Bringing Sexy Back!

Directly on the heels of my Chinese Pole post (and hopefully no one thinks I am disrespecting it), I am going to post about Bringing Sexy Back.  There HAS been a push to take "the sexy" out of pole and focus on strength-based tricks in order to get pole into the Olympics.  That is okay for that crowd.  It doesn't make it wrong for those who still want to dance sexy!

United Pole Artists has declared the week of July 9-16, 2012 Bringing Sexy Back Week (Read Annemarie's blog HERE)!  That's  next week so I didn't want to wait to post this.  They are challenging pole dancers to post videos to YouTube with "Bringing Sexy Back" in the title to show support for those who do love the sexy part of pole dancing.

If you need an example, Alethea Austin embodies what it means to be a sexy, hot, strong pole dancer:



I get that not everyone wants to be sexy in pole dance.  I get that not everyone CAN be sexy in pole dance.  But I do value that side of pole dancing.  So, if you are ready to bring the sexy, post your videos to YouTube and share the links in the comments section below!

Didja know...

...there are a whole bunch of pole dancers out there who just...pole dance??!  

They don't know who Felix Cane, Jenyne Butterfly or Alethea Austin are.  They don't Facebook stalk every pole celebrity in the world, post about their successes and failures, and share photos of every bruise earned.  They aren't on Studio Veena chatting and watching videos.  They aren't searching YouTube for the newest videos from the pros.  They don't read Aerial Amy's blog every day.  They just...go to class and dance.

Over the weekend, I went to the Pacific Pole Championships in Los Angeles.  I found a spot in the front row to take notes, photos and videos (I will do a more in-depth blog about the competition very soon).  I sat next to a lady who was very excited to be there and was taking notes about songs she wanted to dance to in the future.

We chatted between routines (many dancers didn't realize that the quiet time between routines were for judges to finish scoring).  I said something about the amazing Felix Cane.  Blank stare.  Jenyne Butterfly?  Nothing.  Alethea Austin?  Nope.  

Wow.

I really am a Pole Geek! 

Hey there's nothing wrong with either of us.  I was just happy to be in a room filled with people who have a passion for pole dancing.  

I am working on some great posts, but have been super busy with my real day job.  Until then, I sign off as a Pole Geek and proud of it!

Pole Show LA Interviews and Performance Videos

In January, Lorita Productions attended Pole Show LA on behalf of The Pole Dancing Shop.  I wanted to post interview and performance videos in one place, so here we go!

http://www.thepoledancingshop.com/pole-show-la-2012/#.T005RHl9Yuc

http://lolorashel.blogspot.com/2012/02/lolorashel-pole-dance-italy-and-pole.html

The show started with “The Honey Fall Girls”, which was choreographed by Leigh Ann Reilly (owner of BeSpun) and included five BeSpun dancers: Andrewa Britz, Kate Chanthanakaew, Emma Danoff, Yvonne Huffman-Lutz and Cash Roses.  Their costumes, designed by Kelly Maglia, were adorable.  They also featured Glitter Heels, which are made by BeSpun instructor, Tiffany Hayden.

Ariel Jacobs:

The first headliner was Prana, who is from Paris, France.  She has been pole dancing since 2008 and teaches at Pole Dance Paris.  Her routine was very wild cat-like.  She is so strong and beautiful to watch.

Interview with Prana:

Alice Hodge:


Unfortunately, this video was blocked due to copyright issues with the song.

BeSpun’s manager, Amy Guion was next in a piece called “A Long time ago, in a desert far, far away.”  It started with contortionist Fiona Luna and Amy’s partner David Garcia.  The pole portion was set to the Christina Aguilera song, Genie in a Bottle.  It was a really cute routine and really showcased Amy’s flexibility.

Interview with Amy Guion:

Lena Lockerby:

Zoraya Judd was the second headliner.  If you have not seen Zoraya perform, you really need to watch her.  She is an outstanding performer.  From her hair and make-up to her routine.  She took it to the next level when her husband Nic joined her on stage to hand over a python snake.  She finished her routine on the pole with a snake wrapped around her neck.

