New studio in Helsinki: Vertical Club

I've used the expression "spoiled rotten" several times referring to the three pole dancing studios that we have in this town of only 500 000 inhabitants. Well, it would seem that next month there will be four studios and I will have to think of new idioms to describe so many cool classes, so little time.

Vertical Club will open in August and feature wonderfully tall 3,6 meter poles! The founders Laura Gröhn and Vilja Eskelinen will bring some of the best teachers from Rock the Pole with them. Laura, who is a member of the New York -based AERA aerial dance company, will bring an entirely new sport to Finland: Aerial Yoga. As a yoga enthusiast (I've done Hatha, Asthanga, Iyengar and Bikram - even though you would never believe it if you saw how stiff I am...) I can't wait to try it!

Now if you've been reading my blog at all you know that I'm a Pole4Fit girl through and through, but I still want to visit Vertical Club as soon as they open. Helsinki is turning into quite a mecca for pole dancing, don't you think?

You can also read and discuss this post at http://www.poleranking.com/threads/new-studio-in-helsinki-vertical-club.397/

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Off the Pole for 30 days - what has happened to me?

From the middle of June till the middle of July I was busy travelling both for work and for leisure, both in Finland and abroad. And by busy I mean just that - I didn't stay long in one place and had fully booked days. I knew I couldn't attend any pole classes during that time so I put my Pole4Fit membership on hold for a month. I didn't think it would be a big deal as I stayed active, for example by exploring new places on foot (walking over 20 kilometres in Kyoto was one of my favourite days during this busy month).

I got back home on Monday and greeted my beloved Fitpole enthusiastically, but the love was no longer mutual. I only had strength for a 40-minute session but it was enough to show me all those tricks I no longer could do, including air invert, air shoulder mount and all handsprings. I was devastated. I did my first air invert almost two years ago so it was quite terrible not being able to do such a basic move anymore. And I hadn't been ill or anything, just off the pole.

This week I've been on the pole five times and I'm slowly getting my strength back even though it's nowhere near where it was a mere five weeks ago. I'm wondering how long it will take before I'm able to do everything I could do before the break and can start learning new stuff again. A friend said three weeks, what do you think? If you have similar experiences, please share them! I need some peer support!

No matter how much I enjoyed the long walks this summer, they just weren't enough.

You can also read and discuss this post here http://www.poleranking.com/threads/off-the-pole-for-30-days-what-has-happened-to-me.392/

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Let's go outside!

It hasn't been the sunniest summer in Finland so far but today we were lucky. Pole4Fit kindly lent us their stage which we carried to the nearest park - 300 meters from the studio. This is what summer in the city should look like! Thank you girls for organizing this, it was great meeting new faces from other studios! Let's do this again soon, please?

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PoleArt 2012 list of participants is published

I can't believe the list of participants PoleArt published - it reads like a Who's Who of pole dancing!

Female Competitive Category

Anastasia Skukhtorova, Russia

Laurence Hilsum, France

Maria Luz Escalante, Argentina

Natalia Egorova, Russia

Natasha Wang, USA

Oona Kivelä, Finland

Phoenix Kazree, USA

Polina Volchek, USA

Rafaela Montanaro, Brazil

Tracey Simmonds, South Africa

Male Competative Category

Evgeny Greshilov, Russia

Patryk Rybarski, Poland

Saulo Sarmiento, France

Steven Retchless, USA

Wilson Alexander Meija, Colombia

Showcase

Ekaterina Romanova, Russia

Intellego Pole Company, Sweden

Michelle Stanek, USA

Pole Dance Theatre "TRASH"

Guest Performance

Jenyne Butterfly, USA

I'm so proud of the organisers Nelle and Tanja - and so proud that we have such a high profile competition in Scandinavia!

You can also read and discuss this post here http://www.poleranking.com/threads/poleart-2012-date-is-set-25-august-2012.122/

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Workshop with Henriikka Roo

Gosh, how can I have forgotten to write about the workshop with Henriikka Roo that I attended almost six weeks ago! I know I always go on and on about Oona Kivelä (and I won't make any promises not to as PoleArt draws nearer). When I attended Henriikka Rinne's workshop at Studio Move in Tampere on May 26 (day after Tampere Open Showcase - see, we didn't partyall night) I specifically thought how nice it will be to blog about another Finn for a change - and then I go and forget to do so! It's not that the Advanced Workshop we attended wasn't great, oh no, we even did completely new stuff (to me, that is), I just can't remember what it was anymore... Help me out here, if you read this and you attended as well!

Does that ever happen to anybody else? You leave the studio thinking wow, that was a good class. And when somebody asks you what you did... You just can't remember any moves at all!

I also wanted to attend Henriikka Pole Ballet workshop but unfortunately it was cancelled. Anyway, Henriikka is a sunny, charming teacher and she would deserve a much nicer blog post. Sorry Henriikka, this means you'll have to come to Helsinki to give some workshops, you are the current Finnish Champion after all, you have to make a tour!

You can also read and discuss this post here http://www.poleranking.com/threads/workshop-with-henriikka-roo.379/

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