Pole – Page 11 – Mel Nutter as Baudelaire

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What Pole Gave Me

August 2, 2015 / mel

One of my pole instructors started a hashtag, promoting an honest and heartfelt space to share your pole journey – #whatpolegaveme

This was my contribution with a few photo memories of some powerful pole moments from the last four years.

“Four years ago I stepped into the studio at Art of Pole. Pretty ghetto, no foyer just a room with brass 50s, floor to ceiling mirrors and poster sized photos of some fierce women flying through the sky on a pole. What was I doing here? It was a far cry from the blissed out yoga space of my previous obsession but something deep inside of me wanted to stay.

It’s such a cliche but it’s try, pole has given me confidence. A fearlessess to be myself and say “hell yeah I can!” I am still on a journey out of my shy little box but pole has opened the lid!

It’s a space to be creative and try something new, be accepted for being a bit outside the box and be pushed to make whatever it is the best it can be. To make me the best me i can be.

Pole has also taught me about being a woman! How to own my body and move and dance to how I feel.

And on a lighter note, pole has also given me a reason to shave my legs in winter and walk around with no pants! Best ever!”

Check out the #whatpolegaveme to read some inspiring stories from Aussie pole dancers. You may need a box of tissues for some.

How well do you know that pole trick?

July 20, 2015 / mel

It’s Day 20 of the Volare Magazine July Pole Challenge and my submission of a spin combo started a discussion that got me thinking.

What are your standby combos? Have you explored another way to get into your favourite trick?

After dancing for four years, I’ve lost count of the many routines I have learned in the studio as part of groups. In an effort to cater to everyone’s skills and create a routine that people can remember and achieve, the combos are often very similar.

For instance, a beginner’s combo might be a layback – hello boys – hangback/cross knee release. Or in an intermediate class you are probably going to be asked to straddle/invert – outside leg hang – starfish – cupid.

There are definitely benefits to practicing and refining these basics, but I also think it’s important to try to learn new ways to get in and out of tricks. For the sake of your own creativity and for that of the audience!

I heard an instructor once say that this is something she strives for, noting “you haven’t really mastered a trick until you can get in and out of it from three different transitions and be able to do it on both sides!”

There are not many tricks that fit such a criteria for me! But I have been working towards expanding my repertoire of transitions.

Which brings me back to the comments on my post for today’s Pole Challenge. A fellow pole dancer commented on my transition into a martini sit (pictured above).

When I first learned this trick we came from an outside leg hang, climbing above and swinging the straight leg around to the front of the pole to catch with the inside hand, knees together.

Switching this up, I presented a new combo –
hollywood – layback – stag layback – thread top leg through to hook behind the knee – straighten the outside leg – catch with the inside hand.

If you’re a competent pole dancer you might also notice a possible transition to a Q/Dangerous bird.

By learning a variety of ways to transition in and out of your favourite tricks, your combos will be more interesting and your choreography will also benefit.

Now to just do it on my bad side *sigh*

Pole Challenges

July 11, 2015 / mel

This month I’ve joined the Volare Magazine Pole Challenge on Instagram. A week in and most of the tricks have been familiar to me, but it’s been great motivation to get on the pole everyday.

I’m not sure how people go about entering these challenges when they don’t have a pole at home. Being in the studio everyday is tough (and expensive!), but I also recognise that poling at home can be difficult. You don’t have a peer group to motivate you, you don’t have a spotter for harder tricks and sometimes life just gets in the way.

Having a pole community is so important to the effectiveness and longevity of your practice. Instagram and Facebook and other types of social media are great in helping you build that community and help you learn new tricks or just feel inspired to dance.

So I committed myself! For the month of July, I will stick to his challenge. It’s winter here in Sydney, so this is also extra incentive to get up and get moving.

Check out my Instagram to see where I’m up to! Maybe I’ll even win a few prizes!

Solotude Performance

July 4, 2015 / mel

Last weekend was a blast! Here’s a shot of me backstage after the show, on a high and in love with the magic of performing!

I’ve been getting great feedback about my routine, which is so motivating. As I mentioned in the last post, I capitalised on the showcase allowing me to pare back tricks and tell a story, and it seems the audience appreciated that too.

Check out my performance below. Excuse the slight slip up in the middle, it seems I truly was an old lady losing her balance!

Credits:
Music by Yu and Count Basie
Lingerie by Dita Von Teese
Night Gown and Props: local op shop find!

Enjoy!

Solotude!

June 23, 2015 / mel

When you train at a studio with a high caliber of experienced dancers, and two of those dancers are also skilled in event management, what happens? Solotude happens!

