Confessions of a Twirly Girl: anjel dust

The fifth annual California Pole Dance Championship was held in Los Angeles, California on November 3, 2013.

As I was down in LA for Comikaze, I decided to extend my stay for one night and go to the competition.

The competition was slated to be held at Circus Hollywood. Literally one day before the competition, I started seeing posts on Facebook that the venue had changed (to Arena Hollywood, which is in the same parking lot at least). Also the time was moved up by an hour and a half or so, which bummed me out since I was supposed to go watch a panel on women and size diversity at Comikaze. I was also disappointed because I never got an e-mail announcing the time change. If I hadn't noticed the posts on Facebook, I would never have known. I found out later, that was because I was not on "the list." Luckily, I was able to show the door the receipt for my $99 ticket and my reserved seat had been left empty, so there was no harm, no foul.

My shirt from Poleitical Clothing

It was great to run into Leen Isabel and Danielle of Poleitical Clothing, two of the vendors with tables. I know there were a couple of other vendors there but I didn't have a chance to stop by the tables. There was also a photobooth there. They were asking us to pose with stickers from United Pole Artists, so I hope the photos will be published on their website at some point.

The Circus nightclub is a much larger venue than Arena. I felt like the tables were really squashed together in order to get the same number of people into Arena. The stage was also smaller and there was no awesome sparkly background. At the same time, watching an event of this magnitude in a smaller venue is kind of cool and makes everyone feel like they have a front row seat. It appears that the venue was at fault for over-booking. CPDC was forced to start earlier and literally the minute the show was over, the lights went on and everyone was told to go home so they could set up for the next event. Considering how many events Anjel has now done with this club, you would think they would have a little more respect for her. I seriously hope she was given a large refund for this mistake. Despite all of this, the club was packed and the show went on! I saw Nadia Sharif (last year's winner) working her booty off as she hustled around the club keeping everything on schedule.

There was no video allowed at this event so I haven't been able to go back and re-watch performances to give a better reaction. If you are interested in watching performances, I believe United Pole Artists and MFEO.tv are offering them for 99 cents. Therefore, I am commenting on this contest only by memory and notes. My phone also didn't take many great photos because the lighting was whiting everything out.

Judging this competition: Natasha Wang, Mina Mortezaie, Amy Guion, Flying Laura Martin, Kelly Maglia and Josiah "BadAzz" Grant. BadAzz started the show off with a reprise of his winning Midwest Prince routine. And Flying Laura closed the show in the only way she knows how -- with her bad ass flying tricks and spins.

Neo Division

Neo (amateur) category included: Drusilla Ray, Nancy Ly, Uyen Hoang (took third place in amateur division in 2012), Moana Moon, Tehera Nesfield, Jhasmynne Hider, Candi Vastlik, Venus Manuel, Adrienne Strauss, Heather West and Margarita Evans.

Dru

First off, let me start by saying holy f*cking $hit. The Neo category was off the hook, and these performers could hardly be called amateur. I counted at least four performers out of eleven attempting a Fonji. THESE ARE SUPPOSED TO BE AMATEURS. I was caught between being ridiculously impressed and slightly frustrated that these are supposed to be the non-professional competitors. They completely raised the bar for competitions in the pole community. I still remember when I saw Natasha Wang do a Fonji for the first time and I was like, that is some voodoo magic and I can't believe I just saw her flip on the pole like that! But that's Natasha-Freaking-Wang. Now the "beginners" are doing it?? Let me also say that, despite this being a competition, it seemed like some were willing to sacrifice fluidity for the shock of a crazy trick. There was a lot of slipping out of moves in both categories, which I realize you can't always control, and must be insanely frustrating for the competitors, especially at this level. But at this level, I did have high expectations for quality routines. I would like to see cleaner routines, and less dramatic tricks for a more well-rounded performance. If you are starting with a Fonji, where do you go from there?? I guess maybe a Death Lay into Fonji into Spatchcock, then just dance off stage because no one can beat that with a stick and you win!

Indeed, I felt like the winners did put on well-rounded, and often emotional performances. Margarita took first (with her cooking-themed routine, which I saw showcased at Pole Expo in Las Vegas; she was also crowned Champion in Level 3/Senior at Pacific Pole Championship earlier this year). Venus (one of my personal favorite people in general) took second with her very, very emotional routine. She also won People's Choice Award from Mighty Grip and X-Pole. Moana placed third. She also had a very beautiful routine.

Pro Division

Pro category include: Shelly Lamb, Brandon Rosario, Sasja Lee, Brynn Route, Lily Huang (took first in amateur division in 2012), Stacey Craven (took second place in amateur division in 2012), Drea Roers, Crystal Gibson, Amanda Rose and Katherine Voorhees (not listed on the program). Side note: To see other past winners, click HERE.

