But, really, it doesn’t matter how advanced a pole dancer you are, you can do a great pole dance. Really.
Here are the five things you need to do it:
1. Smooth Transitions
This may surprise you, but, to me, transitions are the most important part of a pole dance. They connect the moves, they give the sensuality, and they are a great place in which to convey mood.
Luckily, there are many, many transitions that are easy for beginners to master. Think of graceful pivots, smooth turns and pirouettes around the pole. Think about sensual ways to move beside the pole, and transition from floor back to standing.
A standard part of any pole dance workout should be the transitions – not only because they are beautiful, but because they need to be second nature. You need to learn to move with the pole naturally, without having to think about it. When you practice transitions, you learn the ways your body can fit around the pole and how to move with it. This allows you to improvise more easily during a performance, and that’s a huge help should you ever confuse your footing or get off balance.
Most important of all, a good transition puts the perfect finishing touch on a dazzling pole move. There’s nothing worse than seeing a beautiful move followed by a lousy transition – it makes the entire dance thud to a stop.
2. Dance Ability
This one is actually related a lot to doing transitions, because, if you stop to think about it, transitions are really all about dancing when you’re not on the pole. So, you can either learn how to dance without using the pole and translate that into your transitions, or you can learn a huge array of transitions and you will find you can dance beautifully. It all feeds together.
But, no matter how you do it, you still need to be able to dance. It may sound odd, but being able to dance in pole dancing is more important to an audience than being able to do a bunch of extraordinary moves. Dance ability will tie simple moves together gorgeously.
3. Moves You Can Do Well
Here’s where we get to the pole moves. When you workout, you can do whatever moves you like – and you should. That’s your time for practicing and learning new things. For a performance, though, you want to focus on what you know how to do really well. That’s because you want your movements to seem effortless on stage – and that’s not possible until you’ve mastered the move itself.
So, choose moves for a performance that you already know and that you can do very well. Sure, if you have time to prepare, you can work in a new move – but have a backup plan. If the day of the show arrives and you still can’t do it reliably, scrap it. Better to dance at a less advanced level than look clunky at a higher one.
4. Appropriate Music
And, no, I don’t mean music with no sexual content. (Where would be the fun in that?) Here I’m talking about music being appropriate to your skill level. Some music is really hard to pole to – it can be very, very fast and you can’t keep up with it, or it can be very, very slow and you can’t do your moves with sufficient control to match the pace.
Be selective with your music – it’s not enough to like it; you have to be able to move with it. When it speeds up, you need to be able to speed up. When it gets slow and sensuous, you need to be able to hold your moves to that rhythm.
5. Safe Technique
No one can pole dance beautifully if their shoulder is coming out of socket. Learn to hold your body in the correct position and all your moves will show the benefit of it. This includes listening to your body and taking rests when needed – your body can’t build muscle or gain flexibility if you’re too tired. And safe technique also means looking for a pole dance teacher who knows how to teach you proper conditioning. Good technique begins with good training.
A Sure-Fire Crowd Pleaser
There you have it – the five essentials to any good pole dance performance. With these in your repertoire, you’ll be sure to steal the show!
***
Looking for an old blog post? Or something on your favorite topic? Find old posts by category in the “Best of” links in the lower right sidebar. Or just type what you’re looking for in the Search, then scroll down until you find exactly what you want!
Usually, you’ll find two types of stripping in pole dancing. Either you have professional strippers, who often aren’t really stripping at all – they’re just dancing naked (or near enough). Or, you have pole dancers who start out with a little flirtatious bit of striptease, then instantly lose the flirt and get on the pole.
I want to focus on the latter, because I find their approach is tied into a few odd stripping myths that come into play in pole dancing. So, permit me if you will, to address them here:
Myth #1: Costumes are a nuisance.
Um, no, they’re not. They can actually add a ton of pizazz to your performance. That would be why so many performing artists like to wear them. They only become a nuisance when the costume isn’t suited to your routine. And there’s this thing called REHEARSAL to let you adjust for that ahead of time.
