tell me what it is. https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_biggrin.gif
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Better photo for you:
I did do a vid, cupid to this crazy monkey knee hang thingy then getting back into a cupid and going into a marley… but it is so so bad. Need to practice it, this was the first attempt, but I have work tomorrow and a workshop with PANTERA! Maybe I am just getting more fussy, but I am hating the way I move right now.
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Looks like a bridged scorpio going into a spinning scorpio but doesn’t hook the second leg and goes into a hip hold tuck from the thigh hold. Is that what you see?
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Poledanceromance, that’s a Double Brass Monkey.
I can Brass Monkey (haven’t tried a double yet) and the grip and body positioning feels totally different. I even tried doing a normal foot hook up to get out of it, which is how I abort a Brass Monkey and it went really weird, as you can see at the end of the vid. I can’t even wrap my mind around it to explain, but this grip feels and moves differently for me. I should take another vid on spin (eek, not tried these on spin before) for better angles and I’ll do my Brass Monkey afterwards, which I believe even hangs off the same leg, which should make it easier to wrap my head around and visualise. In the meantime, photos:
Here’s this move again:
And here’s a pic of my Brass Monkey:
Ooh, that’s better, now I can see it pretty clearly. My knee is on the other side of the pole entirely in a Brass Monkey and my body is all the way to the side whereas in this move it’s in front of the pole.
Here’s a Marley pic from WikiPole:
Marley looks like a Flying Cupid with a bent leg and holding both ankles, so again, that would be with the unhooked leg behind the pole, whereas this is in front (see vid, pic isn’t clear). So, maybe not classifying this as a Marley, but you could get into it from a Marley passing through a Cupid. What’s a half Marley, Charley?
So in my mind, we’re back to square one…WHAT IS THIS?