First off, little Amanda Rose sailed on to the pole competition circuit only this year after turning 18. Keep an eye on her. She has big things coming. I believe adding Brandon to the pro line-up is the first step in adding a men's division to future CPDC competitions. I was also slightly saddened that only one Northern California poler made it into the entire competition. Congratulations to Shelly Lamb for representing all of Nor Cal.

BadAzz

After such a shocking Neo Division, I wasn't really sure what to expect with the Pros. Will they dangle from the ceiling and do a death drop while twirling a baton of fire? Will they have back-up dancers and sing while they pole? I really didn't know where the Pros could go after what we had already witnessed. What I believe we ended up getting are the well-rounded, story-driven routines that won for those in Neo Division. There was, in fact, only one Spatchcock that I counted. And I believe I stopped counting Fonji's, so I couldn't even tell you if any of the Pros did one! I will be writing a post after this one about how Fonji is the new Spatchcock (just my personal commentary on where the future of competitive pole might be headed), so check it out.

Sasja Lee (another one of my favorite people in general) took first place. She also won Most Athletic. Amanda Rose took second place with her energetic routine. She also won Most Artistic and Most Entertaining. Brynn Route took third, and also won Most Flexible. Crystal Gibson (another of my favorites) won X-Pole and Glitter Heel's Miss Congeniality award.

All-in-all, despite the last-minute monkey wrench, this was another fun pole event. I am really glad I stuck around to watch and thank you to Nadia and Anjel for a great event!

Do you agree with my assessment of the performances? If you watched any of them, let me know what you thought!

All of our adventures in So Cal last weekend came about because I wanted to attend the California Pole Dance Championship. Social Sonar took out an ad for me in the CPDC program. Rita then offered to come with me to help me document the trip, Wes and Larissa offered to let me stay at their house, we found studios to visit, and OC Pole was having their open house...it was like it was meant to be!

The competition was held at The Highlands in Hollywood. There was another event going on outside (possibly a cirque du soleil opening), so gates and a stage were set up. There was security everywhere. I was hoping for some kind of celebrity sighting, but didn't get lucky. We arrived about the time the doors were supposed to open but hadn't eaten dinner yet. Since the doors weren't open yet and the line was long (and we had assigned seats), we went to grab food. We sat at one cafe for about ten minutes without a waitress so we left and just picked up pretzels at Annie's. It was fast and easy.

By the time we got back in line, it was probably 6:30 p.m. and the doors appeared to be just opening (so running a little late). Rita and I were so excited and kept trying to talk to the people in line around us. It definitely seemed like an "LA crowd." Everyone was gorgeous, dressed up and not exactly super friendly. It was a little disappointing, but we still had fun taking photos of the things around us while we waited to get into the doors.

Once we got in -- which took about half an hour -- we went to find the vendors. I knew Claire from The Pole Story was going to be there and I wanted to meet her in person. There were a handful of vendors in a room in the very back. We looked at other pole studios, shoes, accessories, shirts, shorts, etc. I did buy some cool feather cuffs that I need to figure out how to incorporate into my Halloween costume for the Trick or Twirl pole party. I finally got over to see Claire, who is also the editor of Vertical magazine. I joked with her about our ads being neighbors in the program. We laughed and chatted for a few minutes. I also bought a subscription to the magazine.

We got to our seats and the competition started about 10 minutes after 8. The contestants were Jennifer Kim, Amy Guion, Faith Daniels, Rhiannan Nichole, Mary Ashton, Michula Nunez, Nadia Sharif, Katherine Voorhhees, Flying Laura, Phoenix Kazree and Nicole Williams.

The contestants and feature performers all did such an amazing job. Unfortunately, Amber Kittle was not able to compete due to an issue with the poles. I was, of course, rooting for Amy Guion, since I had just met her at BeSpun and did a blog post about her. I really liked her routine. I was also super touched by the first performer, Jennifer Kim. She didn't end up placing, but I thought she had a great routine! I saw on Facebook later that Rhiannan Nichole was disappointed with her routine (I think also because of the pole change, some moves weren't possible), but I thought she did a great job too. The winner was Phoenix Kazree, whose music went out in the middle of her routine. She didn't even flinch. She finished her dance, as if the music was still going. Nadia Sharif was definitely a crowd favorite and she was the runner up, plus she received two other titles.

I will post all of my videos below. Don't miss the feature performers: Jenyne Butterfly (don't miss the walk down the pole!!), Natasha Wang (LOOOOOVE HER!), Alethea Austin (rocked a HAWT chair dance!), Becca Butcher (She's somewhat new to me but I really like her!!), and Timber Brown (uh-MAZE-balls!!!).

I think the whole night was a huge success and I can't wait to be part of the next event!