Honestly, I think costumes get a bad rap in pole because there’s such a focus on advanced moves. The thing is, there are plenty of ways to do costumes without them getting in your way. Cirque de Soleil, which you may have heard of, does a lot with costuming, and they have even been known to do an aerial stunt. Or two.
Myth #2: You can’t do anything on a pole with a costume on, or you will actually die.
Good lord. Where does this come from? It’s like urban legends for pole dancers. Yet this myth seems to be the main reason why any costume you ever do see on a pole dancer comes off in the first five seconds.
So, let me spell this out for you: you can wear a costume AND be on the pole AND not die AND still:
Spin.
Ah, spins. Remember those? Have you ever noticed how audiences love spins – how they ooh and aah as if they were watching a fireworks display? That’s because spins are beautiful. They are also easy to do with a wide variety of costuming. In fact, beautiful costuming can make spins even more glorious. (Think boas, veils, and trailing scarves.)
Do inverts and holds.
Yes, I said inverts. And holds. Okay, so maybe you can’t do every invert or hold in the world in every costume you can think up, but you can probably do a few. And I bet they’ll look really cool.
So, if you’re wearing a costume with a skirt that doesn’t give you a lot of inner thigh grip, nix on the Superman, but try a lovely Scorpio or Butterfly.
Do handstands.
Handstands are a great way to show off your gymnastic ability while not worrying so much about costume mishaps. You could probably even manage some handstand maneuvers while wearing gloves. Not saying I could, mind you, but I bet you could. So practice a few things and see what you think up.
Myth #3: Stripping is about what’s under your clothes.
It pains me that this even needs to be said. No, no, no, no, nooooo.
Stripping is short for striptease. TEASE. That means you play with the idea of taking off your clothes – but you don’t do it. At least, not all at once.
Now, I understand that in the clubs it really has a lot to do with being naked or thereabouts. I get that. Heck, if I’m paying for a lapdance I want to see some flesh, too.
The thing is, when you’re giving a pole performance outside a club, they are not paying for a lapdance (unless it’s a lap class and you’re giving a recital, but that’s a whole other post). They are paying for the show, and that means a little razzle dazzle.
Frankly, the reason this is even an issue has a lot to do with myth #2 about costumes killing you. Most dancers figure best to just get the costume off quickly and not risk it.
Unfortunately, that profoundly diminishes the fun of the show.
How to Strip While Pole Dancing
To remedy this situation, I now present to you a quick primer on stripping for pole:
Wear a costume with some layers.
A top and skirt. A trenchcoat. A hat. A veil. Whatever you choose, give yourself something to take off.
Dance at the beginning of your show just to display your costuming.
That means, not to take it off – rather, to show it off. Flounce your boa. Twirl the belt on your coat. Slide your finger up the slit of your skirt. And, oh, yes, DANCE. Don’t just do moves – dance.
Take your costume off, piece by piece, throughout your performance.
THROUGHOUT your performance. That means I don’t want to see you starkers five seconds into your song. Yes, I grant you, very gymnastic routines may require some time stripped down to the bare essentials, but even then, there is plenty of time for dancing while removing parts of your costume. The longer you delay, the more of a rise you get out of the audience (you may read into that what you will).
Integrate the clothing removal into the pole moves.
There’s no law saying you can’t remove an article of clothing just because you’re already on the pole. And there’s nothing so annoying as a dancer who seems to race through the striptease – as if her costume were some grand annoyance – just to get to the “real” part of the show. Your show is your show – either integrate it all, or don’t do anything extra to begin with.
To rehash …
Costumes are fun.
They won’t kill you.
Stripping isn’t about being naked.
So, please, work a little striptease into your pole dance, and see what fun you have!
***
Looking for an old blog post? Or something on your favorite topic? Find old posts by category in the “Best of” links in the lower right sidebar. Or just type what you’re looking for in the Search, then scroll down until you find exactly what you want!
