darcit
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As a teacher I try to have different variations on the same move so that everyone can be working on the “same” thing at the same time.
With some less advanced students making sure they don’t get discouraged watching the more advanced students can be a challenge. Or, with other students, the challenge is to keep them from doing something that they see a more advanced student doing that they’re not ready for yet. -
Oh! I want to know when you’re in Fargo! That’s only two hours west of me!
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Sorry. You mentioned the reverse grab in your first post so I thought you were talking about one handed spins. For two handed spins a lot of it still applies. You can still do the hanging on to the pole, engaging the muscles and letting the feet slide down to the floor – just with two hands on the pole. 🙂 And trying the “pole hop” that Veena has on here and gradually letting it get bigger and bigger can help too!
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LOL Lyme Lyte! Yeah, there’s lots of odd fetishes out there! The armpit one isn’t that uncommon – I’ve had several guys pay me to smell my armpits – but I’ve never worked in a club where they would have been allowed to lick them. Maybe then I would have gotten that too. 😛
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Don’t know if you have this problem solved now or not – but I’ll throw in my two cents. From reading your posts I was a little unsure if you were just having trouble with the reverse grab or if you’re having trouble with all your one handed spins. I’ll start with ideas for if you’re having difficulty with all your one handed spins. If it’s just the reverse grab – skip this part 🙂 One handed spins are fundamentally different than two handed spins because you need far stronger muscles in the shoulder and arm to do them. Think about it this way – you’re basically doing a one armed pole hang. It’s the full engagement of the muscles in the shoulder, arm, and back that allow you to do the spin with the maximum amount of momentum (and therefore revolutions around the pole). If you’re not engaging those muscles fully and you’re “dropping into” your shoulder then you’re probably squeezing your hand more tightly to compensate and keep you on the pole. This will drastically limit your momentum and force you into a scary “falling forward” position – which most people bodies respond to by clenching the hand tighter (completely involuntarily) and further stopping the spin. At this point I usually have my students start by holding onto the pole with one hand, thinking about engaging the muscles that they would be using if they were doing a pole hold and then allowing themselves to slide down till their knees are on the floor. Sometimes they get a rotation with that – sometimes they don’t. We then work up to where they can walk around the pole and allow themselves to “fall forward” (while keeping everything engaged) and work up to lifting their feet off the floor as they do this. It helps their brain learn that their body is going to catch them and it helps their body learn how to do this at the same time.
As far as the reverse grab goes – it’s actually not a spin you “fall into”. That’s the reason so many people consider it an advanced spin. You’re pushing your body out away from the pole and then your arm is pulling you back into the pole. Which is a really scary thing to ask your brain to do. So the ability to fully engage the arm, shoulder and back muscles are even more important. I let people start on this spin only once they can do all the basic spins one armed – just because I want them to be absolutely certain that their arm will hold them before they start flinging themselves away from the pole and then expecting their arm to bring them back in. To start with this spin I have them stand beside the pole with everything engaged, then step away from the pole and fall back in. This is the basic motion that happens in the spin and as they become more comfortable with it they start adding a push to the movement away from the pole – which creates the spin. Veena has an awesome lesson on the reverse grab – which will give you all the mechanics in way more detail too!
Hope maybe a little of that helps…. -
I definitely think it depends on where you are. $2000 nights certainly aren’t common – but they are completely possible in clean clubs. However, it has to be a club that has a VIP room where you’re making $250 to $500 an hour to be in there (and yes, I have worked in completely clean clubs where that happened). In a clean club that just offers dances I think it would be extremely unlikely (but again, not completely impossible if you met the right guy). Overall, here in the US I would expect $250 – $700 a night at the clubs I usually work at, with occasional highs and lows) .
Overall, I would say think about 3 things – your personality, your market (what type of area you’re going to be dancing in) and the club. Those will make or break your experience.
Personality: You definitely have to have a strong personality to dance and not be bitter because of it. I’m not sure that anyone can go through any experience in life and not change (kind of what learning from life is), but you’re going to need a pretty strong and positive sense of self to not let all the negativity that can be present in clubs get you down. If you can’t just brush off men and women (often women who come in are worse than the men) telling you everything that is wrong with you think carefully about this. As for me, I also enjoy the power and the mind games that come from being a dancer – but you have to be sure that those mind games are only being played in one direction. If the customers are getting to you, then things are going to go downhill (both financially and emotionally) fast.