I’ve been training hard these past few weeks, adding the finishing touches to my performances and collecting props and costumes. The vibe at the studio is amazing as everyone is nailing their tricks with extra motivation to get their choreography solid for the show.

I have already written about the benefits of entering showcases, so I’d like to use this post to talk about how I put together my performance (and to plug the show for all my Sydney readers!).

Being a showcase, there is no pressure to put in all the best strength and flex tricks into the routine as you would in a competition. There is space to tell a story, pare back the tricks and emphasise the aspects of making it a show.

Over the years, I have worked hard on my stage presence and engaging with the audience. With each new routine I try to choreograph gestures, facial expressions, and points to connect with the audience. It’s hard, and daunting, but it has helped me improve.

The routine I have started for Solotude begins with me talking to the audience. I found a clip from the end of a Yu song of an elderly woman with a thick Boston drawl reminiscing over old photographs. In my 50s lace night gown, hair in rollers, and reading glasses dangling off my ears with a gold chain, I mime the lady’s story and share the photographs with the audience.

As the music starts, Count Basie fills the stage with burlesque class and I am drawn to relive my days as a younger dancer.

The props and costume for this routine were as vital in telling the story as the pole tricks and poses. I also had to think about how the older woman would have danced, did she break free of her nightgown and reveal a sexy lingerie set highlighting body rolls and hair flicks? Or did she emerge from her gown slowly, like the unfurling of a memory, only to be completely immersed in her recollection at the end of the song?

Thinking this way made sense for me. I didn’t want to just separate the two parts of looking through the photographs and then dancing. They had to transition and be threaded together. It’s a story, it has emotion and feeling, not just a sequence of tricks.

A picture tells a 1000 words, and this will make more sense with a video. I’ll post it up after the show, but if you’re in Sydney and keen on seeing some Pole Drama next weekend, come on by to The Vanguard!

Oh! And guess who’s derriere is on the poster?!? *wink*

Cross Training for Aerial – Part 1: Yoga

June 16, 2015 / mel

I was a yogi well before I came to pole dancing. Starting in 2005 in a backyard studio in Sydney’s outerwest, my partner and I found it an easy way to exercise regularly and incorporate a little bit of mindfulness into our day.

As we moved around Sydney, I found other studios to join, settling for a long time with Jivamukti Yoga in Newtown. Different to Hatha and Bikram, Jivamukti is a very dynamic practice. We explored handstands, headstands, and bound poses, and the studio ran regular immersion weeks. Like a retreat, we would do about 4-6 hours of physical yoga a day and investigate the yoga sutras as we learned about the history and theories of the practice.

It was around this time that I first fell in love with my body and what it could do. I wasn’t the strongest or the most flexible, but I found a grace in the vinyasa and a groundedness in in the body work and breath practices.

This year, I was able to reconnect with one of my favourite yoga teachers as he started teaching close by. Richard is a dancer as well as yogi and it made sense to return to his classes as a way to compliment my dancing.

A typical yoga class with Richard looks something like this –

gentle stretching to limber the joints and bring movement in the body

a series of sun salutations based on the traditional Surya Namaskar

a focus on a particular series of postures – one legged balances, hand balancing,inversions, seated twists, even the splits!

back strengthening and flex – including bow and wheel poses

shoulderstand and headstand sequences

Shavasana

These classes incorporate all three elements of a great workout – cardio (when performed with breath practice), strength, and stretching, and gives you space to assimilate it all as you rest in Shavasana (corpse pose) at the end. All of these can support your pole dancing, making you stronger, more flexible, and more balanced.

A stronger core? Check!
Back strengthening and flexibility? Check!
Shoulder openers? Check!
Hip openers? Check!
Awareness of how your body moves through space? Check!

It’s great to have a teacher who adds their own touch to the traditional yoga sequences too. Many pole dancers started pole as they found other forms of exercise too regimented and boring. Try to find a yoga teacher who will throw some surprises in there.

The benefits also go beyond just strength and flex training. A great class leaves me feeling like I had a great massage all over. The increase in circulation and movement across my upper back and shoulders is amazing therapy after a week of pole dancing. The focus on alignment also irons out the kinks caused by the one sided bias of pole dancing too.

Take a look at the yoga classes on offer in your area, or check out some of the free videos online. One of the great aspects of yoga philosophy is that many teachers believe it should be accessible to anyone, meaning there are a great range of free, or very cheap, options available.

Further Reading – Everything You Need to Know About Yoga and Pilates

Om Shanti!

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Mel Nutter as Baudelaire

Aerialist

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