Most dancers make the mistake of thinking the audience’s role is to watch the performance.
Not so.
The audience’s role is to go on an emotional journey with the dancer.
Not the use of the word “with” in that last sentence. The audience is there to be transported and awed; they want to feel and they want to let you take them into those feelings. They aren’t merely watching; they are invested in what you are bringing to the stage and they are eager to see you do well.
Myth #2: The Audience is the Enemy
It is really easy to fall into the habit of worrying that the audience won’t like you. This is a major issue for dancers dealing with stage fright. They start thinking that the audience is there to judge them, to critique them.
Not so.
The Reality of the Audience
In truth, the audience is on your side from the start. Sure, there will be the occasional oddballs causing problems, but they are rare. In the vast majority of situations – even including an audience made of dance critics – the audience is hoping that you dance beautifully and wants to do whatever they can to help you do so.
Think back for a second to a time when you’ve watched someone dancing who was uncomfortable. Didn’t your heart go out to them? Didn’t you wish more than anything that you could reassure them?
Human being are social creatures and it is god-awful uncomfortable to feel we are causing someone social pain. Audiences don’t want to be the source of that pain for you.
How to Use the Audience
The next time you pole in front of people, whether just for a friend or before a large group, get yourself in the mindset that the audience is there for you. That they are delighted to see you dance and are jumping at the chance to love what you do.
Lose the worry about them not liking you. Lose the fear that you have to be perfect. Let go of any beliefs standing in the way of your trust in the audience.
Reach out to them, and they will reach out to you.
A Prima Ballerina’s View on the Audience
This point was brought home beautifully in an interview I read this week on BalletBlog.net. I like to follow this blog – some of it applies to pole, some of it doesn’t, but it’s always helpful to me to hear the experiences of other dancers.
This week, they posted an interview with Irina Dvorovenko of the American Ballet Theater. It’s worth listening to. She talks about two key aspects of stage presence – one, how she fits the emotional aspects of dance into her preparation. The emotion after the moves, but not as an afterthought – as an essential part of her process and her performance.
Then she talks about her connection with the audience.
It’s a brief reference at around 4:55, but I find it very telling. She discusses how her connection with the audience gets her performance off to the right start – how that bond is something she feels from the beginning, when she first steps out on stage.
Rather than seeing the audience as something to be danced at, she reaches out emotionally to them, and trusts that they will be there for her.
It is within that connection that she begins her dance.
And it is within that connection that you should begin yours.
***
Update: Good news!! PoleSkivvies pole dance tanks are available for this holiday season!
Early orders are currently being taken, although the tanks won’t ship until mid-December. As soon as I have more details, I’ll post them on the tank page. Orders will be shipped on a first come, first served basis, so get yours while you can!
***
Looking for an old blog post? Or something on your favorite topic? Find old posts by category in the “Best of” links in the lower right sidebar. Or just type what you’re looking for in the Search, then scroll down until you find exactly what you want!
No two pole dancers are alike. Given the same music, the same pole, even identical costumes, each dancer will create a dance absolutely unique to her. Even better, given free rein, that unique style will shine through even stronger.
But how do you find that personal style in your own dancing? How can you bring that individual pizazz to your own work on the pole?
Try Spinny and Static Poles
From the very first class, newbie pole dancers are usually presented with only one kind of pole to practice on. Most often, that’s a static pole, but some classes prefer teaching on spinny right from the start. Both types of poles are great, but they tend to create a different type of movement, and if you train on only one, you never get the chance to see if the other type is a better fit for you.
What to do?
Many poles come with a static and spinny option. Ask your instructor if any of the poles in your studio have that option, and if you can try dancing on both. If your studio doesn’t have any with this option, you can get a pole of your own that does.
If you’re used to static poles, be sure to condition yourself properly before switching to spinny, and make sure you are using correct grip and posture. Pole dancing on spinny takes more strength.
If you’re used to spinny poles, you may find you need to alter your grip. Static poles require a hand hold that allows you to grip while still letting your hand move around the pole.
