Mel Nutter as Baudelaire

Aerialist

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Obsession – Fabric

October 26, 2015 /

fabricIt’s day 26 of the Miss Filly Pole Challenge, and she has asked about #FrillsandThrills – “What’s the most extravagant thing that you love to death?”

So .… I have a confession to make.

Aside from making my own costumes, designing, sewing, and sequinning …  I have a fabric obsession!

So much so that I have choreographed four routines that directly involve dancing with fabric – lacy, long, stretchy, flowy, sensual, enveloping FABRIC!

 

fabric 2My most excessive was a 6m long piece of stretchy white lycra. The sheer size of the piece meant it was too large to train with properly at home, so I spent hours in the studio flying around at the top of the 4m poles, engrossed in making sails as it spun around underneath me.

 

JDPS Showcase - August 2013

 

Slightly out of the box, I also made a dark, stretchy, tube that wrapped myself and the pole inside. Inspired by an article from Lisa Faulkner for BodyBinds.  I wanted a way to impose limits on my movement, and thereby explore the possibilities of freedom within those limits. This is still one of my favourite routines to date, and I can’t wait to further explore this idea.

 

 

This year, I also created a beach routine for 5th Encore! Sydney Pole Show, where I used a large beach towel. And for Solotude, my burlesque inspired routine involved a fifties style, large, lacy, flowy night dress.

Maybe this is a sign I should get into silks, but I just love the way the fabric flows behind you on a spinning pole, highlighting your movements and exaggerating it’s meaning. I’m in heaven!

Have you ever danced with fabric?

Feel it, before you try and say it

August 23, 2015 /

feel itAs much as training for a showcase is fun, or prepping for a comp makes you incredibly motivated to smash your pole goals, sometimes I just like to turn the lights down and dance.

 

I have a pole playlist on my Spotify account that I return to again and again. A list of songs that I can put on and just flow. Some are fast, hip hop beats, others are slower, melodic, and sometimes instrumental. All of them ring true in someway, and reach a place in me, no matter how many times I hear them.

Last night I taped my freestyle, but didn’t really have any expectations that I’d be able to share anything from it worthwhile.

But then I really surprised myself.

Watching back, I saw a fluidity and grace that is often missing from my choreographed routines. A flow and sense of movement that comes from just being with the song.

There were no big tricks, I don’t even think I inverted. Just spins and floorwork that became amazingly cathartic and gave insight into how emotions could be represented in my dancing.

The pressures of a competition or performance night can shroud the flow and grace that comes from just moving and dancing.

Perhaps a way to overcome this is to freestyle to a piece of music for a while before laying down the chorey. To feel it before you try and say it.

Something to ponder.

Solotude Performance

July 4, 2015 /

IMG_20150628_203535Last 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 /

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*

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