I have always been fascinated with the process of choreography, actively seeking out connections between pole dance and other forms of movement. For me, the elements of choreography for the pole, aerial, or floor routines, should overlap. Incorporating narrative is important, as well as including motifs and themes. These help the dancer communicate with the audience as well as tie the whole routine together so it is much more than just a sequence of clever tricks and poses.
I recently came across Wayne McGregor from his TED talk and hearing his ideas about choreography just blew my mind!
Dancers from the pole and aerial community talk about “combos”. Thousands of videos are all over social media, linking tricks together in familiar or innovative ways with the change of leg or hand or direction around the pole. Hundreds of questions flood pole discussion groups asking how to link poses – what do I do after a superman? – any tips for my leg hang to ayesha transition?
Creating smooth combos is an essential part of creating a routine, but listening to Wayne McGregor opened up an entirely new way of thinking about movement and what comes together to make a dance.
What struck me is that he didn’t talk about poses, but about movement. Rather than stationary shapes connected with transitions, he uses spatial language and direction to inspire dance. Sometimes he places an imaginary object in the room and asks the dancers to move around it, to trace it’s shape, go under it, or respond to it changing. The eventual dance may have familiar shapes and poses but how they were created and how they flow together becomes a unique collaboration between the choreographer and the dancer.
When we work on a spinning pole we are essentially holding a shape and allowing the motion of the pole to accentuate our movements. The language of pole dance can be limiting as we think about choreography as a sequence of poses – climb, straddle, scorpio, butterfly. Even for floor work, movements can also become quite static, one pose to the next, even if they are choreographed to the rhythm of the music. Naming poses is useful, especially to help us communicate choreography with other dancers, but it should be remembered that this is not the only way to think about movement.
What if there were other elements on stage to inspire your movement? Real props, or imaginary ones, can fill the space and will influence the way you can move around it. If there was a box in the middle of the room, you could leap over it, dance around it, or even pick it up and dance with it!
I first heard Kristy Sellars talk about giving the pole in your routines a character or status, which offers similar possibilities. Think of the pole as a lover, or an enemy, and explore how you might respond to it differently, in the way you touch the pole, walk around it, or dismount from it.
Using these ideas will change the way you enter a pose and move through it, or may inspire a new shape or movement all together. Rather than your combos looking like everyone else’s, your dance will become uniquely you.
I highly recommend watching Wayne McGregor’s TED talk and taking inspiration from his ideas about dance, choreography, movement, and expression. We all have movement habits and it’s easy to let muscle memory and familiarity take over. Adding imagery and visualization to your choreography will help you break these movement habits and dig deeper into your creativity. For those who also feel uncomfortable with freestyle, these exercises can also be a great starting point to exploring new movement and inspiring a new direction for a routine.
I created a simple dance flow with a scarf to explore the prop vs no-prop concept. A small dance was recorded with the scarf and then repeated without it, attempting to recreate the movements as closely as possible.
This clip could be worked on and polished for accuracy, however the point of the exercise needs no more clarity. What amazed me was how the eventual choreography would never have come about without the experimentation with the scarf in the first place. Sure, I could have danced and imagined I had a scarf in my hand, but the result is a completely unique flow that emerged from my body interacting with the scarf in the first place. My body learned “the dance” so to speak and could then repeat it for the second take.
These experiments may never become a final dance, but they do teach us something about the way we move in relation to our environment, and how to inspire new movement through the use of props, imagery, and visualization.
I’d love for you to share your experiments too! Tag me on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram with your videos!
For instance, knee hangs. Very similar to our trusty outside leg hang in pole, but also very different. What muscles should I be engaging to hold me up? When placing my leg, where should the contact points be?
Zinc supports the function of over 200 enzymes in your body, including wound healing. If your pole kisses are beginning to build up, adding more foods with zinc in your diet could help them heal. Zinc also works to strengthen the villi in your intestines, increasing the surface area of your digestive tract, allowing your body to absorb more nutrients.
