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Hi and welcome from a fellow newbie!

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Thanks for all the info, Stellar! I can do an inverted v without a problem, but have yet to try a chopper. I’ll take the time to really go through your tips carefully next time I’m practicing and see if I can apply some of them. I’ll check out the ladies you mentioned and see if I can get some idea of what to do from them as well.

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Does anyone else” ceiling make creaking noises xD?

Mine does. (Although I have a Lil’ Mynx and not a PS.) At first it scared the crap out of me, but then I thought ‘well, there IS an eight foot piece of steel wedged between my floor and my ceiling; I’d groan a little too.’ Plus, my apartment is an older unit, so it creaks a bit even without the pole. I don’t think you should worry about it; you get used to it after a while, and once you’ve had your pole up for a while, it seems like there’s less creaking. Maybe everything’s just settling into place.

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Just a plain old crucifix isn’t upside down–it’s just the right-side-up version of an inverted crucifix, which is pretty much just a basic invert without using your hands. (Someone correct me if I’m wrong; there are so many different names floating around for these moves that I get confused sometimes, but I’m pretty sure an inverted crucifix is hands free.)

You’re probably not doing a basic invert wrong; there’s really not a whole lot to it, but if you don’t have a very strong upper body, you won’t be able to flip yourself upside down because you have to be able to life your bodyweight.

It sounds like you just need to do some more strength training. It will give you a lot more confidence to try stuff, especially coming up out of a CKR; I was a little bit afraid to try that too at first because I thought I might not be able to do it as well, but then I thought about how much abs training I’ve done over the last several years, and figured I wouldn’t have a problem with it. So next time I was in it, I just popped straight up without even really thinking about it. When you have that strength training behind you and you know what your body is capable of, it makes you a lot more confident in your moves.

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34 B isn’t bad at all; I have 36 A’s and I just look on the bright side and figure they’ll stay perkier a lot longer. https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_lol.gif

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I noticed a lot more UKers on vertical dance; probably because KT is from there, I would imagine. Anyway, nice to meet you! https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_mrgreen.gif

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DUH! https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_lol.gif I thought maybe they were just moves I haven’t heard of yet since I’ve only been dancing for a few months. I’m glad to know I’m not the only one who was drawing a blank on the abbreviations.

Anyway, for a cross knee (I haven’t tried a cross ankle yet,) I usually just come down into a handstand, hook a foot, and then lower the other leg, following with the hooked foot, like poleophile already mentioned. Also, sometimes I’ll just pop straight back up out of a cross knee, grab the pole and push off it a little to give myself a slight spin, and sort of flirt with my legs. (By that I mean that you’re basically in pole sit position, with both legs out straight, and then you alternately pedal them up and down like you would do in floor work.) Or I’ll air invert into a scorpio or a v invert or whatever I feel like doing.

Poleophile, I actually was practicing taking off my top while in cross knee the other day–it’s definitely interesting! I wanted to work it into a routine for my boyfriend. It worked out better than I thought it would.

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Yeah, I’ve been around for a few months at least; actually, I think I joined back in September when I first got my pole, I just haven’t bothered to post for some reason. Getting the lessons kind of kicked me into introducing myself, probably because I figured I’d have some questions along the way. Also, the Vertical Dance boards seem to be a little slower lately than SV, but maybe that’s just me.

I don’t recognize your username; do you go by the same one over on Vertical Dance?

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I’m pretty sure I should know this, but I’m completely drawing a blank; what do CKR and CAR stand for? I’ve seen both mentioned a couple of times around the boards.

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And there’s a big sign that says "please don’t climb the pole" so of course I carried it to the top and had my friend take a picture. I scoff at authority! Haha! https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_lol.gif The owner saw me, laughed, and gave me the thumbs up.

I think that’s my favorite part of the whole story. https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_lol.gif

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Great pics! BTW, I love your shoes! Where did you get them?

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especially since he can’t seem to get the rule "no touching the dancers!" though his head! But that’s okay https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_e_wink.gif

https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_lol.gif You know what’s funny? My boyfriend has actually been really well-behaved during all the dances I’ve done for him! I’ve danced…3 times for him, I think? The first two were just strip teases with a lap dance, and the last one was the pole dance I did for him, which was a strip tease and then a lap dance, and I thought I’d have to make him sit on his hands or something, but he was very good. The look on his face the whole dance was priceless though. https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_lol.gif He probably wouldn’t have really given two craps about it if I hadn’t had my top off for part of it, though.

dustyfox, that’s cute that you and your guy pole together. My boyfriend spins on my pole a little, but that’s about it. Actually, I was really pissed at him because he did a chair spin perfectly the very first time he got on the pole. He was just messing around and didn’t even realize it was a move; I didn’t show it to him or anything! (I couldn’t even do it at that point.)

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I just wanted to add that I went and looked at your profile pics, and I don’t know what the hell that guy is talking about. You’re not a stick (nothing wrong with that,) but you look toned up and everything. That guy was an idiot. He probably thinks 115 lbs. is fat. Maybe he launches runway model’s careers for a living.

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Why do some people insist on doing that sort of crap? Because they’re jerks and somehow it makes them feel better to cut other people down. I think it’s great that that girl dragged him up there and showed him what was what, though. Some women would have joined in.