D'Lorian "Bad Azz" Fox:

Interview with Bad Azz:

The next piece was called Gemini 3000 and included BeSpun dancers Sergia Louise Anderson, Tami Brandel, Jennifer Jim and Lacy McGarry.  One of the highlights was when all four performers were spinning on one pole.

Interview with Jennifer Kim:

Becca Armijo:

Flying Laura Martin absolutely rocked the show.  She pulled out an amazing and completely unexpected hip hop routine with backup dancers, Marta Karwowska and Isabella Konald.  Flying Laura is another performer that you must see in person if you can.  She is such a powerhouse.

Jess Leah:

Leigh Ann Reilly was next with “In the Night.”  It included BeSpun dancers Alex Catalano, Pamela Morency and Angela Relucio.   Leigh Ann started the performance on a motorcycle and later rocked a shoulder stand on it.

Interview with Leigh Ann Reilly:

Estee Zakar started her performance in a really cool cat mask.  She is so strong and her routine was really fun to watch.  She does some kind of Iron-X round about that is hard to explain but amazing to watch.

Amber Richard:

Interview with Amber Richard:

Steven Retchless was next.  His routine was ballet-based and so beautiful. Sadly, the sound was still out, although it gave us an opportunity to enjoy his movement.

Interview with Steven Retchless:

Kelly Maglia:

The next routine, “Ligature”, was based on Amy Guion’s third-place 2011 California Pole Dance Championship routine.  It involved four dancers: Paula Cavajal, Christine Fields, Tracey Mueller and Lisa Wilhoit.  It included dominatrix inspired costumes and red ropes, from which the dancers could hang from the poles.

Breezelle Fox:

Natasha Wang based the character in her routine on a spider that conquers the pole.  Natasha is definitely the sweetheart of pole dancing and we always love watching her performances.  With the sound still not working properly, it did allow the crowd to truly take in her movements.

Interview with Natasha Wang:

Margarita Evans:

[need video]

“Wonderland” was an Alice-in-Wonderland inspire routine danced by Audra Bennett, Lindsey Kimura, Sienna Spalding and Adrienne Strauss.  Sienna also wrote and performed the music for the piece and created the art in the background.  It was a really fun routine.  Happily, the  speakers started working again about half way through their performance.

Interview with Lindsey X-Pole:

Interview with Sienna Spalding:

Interview with Adrienne Strauss:

Jennifer Strand:

Amber Kittle amazed us all by starting her routine on the ceiling in a 20-foot death lay.  Her performance was so fast and athletic.  She had some designs on her body highlighted with a black light, but you didn’t notice them because she moved so quickly.  This girl requires a sturdy pole that connects to the ceiling to do her impressive walk on the ceiling.  No wonder she was not able to compete in 2011′s California Pole Dance Championship on X-Stages!

Interview with Amber Kittle:

Tiffany Hayden:

Interview with Tiffany Hayden:

Karol Helms and Alethea Austin teamed up for “Education.”  Alethea was almost unrecognizable at first in a black wig.  Their school girl-themed doubles routine rocked the house and included backup dancers Andrea Britz, Ariel Jacobs, Valarie Miller, Lana Sales, Melissa Schrader and Jennifer Vigil.

Dana Davidson:

Jenyne Butterfly closed the show.  She is such a sweetheart and is always the crowd favorite.  She claimed earlier in the night that she had not been on the pole much in the previous two months, but you couldn’t tell by the performance she gave.  She has definitely earned the title of “Pole Queen!”

Bonus videos:

Nadia Sharif (recent winner of National Aerial Pole Artist Championship), who wasn't able to perform at Pole Show LA (she explains here):

Giggle Reel:

The End of Pole Show LA:

Poletential's Second Air Show!

Warning:  With videos, this will be a long one.  Feel free to skip around if you can't sit still for very long.  :-)

Last weekend, Poletential held it's second Air Show filled with pole dancing and aerial arts galore!  [You can check out Poletential's first Air Show HERE.]