Calcium is important for bone health and muscular growth as well as cardiovascular health. Your levels of vitamin D affect how much calcium you are absorbing from your food so make sure you get a little bit of sun every day too – what more of a reason do you need to take your pole outside or to the beach?!
An important mineral that works in conjunction with zinc and calcium, supporting strong bone health. The trio (zinc, calcium, copper) also help transport red blood cells around the body – read: more oxygen delivered to your muscles.
Required for strong and flexible joints, skin, and bones. Silicon also supports the health of your heart. By ensuring foods with silicon are part of your diet everyday, you set yourself up to be able to train from a strong and healthy starting point.
Supports strong healthy bones, nerves, and muscles. This element is also responsible for regulating blood sugar levels. If you find you are craving sweets or a high energy hit after a workout, adding foods rich in manganese could help you curb the cravings and stabilize your blood sugar levels throughout the day.
Selenium is an important antioxidant used to support the immune system, heart health, and thyroid function. Deficiencies in selenium can weaken the cartilage in your joints, something you want to avoid given how much pressure we put on our joints through during aerial training. You don’t need a lot so it’s safest to get this trace element in whole food form.
Low iron is the classic diagnosis for someone who has low energy and finds it hard to recover after a workout. Iron is responsible for transporting oxygen to the blood. When you are pole dancing, or engaged in any other workout, your muscles need oxygen to function. This is also why
Essential for thyroid function and regulates the function of every cell in your body. Due to soils having naturally varying amounts of iodine, you may need to find supplements and iodized food to ensure you are getting enough.
Supports strong bones and muscles and assists in metabolizing calcium, magnesium and phosphorus. Boron is also believed to reduce the symptoms of arthritis as well as support cognitive functions such as hand-eye coordination and short term memory, all skills that aerialists need to be safe and successful.
Find yourself drinking gallons of water but still feeling thirsty? Get half way through a routine and have to stop due to muscle cramping? Your body is probably in need of electrolytes such as sodium. This mineral maintains the body’s water balance and is one of the key ingredients in sports drinks. Skip the sugars, though, and get sodium from these other sources.
This mineral supports nerve and muscle health and is also an electrolyte like sodium. It can also help to stabilise blood sugar levels and blood pressure. Insufficient potassium can lead to muscle weakness and dehydration.
Supports bone health, cell renewal and your metabolism. Phosphorus is also needed to make ATP (adenosine triphosphate) a molecule which provides energy to our cells. It is rare to be lacking in phosphorus but if you find you have a low appetite or muscle pain it may help to add some of these foods to your diet.
Essential for healthy bones and the functioning of nerves and muscles. Magnesium is also a relaxant and can be used to soothe aching muscles. Add some 
In the diagram you can see that the lats are the muscles that wrap around the middle and lower spine, extending up through the armpit. They insert on both shoulder blades and the upper arm at the humerus. Their full name is 
1- Assisted Squat – Use stall bars or a high bench to offer resistance as you hold on with your hands. Start with a neutral pelvis (pictured) and then sink your hips down towards the floor. Tuck the pelvis and feel free to let the back round and relax, gently swaying from side to side to increase the stretch.
2- Elbows on chair – Use a rolled up towel or something to hold on to, to keep your arms from rotating back in. Sit on your knees in front of the chair and rest your elbows on the chair edge (roll up a blanket or yoga mat to make this more comfortable. Sink your hips down and lower your chin to your chest to feel the stretch.
3 – Eagle Pose – Doing this pose seated on a chair will ensure that you keep your pelvis and ribs in alignment, focusing the stretch on your lats without arching the lower back. Wrap your right elbow inside your left and curl your wrists around so your palms are facing each other (or as far as you can go). Lift your elbows towards the sky until you feel the stretch behind your armpits. Take a few breaths and then change sides.
Place your hands close together directly underneath your chest, making a diamond shape with your thumbs and forefingers. Watch your form and make sure that you are not leaning back which will make the exercise easier. Keep your elbows tucked and lower slowly until your chest touches your hands. This exercise will target your deltoid muscles (pictured in the diagram) and also engage your core as you balance over a smaller base. When performed with correct technique, this variation is also said to have best results for training your triceps.
