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Pole Dance Stories

Novelist Willa Cather once said, “There are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before.”

Then again, it has also been said that there are seven foundation stories from which every successful narrative known has been made.

Choreography can start from many places. You may have heard a song that you just have to dance to. Perhaps you’ve just invented the best combo, and you can visualize it on stage as the climax to a routine. Alternatively, I have often felt with no place to start but a competition or showcase on the horizon that requires me to put something together. In each of these cases, choosing a focus on a story, rather than just a theme or character, may help you construct a fluid routine that has the potential not just to impress but to take your audience on a memorable journey.

If you are looking for inspiration for your next routine, perhaps some insight into the structure of stories could help you. Before or after you choose your song, adding story elements to your performance will ensure that you are engaging the audience from many angles. In my experience, pole dance routines with stories also tend to be appealing to non-pole dancers. The performance becomes more of a show and offers the audience something to understand and relate to when they are unfamiliar with the nature of pole dance.

I outline each of the seven plots below (as described by Christopher Booker in his book The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories, 2004) with reference to pop culture examples to help you understand how each is different. Under each example are some points about how the plot could form a container for a rich and meaningful pole dance routine.

1. Overcoming the Monster – The protagonist sets out to defeat an antagonistic force (often evil) which threatens the protagonist and/or protagonist’s homeland.

Examples: James Bond, Attack on Titan, The Hunger Games, Harry Potter, and Shrek, David and Goliath.

This can work well as a doubles or group routine, allowing for dynamic interplay between two or more characters. Costumes and characters here can be diverse, ranging from simple contrasting colours (white vs black), to actors based on real stories themselves.

2. Rags to Riches – The poor protagonist acquires things such as power, wealth, and a mate, before losing it all and gaining it back upon growing as a person.

Examples: Cinderella, Aladdin, Jane Eyre, A Little Princess, Great Expectations

Such a narrative may require props and effective costuming to help support the messages conveyed to the audience. When done well, and with familiar characters, it is possible for the props to “fill in the gaps” allowing you to emphasise just one part of the story over another, avoiding the trap of feeling like you need to fit an entire fairy tale into a 3 minute routine!

3. The Quest – The protagonist and some companions set out to acquire an important object or to get to a location, facing many obstacles and temptations along the way.

Examples: Iliad, Watership Down, The Lord of the Rings, The Land Before Time, One Piece, Indiana Jones

Consider how the music could add a sense of struggle followed by triumph. The poses and shapes chosen by the dancer would also emphasise challenges and then success. When telling this story, the obstacles and temptations would form the bulk of the routine, while the final success would offer the audience a sense of relief. How could the audience feel like they were on the journey with you?

4. Voyage and Return – The protagonist goes to a strange land and, after overcoming the threats it poses to him or her, returns with experience.

Examples: Odyssey, Alice in Wonderland, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, The Hobbit, Gone with the Wind, Chronicles of Narnia, Apollo 13, Labyrinth, Finding Nemo, Gulliver’s Travels, The Wizard of Oz

Try to choose one perspective when telling these types of stories. Or if you are in a group or performing as doubles, keep the elements simple and cut back. I’ve previously shared how much I love Kristy Sellars’ Alice in Wonderland routine. By adding the video projection she was able to share so much more about the journey and the narrative. We might not all be able to be so ambitious, so consider how less is more.

5. Comedy – Light and humorous character with a happy or cheerful ending; a dramatic work in which the central motif is the triumph over adverse circumstance, resulting in a successful or happy conclusion. Booker makes sure to stress that comedy is more than humor. It refers to a pattern where the conflict becomes more and more confusing, but is at last made plain in a single clarifying event. Most romances fall into this category.

Examples: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, Twelfth Night, Bridget Jones Diary, Sliding Doors, Mr. Bean

 

Pole Comedy can be hard to accomplish. There are many moves, tricks, and poses that can be dramatised in a funny way, but make sure your performance also has a sense of triumph over struggle so it is more than just goofy dancing.

 

 

6. Tragedy – The protagonist is a hero with one major character flaw or great mistake which is ultimately their undoing. Their unfortunate end evokes pity at their folly and the fall of a fundamentally ‘good’ character.

Examples: Macbeth, Bonnie and Clyde, Anna Karenina, Madame Bovary, Romeo and Juliet, Breaking Bad, Hamlet

This could be a simple as a lyrical or contemporary based routine that captures the emotion of the tragedy. This story line can be a good starting place for those wishing to put more meaning into their routines, or who find energy from an event that has happened in their personal life.

