Tagchoreography

How well do you know that pole trick?

martini croppedIt’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.

 

martini combo 1

 

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.

 

martini combo 2

 

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*

Solotude!

Solotude PosterWhen 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*