Try Different Styles of Dance
Pole dancing isn’t just what you learn in class, it’s also what you bring to class. Whether you studied gymnastics as a kid or took hip-hop in college, it is all there inside of you, waiting to be brought to life when you pole.
There are also a lot of different varieties of pole dance. Some studios are very focused on learning aerial moves, while others emphasize the transitions and flow; the level of sexiness in the style will also vary considerably from place to place.
What to do?
Sign up for a class in ballet, hip-hop, or any other style that intrigues you.
Go to a pole workshop taught by an instructor you haven’t studied with before.
Hang out at a salsa club – and come early in case they offer a free lesson!
The more you try, the more you learn, and the more you have to incorporate into your style. You may be surprised to find that you prefer a different style than you thought you would!
Give Yourself Freedom to Explore
Sometimes we are our own worst enemy. We can be so sure of how things are that we can’t let ourselves see how things might be. We can be so convinced we can’t look sexy that we don’t even try – even when, secretly, we really want to. Or, we may have it in our heads that we are too old or too uncoordinated to push ourselves where we most want to go. These attitudes can hold us back when nothing else would.
What to do?
Tell yourself every day that you can change direction any time you choose.
Talk to your instructor about routines and exercises to help you achieve your goal.
Ask your classmates and friends for encouragement.
Sometimes when we hold ourselves back, it can be because of underlying issues and fears. If that’s your situation, seeing a counselor may be the best thing you could do for your pole dancing.
Dance Your Workouts
Finding your own style takes time, not only to learn the moves and transitions, but to figure out how to make it all come together as dance. Drilling a move will help you gain strength and practicing combinations will help you gain coordination, but to take all that and form it into a dance requires an extra push.
What to do?
Put on music and let yourself dance – without thinking what moves you “should” be doing.
Dance without stopping – all the way through an entire song.
Use only two or three moves in a song, so you learn to emphasize feeling and expression.
Pole workouts need to include time to practice dancing, in addition to practicing moves. Dancing is more than the sum of its parts, and it takes practice to bring it all together. Get in the habit of emphasizing dancing during your workouts, and your pole dancing will quickly reach a new level.
If you found this article helpful, you may also want to check out this one.
This past weekend was the Fourth of July, good old Independence Day in the US of A, a holiday celebrated with barbecues, lawn games, lots of hot dogs, and, most importantly, fireworks.
So last night, as I tried to comfort my wee canine beast who was cowering from the sound of the explosions, I started thinking about pole dance. Now this is hardly any surprise – I spend quite a bit of time thinking about pole dance, as you might imagine. And as you likely do, too. But, this time, my thoughts ran to how a good performance on the pole is exactly like a good fireworks display.
Think about it. There are three essentials in a good fireworks display. Three things that make them so amazing that we all stand around saying “ooh” and “aah” all night, no matter how many mosquitoes are feasting on us – and they are the exact same things you need to turn your pole dancing into something extraordinary.
1. Start with a Bang
A great fireworks display doesn’t start with some half-assed firecracker and a sparkler. Sure, there are the requisite practice runs, but no matter how distracted the crowd is, everybody there knows when the show begins. There’s no question which bangs are the warm-ups and which are the real deal. When the show starts, you can tell.
That’s how it should be with pole performance. I don’t mean an exhibition of pole moves (although those can be fun, too) – I mean a real performance, designed to make the audience sit up and take notice.
When you’re giving a performance, you structure your dance differently than you would if you were simply pole dancing for fun, and the first thing you need is a great first impression. Grab their attention, put ‘em on the edge of their seats. Give them no room to doubt that the show has started – and they better not miss it.
So, how do you make that great first impression?
Attitude
Start out strong. There’s a reason they call it “taking the stage.” Own it. You don’t need to be cocky, you don’t need to be aggressive – you don’t need to be anything in particular, at all. You just need to shine your personality for all to see. Whether your persona for that performance is sexy, sultry, playful, or sassy, strut your stuff on to that stage and make it clear that no one in their right mind would be looking at anything other than you.