 

7. Rebirth – During the course of the story, an important event forces the main character to change their ways, often making them a better person.

Examples: Beauty and the Beast, The Snow Queen, A Christmas Carol, The Secret Garden, Despicable Me, How the Grinch Stole Christmas

In my mind, this is a more refined version of the “Comedy”, “Voyage and Return” and “Rags to Riches” stories. However, the turning point of the story may happen earlier so within the performance you have more time to express the ideas of the rebirth.


Hopefully these story ideas have inspired you to consider a new routine or have helped you flesh out a previous idea to turn it into a full show! No matter what story plot you choose, remember these key points:

  • Your story needs to be understandable to your audience, which may require that you use props or settings to help them follow the plot.
  • Think about how your costume can also work as a prop to help convey your story. Do you take off something, reveal something new, or change entirely as your character evolves?
  • Many of the familiar fairy tale stories have been done before – think Alice in Wonderland, Snow White, Cinderella. This is not to say that you should avoid these topics, they are done again and again because they translate so well! Perhaps think about how you can add to the story, or present it in a different way. Instead of playing the character of Snow White, how would the story look from the Evil Witch’s perspective? Maybe you are the prince, searching for Cinderella after she loses her shoe?
  • Your performance does not need to tell the entire tale. In three to five minutes this would be a huge undertaking. Choose part of the story that is manageable, and add on with props and costumes that fill in the rest of the narrative for your audience.
  • Make sure you sustain your character throughout your floorwork, transitions, and pole tricks. If you can’t do the trick in character take it out, and choose to maintain the mood and integrity of the performance as a whole. Pole champion Irmingard Mayar warns, pole dancers “can be 100% engaged when off the pole, but as soon as they take their movement into the air they shift to robotic trick-mode” which jars and stops the flow of the story.

 

I’d love to hear your thoughts about pole dance and story telling. Comment below, or tag me in your ideas on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram!

The Best of the Best!

Great pole dance is often so subjective. A dancer’s choice of song, their style, heels no heels etc etc. Some performances strike a chord depending on when you saw it and what else might have been going on in your life. Occasionally, there are standout favourites that everyone agrees upon, and each dancer usually has their own personal treasures that they revisit time and time again.

 

As I get ready to release my own February Favourites (for all subscribers!), I found time to reflect on my favourite performances from the pole world from last year.

I love the innovation in these routines. The dancer’s ability to turn themselves inside out on the pole, not just in a flexi way, but in a way that expresses creativity and understanding of poses to link them together in a new way. I love seeing old tricks put together in new ways. And I especially love a dancer who expresses a new sense of musicality, hitting beats and finding flow in a way that draws you in, silencing everything else around you as you watch!

If you are still adding pole goals to your list for 2017, perhaps these routines will give you inspiration to think outside the box.

 

Natalia Tatarintseva – I stopped watching a lot of pole dance from the Ukraine and Russia, feeling overwhelmed by their gymnast bodies and apparent mastery of flexi tricks. Then I saw Natalia Tatarintseva who blew me away with her innovation and dance style. I love her use of the prop as well, integrating it into her spins and tricks! Prepare to watch in awe!

 

Elizabeth Gerrard and Nicola Burke – As well as being incredibly in sync, these girls offer new twists on old combos. All coupled with great connection and expression which helps tell the story of their performance. I love their simple gestures emphasised by musical beats.

 

Ke Hong – This guy has amazing flow, grace, and strength. And OMG his pointed toes! I love the drama of pole dance to classical and orchestral music. I’ll be watching what this guy does in the coming year.

 

Kristy Sellars – For all those polers who were hiding under a rock in 2016, Kristy Sellars changed the game in pole dancing forever! After her “Alice in Wonderland” performance, she created “The Abduction”, a collaboration of dance, visual effects, and amazing imagination! I love to share this routine with people who are not pole dancers. It really brings the art to the world stage and sets a new standard for the possibilities of pole dance.

 

Did I miss anyone? Who were your favourites from 2016? And who do you have your eye on for this year?

Let me know on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter and continue the conversation!

Self Awareness

JDPS Showcase March 2014

Last month I saw a video of Jamilla Deville interviewed by The Pole Dancing Chronicles. Sharing pole tips is a fairly common Q&A, most pole dancers offering advice that falls into a few typical categories –

 

These are all very practical tips, some of which I have written about on this blog too! But Jamilla is not just a pole dancer. She is an artist and her entire lifestyle is focused on training, body practices, health, and performance.

