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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Finn Salima Peippo takes title in Spanish Pole Sport Championships

Anyone who has ever read my blog knows that Oona Kivelä is Finnish and lives right here in Helsinki, but she's not the only Finn who has entered international pole competitions.Salima Peippo, a professional circus artist but better known in Finland as a beauty pageant winner, won first prize in Spanish Pole Sport Championships in the category "less than two years of training". Congratulations!

I could only find these short clips from her performance but you can see that she has a very distinctive circus style... but a lot of potential nevertheless!

Let's hope that she'll enter international competitions in the future! She has the skills, if only somebody helped her get rid of those circus "Ta-Dah!" manners and make her a proper pole DANCE choreo...

You can also read and discuss this post at http://poleranking.com/threads/finn-salima-peippo-takes-title-in-spanish-pole-sport-championships.349/

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Finnish Pole Dancing Championships 2012 make it to the 10 P.M. news... ...funnies

Half a million Finns tune in every night to watch the 10 o'clock news on MTV3. In a country of only six million people and numerous news broadcasts on several channels, that's a significant tradition. I missed the news broadcast on Saturday, as I was watching pole battle at The Tiger, but was glad to hear that the Finnish Pole Dancing Championships had made it to this most popular news broadcast. That is, until I heard pole dancing was not featured in the sports news but instead as the funny piece of news of the night - The last news slot reserved for cute baby animals born at Zoos, impressive bottle cap collections or wife carrying world championships.

Screen capture from the news piece: Hanna Knihtilä doing a strong shoulder mount. This former soccer player is all muscle these days. She thought me how to do an air shoulder mount!

The piece itself was very positive, featuring small interviews with Oona Kivelä and Henriikka Roo and video clips from seven different performances. There's an ongoing debate on retirement age in Finland and the anchors were wondering what the retirement age for pole dancers might be: "Well, working life needs to be lengthened, so maybe 67?"

You can watch the piece for a few more days here. The performances are also available on Youtube, below are some of my favourites.

Like said, Henriikka Roo was on fire!

Oona claimed that this was freestyle - Can you believe it? Many of the contestants said they had to improvise a bit as the spinning pole didn't spin properly.

                                       

Check out Anna Lehtonen's incredible handstands! I bet we'll be hearing a lot about her. She trains at Pole4Fit, like me.

TankoSM 2012 pääsi MTV3:n Kympin Uutisiin. Tosin ei Tulosruutuun, vaan loppukevennykseksi. Itse juttu oli positiivinen, ja loppuvitsinä uutisankkurit pohtivat tankotanssijoiden eläkeikää.

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Pole dancing @ Go Expo Helsinki

Kudos to Anne Laakkonen for a solid performance both in the Finnish Championships on Saturday and for a showcase on Sunday. 

GoExpo is an annual trade fair show which brings together fitness, outdoor and bicycle enthusiasts. This year GoExpo joined forces with Photo&Camera Exhibition and Helsinki Horse Fair, all for one ticket. To call the crowd mixed is a understatement.


I spent Saturday and Sunday at Ahlsport's stand promoting their Fitpoles. Basically I lured passers-by into trying firemen spins or challenged guys to show their strength with crocodiles and even flags. I think I managed to get at least a couple of girls and even one guy hooked on pole, pun intended. But I have to admit, 6-7 hours of pole dancing per day for two days in a row is too much even for me. Nike Blast was a warm-up compared with this weekend! 

Exhausting myself with ayshas, butterflies, candlesticks and this jacknife - and as you can see, my audience is a 10-year-old boy.

Vietin viikonlopun Helsingin Messukeskuksessa GoExpossa Ahlsportin osastolla opettaen ohikulkijoille palomiespyörähdyksiä ja innostamalla miehiä näyttämään voimiaan tangolla. Uskon saaneeni ainakin muutaman messukävijän jäämään koukkuun tankotanssiin! Mutta 6-7 tuntia tankotanssia päivässä on yksinkertaisesti liikaa...

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Finnish Pole Dancing Championships 2012

Hanna Kunnas opened the Finnish Pole Dancing Championships 2012 amateur series  and  I heard the impressed audience gasping: "Oh I had no idea pole dancing is like this!"
I've had the pleasure of watching Hanna progress from the first geminis to a captivating performer and all I can say is WOW.

The Finnish Pole Dancing Championships 2012 were held at GoExpo in the Helsinki Exhibition Center on March 3rd. This was only the second time for official Finnish Championships, and it's been a year and a half since the first contest. In August 2010 the title went to Oona Kivelä - by a wide margin, I might add. But amazing things have happened in the Finnish pole dancing scene since then. Oona has improved tremendously, coming up with new tricks all the time, but so has everybody else. To my knowledge, Heidi Mäki-Ontto, who placed third in the FC, hadn't even started pole dancing back then! 

The 2010 FC was held at Virgin Oil, a smoky bar if there ever was one, and I thought everyone would be ecstatic about the new, much more public location. Apparently though quite a few contestants didn't apply at all for "not being inspired by the venue". And here I thought we wanted to get pole dancing out of smoky bars! Admittedly, light shows were out of the question and from what I've heard organizing the contest at the new location wasn't always easy, but for once we had an audience that didn't consist solely of proud parents, boyfriends and fellow pole dancers!

Results can be found at the TankoSM web site but in short: Henriikka Roo, who made herself a household name by competing in Finland's Got Talent!, won, Oona Kivelä was second and, like said, Heidi Mäki-Ontto third. Personally, I didn't entirely agree on the outcome. I know I'm biased, but I would have placed at least Anne Laakkonen, maybe Anna-Katariina Koponen as well, in the top three. There was a strong emphasis on performance and choreography in the judging criteria, 1/3 each, with only 1/3 on pole technique. I would be happy to see much more emphasis on technique in the national championships. But I guess then we would have to wait for Oona to retire before anyone else could take the title...

There was also an amateur series, which was won by Laura Soikkeli. Rumour has it Laura applied on the very last day before the deadline and was surprised that she even got in. Reality check, girl, you were absolutely superb! 

The only 19-year-old Hulda Rankanen didn't get a medal today, but she has plenty of time for that. Her solid circus background shows in the best possible way.

The charming Anna-Katariina Koponen could have easily placed in the top-3. "AK" is my ballet and pole teacher and a constant source of inspiration for me.

Henriikka Roo was on fire today and took home the Finnish Championship title. Congratulations Henriikka!

Tervetuloa tankotanssiblogiini! Tankotanssin Suomenmestaruus 2012 ratkottiin GoExpossa Helsingin Messukeskuksessa. Voiton vei liekeissä ollut, Suomen kansalle Talentista tuttu Henriikka Rinne eli Henriikka Roo, jättäen tällä kertaa taakseen edellisen vuoden voittajan Oona Kivelän.

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