Timing
When you start, move with the music – and be sure to choose something with a stunning opening phrase. It can be a loud explosion of sound, or a subtle, softer phrasing, but whatever you choose, it needs to be interesting enough to really move to, and you need to let yourself move with it. If you come out moving beautifully and expressively along with the music, all eyes will be on you.
Interaction
Unless you’ve choreographed a pole dance that tells a story like a play, the odds are you want some audience interaction. That doesn’t mean people jumping up on your stage or trying to pole dance alongside you. Rather, it means you look at them and welcome them to look at you. This can be done with a glance and a smile or a flirt and a wink, but it is absolutely essential as a way to draw the audience’s attention to your show.
2. Mix it up
Fireworks displays don’t do 60 different silver firecrackers in a row. They don’t do swirly star explosions over and over again. They mix it up. Red, blue, silver, gold, green. High and round, low with a second tier explosion, quiet with endless sparklers. You can’t take your eyes away because every second is different.
That’s what you need to create with your pole dance. This doesn’t mean you should throw in every possible pole dance move. Nor does it mean you should focus your energies on always doing something different.
No, the way you bring variety into your pole dance is by the way you blend your moves and your expression. Even if you only know two spins, you can do them with different hand gestures or different dismounts, or follow them with different transitions, and create a wonderfully exciting show.
There are lots of possibilities. You can mix up your moves, play with your transitions, use the stage around the pole, add floor work, or even – if the music is just right for it – go perfectly still. As long as it goes with the music, it will be stunning.
3. Big Finish
Fireworks displays always have a grand finale. They shoot up faster and faster, one after another after another, more and more at a time, building up to a huge and rousing crescendo that lights up the sky. People love a big finish, and that’s exactly what you want to give them.
In pole dancing, a big finish means lots of drama, and drama means excitement and surprise. It means you’ve created an emotional response in your audience. It can mean ending in an invert or a series of crazy poses. It can mean pulling your movement in towards your body, or ending with a languorous motion of the arm. Or it can mean finishing with a gorgeous spin that winds you down the pole in perfect time with the music.
A dramatic finish is really all about the timing. Whether you’re going for the big bang or a quietly emotive ending, you need to know your music inside and out so you can end perfectly in synch with the song, and bring your audience to a perfect close.
Light Up the Stage
There you have it – three essentials of giving a great pole dance performance, straight from the guys running the fireworks displays. Incorporate them into your pole dancing, and you’ll dazzle them every time!
Improvving a pole dance means letting yourself move to the music naturally, without following a predetermined choreography. Being able to improv gives you the freedom to jump up and give a great performance at the drop of a hat.
The trick to successful improv is to stay very centered in your body and your emotions, so that you can move seamlessly with the music. You need to reach a point where you can trust your body to move in certain ways without hesitation.
At its highest levels, improv reaches a point of inward emotional focus in which your concentration is more on your feelings than on your movements. This requires a very high level of physical skill, a level where your movements are so ingrained in your body that they are nearly automatic, thus leaving you to expend your energy on expressing your feelings through the music.
It is good to remember that dance is always about expressing yourself through movement and interpreting music through movement. All pole dancers learn the same set of moves, but it is the ones who can create an emotional response through their dance that truly stand out.
Who can improv?
Anyone can learn to improv. I know this because belly dancing is heavily grounded in improv and, even though I began as a very clutzy, nervous student, I eventually became a very good improvisational belly dancer. The method I used for belly dance is the same one you can use for pole.
Some people naturally take to improv, while others prefer choreography, and both approaches can be wonderfully expressive. Try your hand at both and see which you prefer.
Music, music, music
As with choreographing a pole dance routine, good improv begins with knowing your music. Obviously, you can get up on a whim and dance to any piece of music, regardless of whether you’ve heard it before or not, but to give a good performance, you want to know your music inside and out. You want to get to a point where you can sing every nuance of the song in your head since, if you know what’s coming next, you can know how you want to move to it.