So, what was her pole tip you ask? She states,

“Pole is all about being aware of what your own body is doing … the more you grow as a pole athlete or artist the more you become self aware”

Self awareness can take many forms. There is spatial related self awareness, involving the knowledge and feeling of where your limbs and body are in space. Upside-down, hanging from one leg, finding your foot with your hand behind your body, it is obvious why self awareness in this sense is important when pole dancing.

There is also body related self awareness. How do you use your body to convey an idea? Showgirls and dancers have lots of practice in using their body to engage the audience. Hand gestures, facial expressions, eye contact, the poses and shapes chosen by a dancer, all support stage presence and the overall impact of a performance.

Let me also suggest that you may cultivate self awareness of the mind, through pole dancing just like any form of performance art or body practice.

Self awareness is defined as
“conscious knowledge of one’s own character, feelings, motives, and desires”

I recently shared some insight into my choreography process, explaining how I use material from my own experience as inspiration for concepts and performances. In this way pole dancing, and choreography creation, is like a reflection tool, helping you to unpack your thoughts and feelings about an event, reaching a resolution or a state of deeper understanding.

Embedding your dance with meaning and making conscious decisions about what to add or leave out, is similar to the process of any artist (painter, writer, photographer, sculptor etc) that fosters greater self awareness. You find a way to share a feeling, motive, or desire, through the medium of expression.

This process may also reveal broader ideas such as why you choose pole dance as your medium of expression. Does it stimulate a feeling or desire, or a character within yourself that you wish to express?

Asking yourself these questions can reveal some insightful ideas that may inspire a new performance piece, or a whole new direction in your training. For those seeking authentic expression and a sense of fulfillment, the act of fostering self awareness can be creatively satisfying too.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on self awareness or how pole dance offers you avenues for growth. Comment here or tag me on Facebook!

Inspired by Anais Nin – Part 3: Material

“too great an emphasis on technique arrests naturalness. The material from which I will create comes from living from the personality, from experience, adventures, voyages. This natural flow of riches comes first. The technique is merely a way to organise the flow, to chisel, shape; but without the original flow from deep inner riches of material, everything withers”
The Journals of Anais Nin – Volume Four.

There is so much I love about this quote. Anais Nin is not a dancer, but her words speak to every artist. This is the final post in a three part series that unpacked each of Anais Nin’s ideas and how it relates to artistic expression, including pole dancing.

I think sometimes pole dancers forget to see themselves as artists. We’re told by the media and social memes that we are strong, empowered women. That we are athletes, stronger than our counterparts. We need sass, attitude, and if people don’t listen we’ll just bust out a move and prove them wrong.

Just like other creative endeavours pole dance is a form of expression, in your lounge room or on the stage. Just like a painter, photographer, writer, or singer, a pole dancer is expressing part of themselves. It feels good and that’s why we keep doing it! At the heart of the matter, we are not in it for the likes, nor to show off in the gym when we can do more pull ups than the guys. Our intentions when dancing come from within. We are artists and dancers, and shouldn’t be afraid to take that seriously.


“The material from which I will create comes from living from the personality, from experience, adventures, voyages.”

As I begin to write this post I sit looking at a vista. The lake a calm blanket of blue after a few days of rough winds, the birds chirping and playing in the Spring time sun. It is so quiet, my tapping on the keys seems to interrupt the air in the room. A paradox of time and space, that I finally have time to sit and write, but the space is begging for me to just enjoy the view.
Wangi Wangi

My partner and I are house sitting, a stepping stone on an adventure of a life time. Last month I quit my job and we sold most of our belongings. We have been together for 12 years and although being attached to our routines and habits, and many pieces of furniture and knickknacks, it is time to take stock and see what else the world can bring. Sydney has been great to both of us. I have a strong supportive pole community and space to perform a few times per year. Lee has been able to create an amazing portfolio of photographic work and meet hundreds of inspiring models and artists. But Sydney is also draining our creative energy. The cost and lifestyle sadly no longer contribute to our vision for the future and so it is time to move on.

Anais Nin, the author of the quote above, was a writer. She traveled for a long time with Henry Miller, one of her lovers and a fellow author and artist. She says, “The material from which I will create comes from living from the personality, from experience, adventures, voyages. This natural flow of riches comes first.”

My choreography and performances also emerge from my personality, experiences, adventures and voyages. A few months ago I wrote a playful post using all the titles of the songs I have danced too. It was a humorous reflection on five years of dancing, but it really reminded me of how much each piece was an expression of a moment in my life.