On Friday, after workshops, they had a pole jam.  A pole jam is an informal gathering of pole dancers to hang out, chat and dance together.  I was such a pole geek.  First and foremost, I met fellow blogger, Aerial Amy, who was hanging out with Poletential instructor, Ellen Lovelace.  I also saw Natasha Wang, Alethea Austin and Amy Guion.  I met Karol Helms and Marlo Fisken in person for the first time.  Estee Zakar and Sarah Romanowsky (silks) were the last two pros who were in the showcase but they were not at the pole jam.

Rita and I mostly hung out and chatted with people.  We didn't pole.  We checked out Alethea's and Karol's awesome merchandise.  We talked with Christina A. from Poletential, who was a pregnant M&M at their Twirloween event, so she will always in my mind be the green M&M.  We also got to see our good friend, Tracey.  Poletential Owner, Christina Kish, was also there.  The studio was hopping with people preparing for Saturday's show.

Marlo, Natasha and Amy wanted to head back to the hotel and I happened to have my monster truck with me, so I offered to drive them to pick up food and then take them back to the hotel.  Of course, who wouldn't want to have the adorable booties of those three ladies imprinted in their car?!  On the drive, we talked about Natasha's recent blog about body image (check out my response HERE).  Marlo said that she doesn't want to get kudos for something unless she actually pulls on some amazing move.  I said that when I climbed to the top of the pole, we almost threw a party.  However, for me, that WAS an earth-shattering move!  They are professional competitors, so their standard of excellence is much higher than the average pole dancer.

Saturday was the Air Show.  I sat near a group of super fun ladies.  I met Tina Kelly, owner of Venus Pole Fitness of Turlock and I plan to do a Poletry in Motion for her studio soon.  She promised to come to Twirly Girls one day too.  I don't want to take much too much space talking about the show since the videos will speak for themselves.  After the show, Amy Kim did ask me my top two performers.  It was so hard to say since I loved each and every performance for a different reason.  Shelly Lamb made a great comment, saying that she had competed with most of these girls in New York and it was so different to see them in a showcase setting instead of a competition setting.  They were so much more relaxed, which I'm sure made it much more fun to perform.  Anyway, back to Amy's question.  I told Amy that I had to give it to Marlo because I LOVED her rockin' song (all of the other girls performed to slow songs, which I totally love and respect since I have a hard time dancing to slow songs, but I always love the down and dirty rock songs!).  I also had to give it to Natasha, since she is my personal favorite.  She always responds to me on Facebook and I'm doing a workshop with her tonight at Twirly Girls.  She is such a lovely and graceful dancer.  However, Amy Guion's performance was so beautiful and the smile on her face during her entire performance was amazing as well (her theme for the dance was dreaming of being a princess).  And, although Alethea danced to a slow song she oozed sex and pure awesomeness, as usual.  This was my first time seeing Estee Zakar, Marlo Fisken and Karol Helms perform.  They were all crazy off the hook as well (I'm running out of adjectives to show much I love this show)!  So it was hard to pick my top two favorites.  They were all my favorites for different reasons.

This show also contained a lot more silks.  My very own silks teacher, Sarah Starlight, performed with her friend, Jennifer.  She did such a great job!  Also, Sarah Romanowsky, who performed at Twirloween, and who has been chatting with me on Facebook and Twitter, performed on the silks.  I really loved her outfit and I wish I had her hip bones!

I have to say the show opener and scene stealer was Christina's imitation of Alethea.  Oh.  My.  God.  When I first saw the blonde hair and stomach tattoos from afar, I knew it was Alethea.  There was something off.  Different.  I couldn't put my finger on it.  But no one else in the show had a tattoo on her stomach like that.  The rockstar swagger was there.  I was slightly shocked they'd have a pro actually start the show, but maybe she had somewhere to go and needed to leave early.  Then it hit me.  THAT WAS AN IMPOSTER!  This is best viewed on video because I can't give Christina enough kudos for her act.  And Alethea is clearly a good sport.  Man, what a great intro!

Anyway, check out the videos below and then I'll finish up with some photos, my Sunday class and my impression of the whole weekend at the end:













I loved Estee's music.  It's kind of industrial and animalistic.  She has an amazing body and such muscle control!  I also really liked her costume! 







