A Chance Encounter

If you ever spend time on StudioVeena or Facebook, you’ve probably met the totally vivacious Sissybuns.

Well, I had lost touch with her a bit, since I don’t have as much time as I used to for those Friday night pole chats, so it was a total stroke of luck when I found her on Facebook this past week.

It was one of those, “OMG!!! SISSYBUNS!!! I MISSED YOU!!” moments, with her being all, “SKIVSTER!!!”

You know, typical online joy at reconnection.

A Little Experiment

But then we got to chatting, which, as you can imagine, was all about pole, and, as it turned out, Sissybuns was getting ready to perform at her very first competition and was busy working on a routine. We talked about doing a coaching session as prep for her performance, and decided to make it into a little experiment.

I thought, wouldn’t it be fun to make it into a blog post – you’d all get to hear how the whole coaching thing works, I’d get the fun of hanging out with Sissybuns and seeing her wonderful dancing, and she’d get some free performance coaching.

So, that’s what we did. We met up on Skype the day before Sissybuns’ performance for the Miss Xpose 2010 Preliminary, and here’s what happened …

Coaching Goals

What was really cool about working with Sissybuns is she had very specific goals to work on. She had a routine already created and the performance was just one day away, so it was a very focused hour.

Sissybuns was doing a very sexy, very sultry dance and wanted to make sure to convey that feeling throughout her entire choreography. The routine included a couple of floorwork sequences and our goal was to smooth out transitioning back to standing. Moreover, Sissybuns had recently had foot surgery, so she needed to make sure her choreography worked around her sore foot and didn’t force her to worry too much about it.

See Sissybuns rehearsing with a her cast on! She is one VERY dedicated pole dancer!

Sissybuns on her goals for the session:

I was concerned with my stage presence as a whole. I had never performed in front of anyone before and had entered into a local pole dance competition (Miss Xpose 2010) where I couldn’t rely on high flying tricks and stunts to “wow” the crowd because the category I competed in didn’t allow any inverts.

Plus, I was still in recovery from a recent surgery I had had on my left foot less then eight weeks ago. My concern with hiding my obvious injury was making me apprehensive in a lot of my dancing.

We got to work

Once Sissybuns had shown me her routine, we dove right in, starting with her entrance. Originally, she had planned to walk to the pole, but, with her injured foot, walking that distance was affecting her ability to be fully focused when she stepped onto the stage.

Instead, we tried versions of starting already at the pole and starting by crawling to the pole. Sissybuns actually did some really hot crawling, but opted against it in the end, since the floor she’d be performing on was hardwood and would only scrape her knees up before she even got to the floorwork sequences.

So, to get the ideas churning, I demo’d a few standing-in-place, sexy moves to see if any of them suited her. Sissybuns tried them out and found ones that she not only liked, but that also allowed her to shift her weight off her foot, if needed.

Floorwork

Next, we moved on to floorwork. Sissybun’s first floorwork sequence was flawless – beautifully choreographed, smoothly transitioned, and gliding easily back up to standing. The second one, though, got a little stuck before coming up from the floor.

To tackle this, we got down on the floor together and she showed me what position she landed in. I tried to see what ways there were to come up out of it. In the end, what seemed to work was leaning away from her bent leg and then saucily kicking her leg up to bring it around the pole. Sissybuns tried it out and was able to incorporate it into her sequence, now making the transition up from the floor seamlessly.

Steaming it Up

Sissybuns is blessed with the best eyes in the world for doing sexy dancing – she has total Cleopatra eyes. And, as would be expected from someone with eyes like that, she can do sultry like nobody’s business! So, for this aspect of her dance, we worked more on the few places where that feeling skipped a beat.

At first, she’d been too worried about her sore foot to stay fully present in the emotion she was trying to convey as she walked onto stage. When we re-worked her choreography to avoid that walking, it helped. But the other part affecting the entrance was that typical, OMG-I’m-about-to-start adrenalin rush that we all get. To counteract that, we worked on slowing down the start, delaying it until she felt really centered, and then letting the dance begin.

The effect was amazing! That sultry intensity was suddenly there, right from the beginning, which heightened the drama of her entrance.

To make sure to maintain that intensity, we then worked on bringing more sex appeal to the moves and transitions elsewhere in her choreography. Sissybuns was an incredibly fast learner, trying different gestures I suggested, changing speed, emphasizing different parts of a move, and getting those final touches in place that really bring a dance together.

What Sissybuns says about the session

I AM SO HAPPY I DID THIS! The session had a huge impact not only on my competition routine, but for all my future dancing and performing.

Jennifer helped me improve by changing a step here, giving more eye contact there and even changing the whole way I began my routine so I started sure, strong and confident. She showed me how to get my inner lioness to shine and portray the feeling that I was hoping my audience would feel while I danced.

She watched me and let me know how the audience would see me as I danced. She didn’t try to change me or alter my style, but only added to it.

Jennifer gave me the keys needed to give a good performance. I will keep the things she taught me in mind for the rest of the time that I dance, and I believe I’ll be a better dancer because of it.

The performance!

There was a video snafu at the competition, but Sissybuns put together this video of the choreography to show you – you’ll love it!

What Sissybuns says about working with Jennifer (gulp)

Jennifer is not a pole dance instructor. She will make that very clear to you. But what she is, is a performer. Somebody who loves the art of pole dance and watches closely to see what works and what doesn’t. She understands the art of seduction and playfulness, which is exactly what I was trying to pull off.

She focuses on the small things. The things you won’t notice on your own, like what that free hand is doing when you do a spin, or your facial expression while you dance. Sometimes we are so caught up in our tricks and spins that we forget about the performance, about the people watching us … and that’s where Jennifer makes the difference.

Thank you, Sissybuns!

Sissybuns brought off her performance with flying colors! She did a beautiful, sexy dance and made her dream of performing pole dance come true.

Thank you, Sissybuns, for doing this coaching post with me! I had so much fun working with you, and I really appreciate your letting me blog about the experience. You rock, you fab pole dancer, you!! I can’t wait to see what you put together for your next competition!

If you’d like some coaching to bring out the best in your next performance, email me to set up a session. For more information, check out the page on private coaching.