video 06.05.08

this posting videos thing is fun again! although my pole at home sucks. it’s either too sticky, or not sticky enough.

tonight i actually did a mini-warmup. it was so relaxing… i forgot how nice it can be to keep your eyes completely closed and not hear a teacher’s voice, to just follow your body and not hear anything but clean treble and rich deep bass.

bella happened to be my audience during some of my pole play after warmup. you can see her ears in the bottom of the frame in some of the clips. she’s watching me and cheering me on!

this was the first time i tried layout without front hook and also the butterfly. surprisingly, not that hard to learn these tricks. i think my body is much stronger than i thought it was. it’s nice to see what they actually look like when i try them… esp the upside down polecat! i’ve been doing that during dance, driven by my EC, and had no clue it was so hot! haha.

in this video:

• corkerina
• layout with foot hook
• my upside-down polecat invention
• snake/butterfly/handstand off
• layout without foot hook (OUCH)
• one-legged layout with foot hook
• standing firefly (doing this after doing snake dive so much HURT the top of my feets!)

next pole video

tricks to practice/tape, after doing tons of pushups and plows!

(updated to include 060508 video)

• corkerina (060508 video)
• climb & helicopter
• snake/butterfly (060508 video)
• flying body spiral into RDJ
• layout without foot hook (060508 video)
• figure 4 layout
• plow over with one leg up
• polecat
• poletini
• spinning snake
• spinning descending angel
• spinning helicopter
• spin dismount of any invert
• flying half pint/body spiral
• climb & prance down
• climb, layout, flip, pole cat/descending angel
• cat pounce on the pole (060508 video)
• all 3 fireflies inc standup into spinny climb and step out firefly (060508 video)
• opposite snake
• FBS with leg switch tina style
• flying half pint/body spiral & vice versa
• half pint tina style
• chair sit tina style
• jackknife
• go from descending angel to one-legged snake dive (shoulder turn)

video 5.21.08

i really need to get better about actually warming up and actually having a warmed up pole. doing layout is impossible with cold skin on a cold pole! and surprisingly– i didn’t realize this but my strength is much better when i’m warmed up. i should have posted my pathetic jack knife attempts… hahah. and yet it’s so easy during class…

• heli & descending angel
• climb & flip
• headstand & layout
• corkscrew & snake

soulstice week 6: 5/28/08

this week: jr hs music.

so this week tina had us split into groups and we had to pick a song for the whole group to dance to. i was/am sick, on tons of antitussants and sore throat medicine and pretty woozy. i thought exercising would help me feel better but it made me feel worse. i almost blacked out doing a firefly. by the time dance had rolled around i was cranky and feeling weak and frustrated with how little i felt good about doing.

i was in the bathroom so when i came back my trio had already picked a song– kriss kross, jump jump.

i said: “i’m sorry guys, im really sick and kind of feeling crappy. can we pick a song that isn’t so high energy?”

…and then got a lecture on how you don’t go with the beat, even if it’s a fast song, you can still dance slow.

i KNOW THAT, thanks. i don’t need you to “teach” me on how to dance, i just want to dance to a song that doesn’t annoy the shit out of me.

my EC hated it. the song was short so tina put my song on for a bit at the end… but by then i was in a crappy mood and just really crabby and bitchy. i feel like i wasted the class and a good song. i should have signed out. it’s just that i missed class last week… sigh.

i am really looking forward to class with ro. the lack of camaraderie in this class is really really getting old. it makes me wonder why it doesn’t seem to bother anyone else. no one seems to care about anyone else in the class. no one has conversations with each other. and people walk out on each other instead of staying and supporting each other’s dance. no one cheers.

officially learned the headstand/layout today. it came surprisingly easily in class since the poles were totally warmed up and my leg stuck for the layout. also the climb/snake is completely comfortable now. i think that i need to work more on climb/heli because i really ahven’t been doing trick work at all lately.

other tricks i want to work on… list to be added to!

• snake/butterfly
• flying body spiral into RDJ
• layout without foot hook
• plow over with one leg up