Northern California Pole Presentational Tickets On Sale!

Want to come support local pole dancers??  Tickets to Nor Cal Pole Presentational just went on sale!  Don't miss out!  We have dancers from pretty much every studio in Northern California (plus some from Southern California and other states).  The event will be held Saturday, August 23, 2014 in San Jose, California (exact start time and schedule TBA).  Come out for a fun day of pole dance and shopping!

http://ncpp.brownpapertickets.com/

There is still time to sponsor!!  http://www.northerncapolepresentational.com/sponsors/

Want to volunteer?  http://www.northerncapolepresentational.com/volunteer/

Want to find us on Facebook?  https://www.facebook.com/NorCalPolePresentational

Want to buy cool Pat gear?  http://www.cafepress.com/polenorcal

See you in August!

Photo credit: http://www.liquidpulp.com/

Pole Dance America

Awhile back, Trixie from Pole Nation asked me if I would come judge a competition.  I immediately told her no.  I felt like I wasn't qualified to judge people on moves I couldn't do myself.  She assured me I would be just fine and asked me again to please come help judge a Pole Dance America (PDA)preliminary competition at a studio in Santa Cruz.  Well, you know me, always up for an adventure.  So I said yes!

The competition was held over the weekend at Aerial Arts Santa Cruz.  The studio had really tall ceilings, with room for many aerial apparatuses.  As soon as I walked in, I eyeballed the chair I needed to sit in.  The other judges kindly allowed me to have the queen chair.  The competitors were made up of students from Aerial Arts, and I don't believe any had ever competed before.  PDA travels to studios all over to the country to hold these preliminary competitions.  Their finals will be held next year.  Round 1 is done without music.  Each competitor writes down the official moves on which they would like to be judged.  The round is videotaped, and after they were done, we got to review the video and judge each move individually.  I had been worried about being able to judge people on the fly.  But being able to review the video, rewind and re-watch moves really, really helped.  And if there was a move that I wasn't sure about, I looked it up to make sure I was judging it properly.  It was a long process, but it made me so much more confident that I was able to offer a proper score and constructive feedback. 

Round 2 allowed music and was a more traditional pole dance showcase/competition routine.  We got to score based on the creativeness and the musicality, etc. 

The entire day was a lot of fun.  I enjoyed seeing the studio, meeting Jeanette of Aerial Arts and fellow judge Donna from Atomic Allure (a studio in Oakland, which will be holding its own preliminary competition in October).  I appreciate Trixie for thinking of me and giving me this fun opportunity to learn more about how their organization and compeition work!  Congratulations to the winners, who will be moving on the PDA finals in New Orleans next year!

Pole Art 2012...and the winner is...

Pole Art 2012 was held last weekend in Sweden.  I was unable to attend but have been excitedly watching videos as they are posted to YouTube.  I wanted to at least post the winners here on my blog.

Pole Art 2012 Female Champion:  Oona Kivela



Runner up:  Natasha Wang



Third place:  Lolo Hilsum



Fourth place: Phoenix Kazree



Fifth place:  Rafaela Montanaro



Pole Art 2012 Male Champion:  Saulo Sarmiento



Runner up (tie):  Steven Retchless



Runner up (tie):  Evgeny Greshilov



Third place:  Patryk Rybarski



Here is Jenyne Butterfly's guest performance:



Showcase performances

Michelle Stanek:



Ekaterina Romanova:



Dance Theater "Trash:"



Intellego Pole Company:



Additional competitors:

How long will it take for pole dancing to go mainstream?

Sure, we are well on our way to pole dancing being accepted as a "legitimate" form of exercise (to those in the pole industry, it already is a legitimate form of dance and exercise).  So if I used my own Facebook page as an indicator, it definitely IS considered mainstream.  I realize that I have A LOT of pole friends.  When I'm out in the real world, I do still encounter "the look" when I tell people that I pole dance. 

That got me thinking...how long will it take for the rest of the world to accept us?  Sure, most of us don't care if we ever get accepted.  But, for our industry to thrive, we really do need mainstream corporate sponsors to start throwing money into our competitions.  We need studios to build strong competitors.  No, we don't ALL need to compete.  The majority of us can remain secret pole dancers.  But our industry does need competitions to survive. 

Here's my theory:  It will take about a generation.  As the children of today grow up watching their moms pole dance and be strong, it will become more accepted to pole dance for fun, fitness or any other reason.  Stripping will always be part of the history of pole dance.  You can't make that go away.  But as this generation grows up not being told that anyone who pole dances should be ashamed of themselves, the public in general will be able to accept us. 

Now, what's your theory?  How long do you think it will be before the general public stops giving us the once over when we tell them we pole dance?  Sure some people will never come around, but the balance has to shift at some point, right?

International Pole Dance Masters Cup

Rita and I drove down to Los Angeles early in order to catch the International Pole Dance Masters Cup presented by Anjel Dust Productions.  The event was hosted by Jenyne Butterfly. 

Other than showing up late because it took 90 minutes to drive 15 miles in Los Angeles traffic, the event was a lot of fun.  I have decided that doubles are now my favorite type of pole dance.  I am also amazed by the acrobatics being incorporated into pole.  I really can't call many of the performances pole dance because they are mostly pole acrobatic tricks.  I do enjoy the tricks but I also really enjoy the dance, so I hope that it doesn't get lost in the quest for the Olympics. 

Again, it is easier to show you than talk about the performances, so check out the YouTube play list below!



The highlight of the evening for me was probably driving Steven Retchless and Doris Arnold back to the hotel.  We made a late night stop at Burger King for food.  Who knew these people could eat French Fries?!  Anyway, both were very, very sweet and I really enjoyed chatting with them.