Let Yourself Play
Once you know your music well, start dancing to it. Don’t worry about how it looks or whether your moves are how you want them to be. Just give yourself the emotional permission to move. Play along with the music; don’t judge yourself or analyze. Beautiful improv begins awkwardly; that’s normal.
Let me tell you a story. When I was in grad school, I used to belly dance every Saturday night at a restaurant, giving four 30-minute dances (three on a slow night). Each dance was improvved. This took a lot of rehearsing, which may sound odd since, if it’s improv, what was I rehearsing? But the rehearsing was to let myself get used to moving fluidly with the music.
I would choose several pieces of music that I would dance over the coming weeks. I would listen and listen and listen to them, but I always found that, until I started dancing to them, there was always an extra level of nuance that I missed. At first it would be very clumsy dancing – the moves were done well, but it didn’t quite fit the music. So I would keep at it. Slowly, it would start to come together, and within a couple of weeks, I would find I was comfortable enough with the music that, although every time I danced it, I danced differently, the end result was a good performance.
Of course, life never makes a smooth line. Which means that I also found that, about two weeks prior to a given performance of a new song, it would all fall apart. Badly. What had just started to come together would suddenly disappear entirely. I would forget what was coming next in the music, I would get myself twisted in some weird way that completely ruined my balance or left me in just the wrong spot at the wrong point in the song.
But I never judged. I learned to keep dancing through to the end of the song. I learned to breathe and accept that that’s how that practice went and not to worry about it, and through doing that I learned that that was just my pattern. I always worked on a song, had it start to come together, two weeks before the performance date watched it disintegrate into crap, and then – lo and behold – watched it come together again even stronger.
So that’s why I tell you not to judge yourself. Improv needs to be free, or it can’t take you where you need to go. You will learn a lot about yourself if you let yourself give into your movements, even if you never intend to dance for an audience. Improv will make you braver and it will force you to keep dancing for an entire song, even when you misstep – and that will make you a better dancer.
One quick tip for better improvving
And that’s the quick tip: make yourself dance through an entire song. Don’t stop and start, just keep dancing. When you always begin again, you learn to stop when something strikes you as imperfect. When you force yourself to keep dancing, you learn to go with what you’re doing. Moreover, you will break yourself free of mental constraints on how you “should” be moving, and give yourself the chance to create something truly special.
A simple exercise to improve your improv
This is an exercise I learned from Cassandra Shore, my amazing belly dance instructor. She would assign each student a body part with which to improv. One student might have gotten hips, another arms, another the torso, and so forth. Then she would play music and ask each of us to dance using only that part of our body.
The result of this was that it automatically narrowed your focus. You couldn’t use your whole repertoire; you had to focus on expression to make it interesting. It’s a very intense exercise – one which, I admit, I used to dread and curse. But I’ve since grown to see the use in it.
To apply this exercise to pole, choose something from the list below, put on some music, and dance only with that movement for the entire song (give yourself a break and choose a short piece). When you can’t rely on a large range of moves, you will be forced to make each move more interesting and expressive, and your dancing will improve. Here is the list (feel free to add to it):
Fireman
Front and back hooks
Transitions
Floor work
Slides
Sits
Inverts (choose only one)
Give it a shot, even if it seems unnatural at first. You may need to incorporate a transition or two just to keep moving between spins, but stay as limited in your moves as you can for the duration of the exercise. Learn to dance each move with feeling, really interpreting the music with each move.
And, most of all, remember never to judge your process for creating dance!
*Have you ever tried to use the word “improv” with a spell-checker? It can drive you insane. Especially if you wish to break with All Things Right and True and use it as a verb – as in, “improvving.” So I thought I’d just let myself go hog wild, grammatically speaking, and totally fuck with the spell-check’s mind.
Last week I started talking about when to choreograph and when to improv pole dance routines. This week, I thought it would be cool to go into more detail about how to actually pull together a choreographed routine.
