It’s Not Pole Dance, It’s…

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It's Not Pole Dance, It's...As Pole dance has evolved into new popularity across the world it has been given an array of different titles including polenastics, pole art, pole fitness and pole sport. While I welcome innovative thinking from business owners and events teams, I wonder why the general cohort of students are trying so hard to move away from the title “pole dance”. I can see how business owners are using these titles as a unique selling point to attract more customers and I think they are pretty smart to do so. Specific to pole competitors I can understand the use of pole sport as a term to describe their competitive activity because that is what sport is; an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment. Similarly, if you attend a pole class designed with the same specificity as a regular fitness program, the label pole fitness is also relevant. However, more often than not, the pole students / performers who are changing the name from pole dance to something else are not doing any of the above. They are simply learning / choreographing dance with the inclusion of a pole. (more…)

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What Influences Choreography?

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What Influences ChoreographyWhat can influence choreography? Everything, is the simple answer to that question. Everything and anything can influence movement and the way it is arranged which is why I’m so sure that there are no wrong answers in choreography. If there was, then we would have to assume that everybody who creates dance has seen and experienced the same things with the same eyes and body. Obviously this is not the case, we are individuals, and even though we might experience the same event or emotions, we handle and perceive them in different ways. (more…)

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4 Benefits of Pole Dance

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4 Benefits of Pole DanceAfter teaching so much pole dance over the last couple of weeks I have really been able to see what a difference it makes to the people who attend class. Oftentimes people come to class after a hard day or a long week at work and are usually feeling quite tired and unmotivated. However, this soon changes and they end up leaving with a gleaming smile that fills the room. As a teacher I find it amazing to see such a large shift in small space of time. It amazes me and fills me with joy every time I see a beginner climb to the top of the pole or if someone nails a new move that they have been working on. Whilst a happy smiley face is an advantage in itself, pole dancing can offer other benefits including variety of training, psychological and physical wellbeing and boosted self-confidence. (more…)

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Solo Dance and Business

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Solo Dance and BusinessSolo work is much like being an entrepreneur and running your own business. You are the business and are thus responsible for everything that happens throughout your performance. The choreography, the training, the level of rehearsals, the music choice, the costume etc. Each of those aspects contribute to the final work as employers would contribute to the various tasks that it takes to run a business. Through experience, I know many dancers who would prefer to be told what to do and how to do it. This is similar to people who don’t have that entrepreneurial voice inside of them, they are happy working really hard for someone else. Although I love both, I do find that there are many benefits to working alone and being the chief decision maker. Let’s have look at a few similarities of solo dance work and business. (more…)

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How To Take Pole Dance Seriously

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How To Take Pole Dance SeriouslyFor those of you that don’t know, I am a professional dancer and choreographer who works mainly in contemporary dance. I am working, as a performer, on a project at the moment that is portraying existing art such as paintings, sculptures and pictures as embodied art. What I mean by embodied art is how we, as performers, or as choreographers creating on other bodies, see the image art work in real life on real bodies. How can art be received in a completely different light when it is right in front of you on real bodies, as oppose to the original work itself? Being a chorepgraher in pole dance too, I can’t help but wonder how many subjects could be embodied through pole dance, or if it’s possible with what is being taught in the pole dance industry today. (more…)

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Dance is a Personal Art Form

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Dance is a Personal Art FormAfter doing some online judging for Yorkshire Pole Dance Championships I have been inspired to write this post because of how these girls really show themselves through movement. I haven’t met any of them and I don’t know if we have anything in common, other than dance, but I feel like I know each of them in some small way because of the movement I have seen them perform. Their song choice, how they engage with the audience, how their movement expands or closes. Dance is very personal, especially for us solo performers who pour out our thoughts through our dance works, we show how we see the world and we make decisions on how we would like the world to see us. So I have to agree with Jiri Kilyian, choreographer, who says that “dance is the most personal art form”. (more…)

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