Hopefully that guy learned a little bit of a lesson, and I’m glad that you didn’t get self-conscious enough to just stop and get off the pole. You just have to ignore stuff like that as hard as it is sometimes, because no matter how skinny or beautiful you are, someone is always going to say that you’re fat and ugly because for some reason it makes them feel like they’re better than you because they think they are somehow elevating themselves above you by cutting you down. In their twisted little pea brains, it makes some kind of sense.

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Yeah, I’ve actually heard of people spinning gemini/scorpios before too, but I’ve never really seen it (except on a spinning pole.) It does look like she’s getting her momentum from just switching her legs up. I kind of do that on a gemini sometimes, but I don’t swing my leg out as far as she did, so I’ll have to try that next time. Thanks for the link!

BTW, I really like your friend’s dancing! Very pretty and graceful.

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Yeah, the corkscrew was actually kind of hard to figure out from that video. I kind of got it, but I had a hard time actually getting momentum going around the pole. S Factor’s pole move instruction just doesn’t seem to be as well broken down as Veena’s lessons.

Thanks for the welcome honeyrider!

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I thought you had to go a size larger in Pleaser; thanks for clarifying that. I’ll check out those sites and see what I can find. Also, I was browsing Amazon and Ebay last night, and I found thigh high Pleasers between $50-$60, which isn’t bad at all, so anyone else wanting some Pleaser boots might think about checking that out.

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The Rebel’s actually a 250 too–that test is definitely a LOT nicer on a little bike. lol When I took my test, there were a couple of guys there that had already failed it on big huge bikes, so they re-tested with these little dirt bikes and just zipped right through it. Anyway, I’m glad there’s another bike enthusiast on board–I’ve actually only met one other girl who rode, though I’ve seen a few more around town. My friend really wants to get into riding, but I don’t even trust her in a car. https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_eek.gif

That Road Star is a nice bike–my dad actually had a Yamaha V Star up until a few months ago when he sold it for a Sportster.

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Looking good! I liked how flexible you looked in your elbow stand.

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Its like as soon as you hit a particular size, the price sky rockets, dont carry your size or there are no fun ones!

My sister constantly complains about that. She’s a 38 D and has the hardest time finding bras that don’t look like something our grandma would wear. I have ittsy bittsy little A cups, so I don’t have that problem, but I have noticed a distinct lack in pretty bras in the bigger sizes when I go lingerie shopping.

It’s not pole dancing per se that is the reason why these women have small breasts, but if you notice, the women who compete are all very strong athletes–a lot of them are quite muscular. When you train intensively and build up muscle like that, you likely have a pretty low body fat percentage, which generally translates to smaller boobs. For instance, I’ve been working out since I was 14 (I’m now 23) and have always heavily emphasized strength training, particularly upper body training. (Maybe I knew I was going to get into pole one day. Heh.) Consequently, I’m pretty athletic-looking–I have pretty muscular arms for a small girl, as well as being fairly heavily muscled in the stomach. I also don’t have a whole lot of body fat–I don’t know the exact percentage, but I would guess it’s quite a bit under average. And as you read above, I’ve got tittles.

Now, I may have ended up with small boobs anyway, because my mom has very small breasts, and I took after her body build, whereas my sister took after my dad’s side of the family, but I’ll never know for sure since I’ve been so active pretty much my whole life.

Take a look at female sprinters, who are all pretty muscular for women–they usually have pretty small boobs too, unless they’ve got implants. Same for other women athletes who are similarly built. Lots of lean muscle mass = low body fat percentage = a tendency toward smaller boobs. It’s not always the case, of course, but it’s pretty rare to see a really athletic/muscular women with large natural breasts.

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I had a whole freaking list of songs to pole to, and now I can’t find it. Off the top of my head, I’d reccommend:

Hurt by NIN
Crazy Boy by Hednoize
Army of One by Hednoize
Just a Car Crash Away by Marilyn Manson
Nasty Naughty Boy by Christina Aguilera
Me, I’m Not by NIN
Reptile by NIN
If I Was Your Vampire by Marilyn Manson

Can’t think of any others right now, but I’ll look around for my list. I tend to gravitate toward harder, darker stuff.

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Thanks for the welcome, guys! It seems like a pretty tight knit community here, so I’m looking forward to mingling. Veena, what kind of motorcycles did you ride? I’ve got two right now–a Honda Rebel I bought when I first started riding, and a 650 Ninja that is my current ride. The Rebel’s getting sold as I don’t use it anymore–poor thing’s just been sitting in the garage since I got my Ninja. Oh, and I have tried the basic warm-up, actually–thought it was really good! I’m definitely enjoying the lessons. You have a really good way of breaking everything down. Also, I think it’s interesting how you categorize them–pretty much everybody else always lists all spins as beginner moves, but some of them really seem like they shouldn’t be in that category to me.

Poleophile, I find that S Factor is great for floor work and getting in touch with your sexy side, but it doesn’t offer much in the way of pole. I had just the book for about two years, then I got all three videos off a friend. By the time I actually tried the pole video out, I knew everything except for one move. It’s not a bad DVD, there just isn’t much to it.