If I can do it, you can do it.
The first thing to know is that there are probably as many ways to do this as there are pole dancers. This is just what works for me, and I’ll be the first to tell you choreography isn’t really my thing. I am definitely more of an improv girl. On the other hand, if this helps even a choreography-challenged person such as myself create a routine, then it must have something going for it.
I’ve used this method a lot with my belly dance students, to give them a dance they can practice on their own, and it’s worked really well. My problem with choreography is more that I can’t remember what comes next in a sequence, but this process helps get it in my head.
Choose your music.
It all starts with the music. Things to look for in a song are interesting rhythm changes, a mix of softer and stronger sounds, and a mood that suits you. Basically, you want music you like, and you want something more interesting than a mindless groove even drunken frat boys can dance to.
Listen to your music.
Listen to it over and over and over again. And then listen to it again. Yes, again. You want to hear all the changes, you want to hear how the sounds mix with the lyrics. Listening with the idea of choreographing is different from listening while you dance in the car.
Make a list of all your moves.
List everything you can do and break it down into groups: transitions, spins, inverts, climbs, floorwork, contortions, and so forth. Circle the ones you especially want to use. Maybe you want to use them because you’re choreographing for a beginner class and those are the only two moves the class knows. Maybe you’re in a competition and certain moves are required. Maybe you just know some better than others and want to strut your stuff. Whatever the reason, if you want to be sure to use them, circle them.
Then, cross off the ones you haven’t quite perfected. Unless you are preparing a routine with months yet to practice, it’s best not to choreograph around moves you don’t feel comfortable doing. Leave them off the list for now – you can always use them next time. What’s left on the list are all the moves you can use to create your dance. You won’t use all of them, but it helps to have your whole repertoire in front of you.
Listen. Walk through. Choose. Repeat.
See which of your moves sound best with the music and walk through them while you listen. Use a bit of improv and a bit of imagination to choose the moves you want in your routine. Look at your list and listen to the first few measures of your song. What kind of feeling does it give you? Slow and sexy? Energetic? Dramatic?
Let yourself play a bit while you walk through it and you’ll find you come up with some great combinations. By walking through it, I don’t mean fully doing each and every move. I mean, stepping through it so you can see how the move fits the music and how the moves you want to use flow together. Keep your remote handy so you can pause and rewind the music as often as necessary. When you have some moves that work well, write them down. Then listen to the next bit of the song and go through the process again.
Keep doing this for each section of the music until the whole song is choreographed. Then do the whole routine for real, not just walking through the moves, but really doing them. You may find that some moves had seemed to fit, but don’t now that you’re actually doing the whole dance. That’s normal. Just change the moves to ones that fit better and write down the changes. Dance it through again, for real, until there are no more changes you need to make, and – voila – you have choreographed a pole dance routine!
A helpful reminder.
Let yourself move to the music as you go through the process above, and you will naturally include filler steps and accents. A lot of dancing isn’t dancing, per se. It’s walking to the music, or making a cool arm gesture, or kicking your hip out to accent a beat. You don’t want to get so wrapped up in your list of moves that you forget the subtler things that make up a dance, too. Letting yourself play with the music will make sure you don’t.
There you have it – a simple guide to creating a pole dance routine. Happy poling!
Some pole dancers love to choreograph routines for public performances, while others prefer to improv. Both choreography and improvisation have their pros and cons, and sometimes a mix of the two is best. How do you know which way is best for you and your personal pole dancing style?
Choreographing Pole Dance Routines
Choreography can be a very freeing method for letting you work on the dance and performance of your routine, since you don’t have to think up what move to do next. It is the method of choice for new dancers, group performances, and stage productions.
The pros:
You know what you’ll be doing during every part of the music.
You can plan the routine to avoid any pole moves you aren’t sure of.
The cons:
Stage fright can make your mind go blank, causing you to forget your moves.
If you confuse a move, it can make it difficult to know how to keep going.