Your market is simply – what kind of area are you going to be working in? Is it blue collar? White collar? A tourist area that’s going to have seasonal fluctuations? Is it in an upscale part of town? Out in the country? Where the club is located is going to have a direct effect on it’s clientele. And different people work well with different clientele. I, for example, avoid large clubs in upscale areas with generally white collar clientele. I’m a tomboy at best and I don’t do well in these clubs. However, I can rock out a ton of money in a touristy area or a small country club.
Finally – get to know the club. Go visit. Talk to the dancers (but do it on a slow night/time so they’ll actually have time to talk to you). I’ve worked at clubs where the management is awesome. I’ve worked at (and walked out of halfway through the night) clubs where the management was doing drugs at the bar or was just in it to sleep with all the dancers. Some clubs are especially welcoming to new dancers, with the older dancers helping them out with everything from makeup to pole tricks. At other clubs new dancers are very much held at arms length till they prove themselves. And at a few clubs the “regular” dancers will be downright mean to new dancers. Also, get to know what the club expects from you. Do you need to wear an evening gown on the floor? Do you have to be naked by the end of your stage set? How much do they charge you to work there? How much do they take out of each dance? Out of stage tips? How much you have to spend on appearance (costumes, hair, makeup, nails, shoes) and how much of the money you make you give to them will both effect what you end up going home with at the end of the night.
Ok, this has gotten really long. Sorry about that everyone. Feel free to message me if you want more thoughts/info.
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The guy I do partners pole with definitely has found that shaving his inner thighs helps a lot with his grip in things like pole sit!
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That’s an awesome idea! I think I may have to steal it! 😀
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I know it’s frustrating to not be able to get a move as soon as you want it. But, for many, many people two months is an incredibly short time to get their invert in. I have students who have taken well over a year to get their basic invert. Contrary to the word “basic” in the title this is not an easy move. It requires strength in a lot of different muscle groups, the coordination of those muscle groups and good technique. Just because you haven’t achieved one particular move, YET, out of the thousands out there that are possible, doesn’t mean that you’re not suitable for pole dancing. There are tons of moves you can do that don’t require a basic invert and working on those will help you gain the strength and (often the technique) needed to do that basic invert. I’ve been poling 16 years, I teach pole, and there are still moves that, for whatever reason (lack of strength, lack of flexibility) I still can’t do. It doesn’t mean I’m not suitable for pole dancing. It means I need to pole dance more and harder so I can maybe eventually do those moves. You will get this eventually! Enjoy the journey to get there!
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It Works’ ProFit is one I like.
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I definitely have the soreness and bruising when I’m learning new moves that use a thigh hold! I attribute it to having to work the muscles so intensely, and press my legs so hard into the pole to get the grip I need. For example: learning the Titanic climb has taken me forever – but it’s slowly getting more secure. I just can’t do it too many times in one practice or my thigh and butt muscles get really, really sore. Since I’ve always had a thigh gap (even before I started poling) it’s one of those things that I’ve just had to work around.
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That’s definitely not true! I have a thigh gap and it just means that I’ve had to build more strength in my thighs to hold the pole tighter. Now I sometimes get “thigh grip” moves more quickly because I’m using strength to hold them rather than just the friction of the skin on the pole.
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I will second that the basic pole climb is really important. I also see it as a very fundamental thing for my students to learn and won’t teach any more advanced climbs until that one is mastered. There are so many basic skills that you need for other things wrapped up in the basic climb.
I will also say that Veena’s lessons are in a specific order for a reason. She’s done a great job of setting them up in a progressive fashion, so if something comes before something else there’s a reason and you should learn that first. -
Definitely find one to try it on. I’ve done this move on a PS stage pole before and felt it slightly lift off the ground. Not enough that I think it was dangerous – but definitely enough that it was unnerving. Now that the studio I teach at has one I’ve done it enough to know how much momentum to give the spin – but that took some practice.
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*blushes* Thanks! I learned most of this through trial and error and observation – so I’m glad it can pass it along!