(Remember at the beginning of this series where I said that pole dancers shouldn’t be afraid to take themselves seriously? yeah, that)

In 2012 I was training with Jamilla Deville at the Art of Pole Studios in Sydney. We were preparing for a showcase and I was with just one other student and Jamilla in an open play practice time. After running the combos and reviewing my choreography on my own, Jamilla asked if I would like to dance the whole piece while Donna and her watched. My dance was full of nerves and not very polished but the song offered time for pauses and allowed me to stay inside myself. My final pose was a swan, a kind of pole sit where you lean your torso around the front of the pole, laying over your legs. The music finished and I reconnected with Jamilla and Donna who were smiling and praising my efforts. Before I had even dismounted the pole, Jamilla said, “Thank you for sharing your dance with us” – a statement acknowledging the intimacy of the moment while also acknowledging the exchange – “sharing your dance with us” – sharing a part of me with you.

After Solotude 3, I had a few people ask about my inspiration for my choreography, wondering where my sometimes ‘out of the box’ ideas come from. The answer was simple, but probably deeper than most want to realise. It comes from the same place that Anais Nin talks about.

amelie hermitude duo

I have danced to French composer Yann Tiersen (J’y suis Jamias Alle) pictured left,     choosing the piece after returning from a trip to Paris. Frayed by Hermitude, pictured right, was a routine that came together while I was working through some personal issues, in addition to having torn a hamstring. Pole dance was healing.

Sometimes a piece works in a cathartic way, while other times a dance is simply an unpacking of thoughts about an experience. Next time you are creating a dance piece consider your intentions behind your movement. You may have lost someone recently and that may inspire a whole new way to express your emotional energy. You can find inspiration in new relationships even those as fleeting as a snippet of conversation from waiting in line for coffee. Isadora Duncan used nature, her observations of palm fronds swaying in the wind, inspiring new movement possibilities.

When I choose a song for my choreography I find an artist who has also created something that will compliment or emphasise what I am expressing. The eventual choreography is then an interplay with what I feel I need to convey and how the song already says part or all of it.

“The material from which I will create comes from living…”

And so my partner and I have started a process to keep on living. Moving away from the squeeze of Sydney we are setting off to Cambodia, landing in Phnom Penh at the end of September.

I will still be dancing and writing, but the form it takes will be inspired by our new landscape, friends, adventures, and all the riches of an ancient culture. I have goals to work on my flexibility, hoping the weather will work in my favour to always be warm enough to stretch. I am also open, however, to see what happens! I’ve been working full time now for more than 12 years am excited to stop the snowballing effect of debt and obligations, and open my mind to learning new things.

What will pole dance look like in Cambodia? I’m not sure yet. There are multiple studios in neighbouring Thailand and Vietnam which I am excited to be able to drop in to, but it’s an exciting prospect to be able to see what comes up and find new inspiration in another culture, a new lifestyle, and a new community.

ស្នាក់នៅបត់បែន

🙂

Inspired by Anais Nin – Part 2: Naturalness

“too great an emphasis on technique arrests naturalness. The material from which I will create comes from living from the personality, from experience, adventures, voyages. This natural flow of riches comes first. The technique is merely a way to organise the flow, to chisel, shape; but without the original flow from deep inner riches of material, everything withers”
The Journals of Anais Nin – Volume Four.

There is so much I love about this quote. Anais Nin is not a dancer, but her words speak to every artist. This is the second part of a three part series, unpacking this quote and talking about it in relation to pole dancing – to pole practice, to performance, to training, to choreography, and to expression.

I think sometimes poledancers forget to see themselves as artists. We’re told by the media and social memes that we are strong, empowered women. That we are athletes, stronger than our counterparts. We need sass, attitude, and if people don’t listen we’ll just bust out a move and prove them wrong.

Just like other creative endeavours pole dance is a form of expression, in your lounge room or on the stage. Just like a painter, photographer, writer, or singer, a pole dancer is expressing part of themselves. It feels good and that’s why we keep doing it! At the heart of the matter, we are not in it for the likes, nor to show off in the gym when we can do more pull ups than the guys. Our intentions when dancing come from within. We are artists and dancers, and shouldn’t be afraid to take that seriously.


Solotude 2

At the beginning of the quote Anais Nin suggests:

“too great an emphasis on technique arrests naturalness”

Last month I talked about the importance of strong technique in creating flow. And yet, “too great an emphasis on technique arrests naturalness”. Is Anais Nin contradicting herself? Far from it! I believe this sentence actually reinforces the ideas I spoke about in the first article.