Improvisation and Pole Dance Routines
Improvisation is the dance equivalent to being able to cook without a recipe. It hones your creativity and teaches you adaptability on stage. It is very useful for dancers who get up to perform on a whim and for those who like the freedom of not planning the details of each performance in advance.
The pros:
You don’t need to worry about memorizing – or forgetting – any moves.
You can stay focused on interpreting the music.
You can adapt your dance quickly to circumstances.
The cons:
You can get stuck wondering what pole move to do next.
It may seem daunting to try to fill up an entire dance on the fly.
So how do you make the choice that’s best for you?
Generally, new pole dancers will do better performing a choreographed routine. This is why beginner classes often culminate with a routine that they can all perform. It can be very hard to learn new pole moves while also trying to spontaneously put them together into a dance.
As you gain more experience on the pole, you can start trying improv and seeing if that works for you. One great way to encourage yourself with improv is to start doing the pole dance challenges on the pole forums.Both PoleJunkies and StudioVeena do regular pole challenges in which people post videos to show one another their dances. The challenges may be to dance to a specific type of music (classical, pop, 80s, etc.) or to do only transitions, or some other restriction. Since the best way to learn to improv is to do it, the challenges are a fun and easy way to practice.
Choreography may become important if you start entering pole dance competitions. Competitions have requirements for specific pole moves to be included in the performances, and choreography can be a way to make sure you have included everything you need.
Both choreography and improv can be combined for performances in which you wish to include a certain series of moves, but don’t wish to be locked into a routine. A combination of the two can also be useful when you know what you want to do at a particularly dramatic moment in the music, but don’t wish to plot out the entire song.
It’s one thing to do an exhibition of pole moves and another to really pole dance. That’s what this new series, Putting the Dance Back in Pole Dance, is all about – those finishing touches that transform a collection of spins and inverts into a true dance performance.
I thought it would be fun to share some of the dance tips and techniques I’ve learned from over 20 years of belly dancing. No special dance background is needed; just try it out and see what works for you.
I’m starting with arms, since I think graceful arm movements are an essential part of any dance performance. So let’s get started …
Using Your Arms while Pole Dancing
In some ways, pole makes life easy on us in terms of arm movements. Since so many moves require our arms to be actively engaged, there aren’t many opportunities for our arms to hang lifelessly at our sides. Nevertheless, it can happen to the best of us, especially during transitions. So I thought this would be a good time to talk about what arms are really there to do while we’re dancing.
Framing
Arms can create a beautiful frame around your hips, your face, or the length of your body. They add a finishing touch to your moves. One thing to keep in mind when using your arms as a frame, is to keep a soft curve in them. A curved line is often more visually appealing and can introduce a note of delicacy, which can make an interesting contrast with bolder pole moves.
Gesturing
Another thing arms do really well is gesturing. By that I mean, indicating to the audience what they should be looking at. (Eyes are great for this, too, but I’ll get to that in another post.)
Now I know you’re thinking, isn’t it obvious where they should be looking? But the answer is, no, it really isn’t. Sure, they’ll notice the big changes, but if you are putting in some subtle accenting as you move with the music, arm gestures can be a beautiful way to show the audience where they need to be looking.
Enhancing Accents and Expression
Slow, languorous arm movements play up the sensuality in a piece of music, while sharper accents and flourishes can be used to highlight rhythm changes.
Gaining Flowing Arm Movements
A graceful, flowing arm movement comes from moving through the joints in your arm, one by one, biggest to smallest. That means, for sweeping gestures, you would move from your shoulder to your elbow to your wrist, and then through each successive joint in your hands and fingers. For smaller, accenting gestures, you can start with your elbow and flow out from there. Use the exercise in the video below to gain fluidity in your arm movements.
Pulling it All Together
Here’s a little video of me pulling all this together. It begins with a simple arm exercise and ends with a brief pole dance. I’m, at best, an advanced beginner on the pole, but it will give you the idea and you can adapt it to your own level. Happy poling!