Like I said, Amy's sweet smile really made this performance.  I totally love the princess theme too!  She too has amazing muscle control and a beautiful body!



As Karol herself said on Facebook, my angle captured her asstastic beginning!  Perfect song too.  She certainly does move in mysterious ways.  Such control!!



Alethea...what else can you say about her?  So sexy.  Those body rolls are so awesome.  I want to do everything she does!!  I think I'm like a day or two away from being able to pull off her moves.  Or not.  ;-)





Sarah is so beautiful on the silks. Such flexibility and grace!



When I took Natasha to the hotel, Rita and I wondered why she had a basket of apples.  We were like, look how healthy she is!!  We told her she could re-enact the Twilight cover.  She said that was fitting since her dance was wolf themed.  Now we understand...  lol!  I loved the Red Riding Hood/Big Bad Wolf theme!  It might be hard to see in the video but she had make up that made it look like the Wolf had really kicked her ass!



Marlo apparently had to change her routine around because stage poles are not as steady as those attached to the ceiling.  She definitely pulled off a rockin' routine.  I guess her song doesn't count as a true "down and dirty rock song," but I pretty much count any fast music as down and dirty.  :-D





I finished off Air Show weekend by taking aerial hammock with Ellen Lovelace and Aerial Amy.  I live an hour away from Redwood City, so I got home Saturday night around midnight but didn't get to sleep until 1 a.m.  I got up at 7 a.m. on Sunday to get to silks on time.  I thought I'd be super tired but I was fine.  And I loved Ellen's class.  It was different than Jessica's class.  I was actually able to do most of the moves.  Other than a couple of moves that aggravated my old lady hip, I think I held my own.  I even did two...count them TWO....back somersaults!  Well, Ellen helped me because there is a point when I'm upside down that I swear I'm going to lose my grip and fall on my head -- but I did it!!  ("Did it" meaning I did the somersaults, not the falling on my noggin.)

Poletential put on another awesome show.  And thank you for always being so welcoming and kind to the Twirly Girls!

Me with Aerial Amy and Ellen Lovelace at the Pole Jam

 Rita, Marlo Fisken and me at the Pole Jam

 Karol Helms and me

Poletry in Motion: BeSpun

Last weekend, Rita and I went down to Los Angeles for the California Pole Dance Championship.  Since I was going to be in town, I wanted to take classes from different studios.  So, we scheduled classes at BeSpun in Hollywood and OC Pole Fitness in Aliso Viejo.  While driving home, I told Rita I wanted to create a little "corner" of my blog for reviews of studios I try while I'm traveling.  Rita came up with "Poletry in Motion."  I LOVED it so here we go!!

------------------

I first heard about BeSpun when I found videos of the owner, Leigh Ann on YouTube.   I was still new to the pole dancing industry, so I didn't realize that a lot of the pros were coming out of BeSpun.  The current US Pole Dance Champion, Natasha Wang, is from BeSpun.  Amy Guion, a recent interviewee in this very blog, and competitor in last weekend's CPDC, manages BeSpun.  Alethea Austin, who performed at Poletential's Air Show a few months ago, teaches at BeSpun.  Amber Richard, from Poletential in Redwood City, is going to school in Southern California and also teaches at BeSpun.  Anjel Dust, who put on the CPDC, teaches there too.  I am sure I am leaving out many other important pole dancers, but those are the names currently listed on their website that I recognize. 

Rita and I made reservations to take class with Amber Richard.  Our class was scheduled for 2 p.m.  The studio is located in a pretty interesting part of Hollywood.  We didn't have to park too far away but we definitely wouldn't have made the walk if it had been dark.  You walk into the back of the building -- through a chainlink fence and a large, heavy rolling door -- into an MMA gym.  It's a big building that smells of testosterone and sweat.  BeSpun is actually inside of the MMA gym, Legends.  Two girls were standing at the front desk.  I could see Alethea sitting behind a desk.  We chatted with the girls for a minute, then realized we were actually talking to THE Leigh Ann!  She was so sweet.  The receptionist checked us in and had us sign paperwork while we chatted with Leigh Ann.  Rita asked her about whether she was offering other aerial arts and Leigh Ann said that they wanted to focus on what they did well -- pole dancing.  They were shaping competition level athletes.  Fair enough.