Without technique, obviously your dance and your art is going to be stunted. We need to know how to invert safely, engage throughout a pose, and extend through our limbs to create elegant lines.

But dance is not just about lines, shapes, extensions, and poses. It is about feeling.

Movements such as Finding Your Freestyle, I feel, are trying to recapture this “naturalness”. As opposed to emphasising tricks and the latest trends, this movement encourages dancers to feel the music and explore what comes naturally. It is always worthwhile filming your freestyles. Small hand gestures or new transitions come out of just letting our bodies respond to the music. Your hand might find your foot in a new shape, or after a pirouette you might find yourself continuing the flow and emerge in a whole new spin.

I have had many conversations with pole dancers who find they get so bored watching gymnastic pole routines. These performances are an amazing display of strength and flexibility, but with so much emphasis on technique there is often no intention to create meaning in their dance. In fact, their routines often have little reference to dance at all, the music simply being a backing track with no effort towards musicality or creating a mood for the audience.

Returning to Anais Nin’s words – their emphasis on technique has “arrested” their “naturalness”.

There is a lot of debate in the pole community over labels such as “pole fitness” and “pole dance”, and many women and men feel strongly about only labeling what they do one way or another. I don’t want to offend anyone by saying that the way they pole dance is right or wrong. If you joined the pole community for fitness reasons, to workout, and be strong, that’s awesome! If your intention is to dance, however, then truly dance.

Find that space where you flow, use your technique as a tool to express your emotions and ideas. Make it feel natural, not stiff and ridged, and bring the dance back into pole dance.


Read on…

Part 3:
“The material from which I will create comes from living from the personality, from experience, adventures, voyages.”

Inspired by Anais Nin – Part 1: “Organised Flow”

“too great an emphasis on technique arrests naturalness. The material from which I will create comes from living from the personality, from experience, adventures, voyages. This natural flow of riches comes first. The technique is merely a way to organise the flow, to chisel, shape; but without the original flow from deep inner riches of material, everything withers”
The Journals of Anais Nin – Volume Four.

 

There is so much I love about this quote! Anais Nin is not a dancer, but her words speak to every artist. Over the next few weeks I want to break down this quote and talk about it in relation to pole dancing – to pole practice, to performance, to training, to choreography, and to expression.

I think sometimes pole dancers forget to see themselves as artists. We’re told by the media and social memes that we are strong, empowered women. That we are athletes, stronger than our counterparts. We need sass, attitude, and if people don’t listen we’ll just bust out a move and prove them wrong.

Just like other creative endeavours pole dance is a form of expression, in your lounge room or on the stage. Just like a painter, photographer, writer, or singer, a pole dancer is expressing part of themselves. It feels good and that’s why we keep doing it! At the heart of the matter, we are not in it for the likes, nor to show off in the gym when we can do more pull ups than the guys. Our intentions when dancing come from within. We are artists and dancers, and shouldn’t be afraid to take that seriously.


Solotude 3

What first stood out for me in this quote was the line,

“The technique is merely a way to organise the flow”

To articulate this I’ll use an example from a pole class. In the studio our instructor was teaching us a combo – inside leg hang, through tammy, to elbow grip, to some kind of elbow grip split thing that we couldn’t decide if it had a name. It is an advanced move and required lots of trust through your elbow grip and commitment to the momentum of the spin. But many of us trying to learn the move kept breaking down into it’s individual components, and we all became stuck at various points unable to complete the combo.

Our instructor reiterated,
“it isn’t move, move, move, move, hold. Your arm and leg come around at the same time, hook the elbow as the hips sink out, bring the leg down, split. It’s all one action”.
She made it just flow. It wasn’t the final pose that she wanted us to achieve, it was the entire movement.

This instructor has impeccable technique. She even did the combo on her other side, always a good training tip! Back to the quote, her “technique is merely a way to organise the flow”. In other words, her solid technique allowed it flow, and our failed attempts at the move highlighted gaps in our own technique. For me, I lack trust in my elbow grip.

The individual tricks had become so natural, that our instructor could focus on how they flow together, creating a seamless progression with no stop-starts or jerky moments of uncertainty.

So what do we take from this? How do we find that place of “organised flow”?

I think it starts with trust, in our bodies, our skills, and our strengths. It takes persistence and determination to ensure our technique is solid and not just a series of happy accidents. It also takes intention. Our intention as pole dancer should not be just to nail the latest trick and move on. Our transitions, combos, poses, and tricks are just part of repertoire we use to create art.


Read on ….

Part 2
“too great an emphasis on technique arrests naturalness”