Leigh Ann told us to go through the pink door and watch the end of the class before ours (which was being taught by Amy).  Amber happened to walk by and we quickly said hello and then Rita and I walked to the pole room.  There were a few guys on the mats grappling.  The place definitely smelled like sweaty man (not necessarily a bad thing).  I saw the pink door and opened it.  The room seemed so small and a couple of girls turned around to look at us.  I thought I was interrupting and quickly closed the door.  We waited until Amber came back and she told us to follow her.  

It was like falling through the tree into Wonderland.  We walked into a completely different environment.  The pink door opened into a small room, which seemed to be like a warm up area.  But when you turned to the right, there was this extremely long room with tall ceilings and a bunch of poles.  There were couches set up to sit on, a fire place and cool brick walls.  There was a huge X-Pole sign on the wall.  The lights were all red.  It was no longer an MMA room.  It was a pole dancing studio.  

The class was much more advanced than Rita and I -- we call ourselves Bel's special needs class.  Yes, we've been dancing for almost two years.  But we have injuries and issues and we think maybe Bel doesn't want to push us too hard so we've spent a lot of time not advancing in pole.  I think we both walked away from BeSpun wanting to fix that.  We are ready to get strong and start really dancing!  

We started with a great warm-up and stretch, almost yoga-style, including some sit-ups.  Amber is a great teacher.  She describes a move, demonstrates it, then comes around to make sure everyone is doing it properly.  Rita and I went to the very end of the room so we could muddle through without getting in the way.  Amber checked on us several times.  We ended class with a free dance.  I took a few things away from the class:  First, I want to start warming up better.  Second, I learned how to climb prettier (and busted out a new move!!!).  Third, Amber (and I would assume BeSpun) absolutely believes that you should learn each move on both the right and left sides.  I currently only use my dominant hand (right) and only do moves one way.  So we spent a lot of time doing basic moves on our non-dominant side. That was pretty cool.

BeSpun was nothing like Twirly Girls.  Not to say they weren't friendly -- everyone was amazing and so nice to us.  But in class, they were very serious.  There was very little interaction between students.  They worked hard from the second they arrived until class was over.  The studio is definitely a place for people to train and become pro competitors.  Still, we had a great experience there and liked seeing how other studios worked.  Amber is an excellent teacher and she dances so beautifully.  I especially like that she is so tall (so many dancers are these tiny little things).  She's got these beautiful muscular and long legs.  Her abs look great.  She said she's been doing a lot of plyometrics, so maybe she can teach a class for us at Twirly Girls when she comes back for a visit!

So anyway, that is my first Poletry in Motion review, which will be my personal opinion of the studios I visit.  BeSpun in Hollywood is definitely a place you should check out if you're in the Southern California area.  Other than being a little star struck when you see famous instructors and dancers, their classes are well-taught and structured.  I am hoping to make more trips down to So Cal for Social Sonar and other pole events.  I am looking forward to taking another class from Amber and checking out other studios!

Oh yeah, before I go...when we left, Rita and I hit up the bathroom, which is really a big locker room/shower area for both men and women.  There were some lockers and one said, "E. Balfour."  I love the actor, Eric Balfour.  I was like, could he possibly train here??  I whipped out my cute little smart phone and typed in "Eric Balfour and Legends."  He does in fact train there (and may actually be a co-owner or investor), so I rubbed my body all over his locker (sorry, Mr. Balfour!!).  :-D  When I got home, I told Rob about it and he said that when he watched a recent episode of Haven, Eric's character did a martial arts type of move and Rob thought he pulled it off well for someone who supposedly wasn't trained in martial arts.  But now we know that he IS actually trained in martial arts.  Totally random piece of information...and gave me a good giggle because Eric Balfour is hot and I totally molested his locker!

 Amy Guion

 Rita twirling

 My new move...I'm not touching the floor!!!

Amber Richard

Eric Balfour's locker -- yes, I am a stalker