Ballet and Burlesque with Miss Maleficient Simona Martini

It's been the rainiest autumn in 140 years in Finland this year and you might think that all this fuss about fifty shades of grey refers to the colour scheme of an average day in Helsinki. The weather doesn't manage to get me down, though, as I'm happily busy at work all day and spend most of my spare time either pole dancing, dancing or doing yoga. Who cares what the weather is like?

Today we enjoyed our own personal sun at Pole4Fit as we had Simona Martini as our guest teacher. She lights up the room with her presence and her gracious way of moving is bordering on otherworldly. We've had the pleasure of having her as a guest teacher twice before. If you've followed my blog, you know that I've danced ballet for just over 1,5 years and it hasn't really come naturally to me at all. The pole ballet classes that we have every week I can still pretty much follow, but the lessons with Miss Simona Martini are always a reality check that remind me that I still have a long way to go, even at beginners' level.

Miss Martini gave us a 75-minute ballet class and a 75-minute burlesque class. Her lessons are not easy and she pushes us to learn by making us repeat the routines without her. That's why after all her classes I feel like I'm a terrible dancer, but still a lot better than 75 minutes earlier.

Simona Martini has danced ballet since she was 5 years old. She joined Rome's Teatro Dell'Opera when she was 11 and started studying at the Royal Ballet in London at 15. She has worked with many famous ballet dancers such as Elisabetta Terabust, Alexander Floris, Zarcko Prebil, Massimo Moricone, Merle Park, Jonathan Cope and David Drew. Like said before, her teaching me is a complete waste of talent, but it's still so inspiring and pushes me so much forward that I'm not going to complain!

Me and Miss Simona Martini at Pole4Fit. What do you mean I'm not built like a ballet dancer?

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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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Tampere Open Showcase 2012

Tampere Open Showcase was organised for the fourth time last Saturday. Tampere is the third biggest city in Finland and only 1,5 hours from Helsinki by train, so I decided to go check it out even though I had just come back from a business trip to London the night before. I'm glad I went, as I had a blast with the Pole4Fit girls - they even won the group choreography division!

I think this type of open showcases are equally important as more serious competitions. They give the opportunity for non-professional pole dancers to show their talent and training with a specific goal in mind is the most efficient type of training. It was evident that all performers: ten soloists, four doubles and five groups had worked really hard. Doubles have been a rarity in Finland and I don't think any studios offer doubles' workshops, so they have had to use their creativity. Thanks to all the performers for an entertaining evening and special thanks to the organisers!

Check out Pole4Fit's group choreo below. I bet you all recognise the song, Kiss by Prince. The choreography is by Pole4Fit teacher and Finnish Championship contestant Anne Laakkonen. Unfortunately the venue was dark and in my video you can't see all the dancers properly. Let's hope someone will post a better video soon!

Congratulations to all the Pole4Fit ladies from a very proud "manager"!

BTW, check out these awesome photos by Tuula Ylikorpi

http://poledance.pictures.fi/kuvat/Tampere Open Showcase 2012/

She's something like The official pole dance event photographer in Finland.

You can also read and discuss this post at http://poleranking.com/threads/tampere-open-showcase-2012.335/

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Ballet on a pole - and on pointe

I previously told you that I dream of one day working on pointe, even though I only started doing ballet a year ago. The opportunity came up sooner that expected...

...Oh no, look what's in my gym bag...

The current Finnish Champion, Henriikka Roo, is famous for combining ballet with her pole routines, and she gives Pole Ballet classes in Tampere. I asked Pole4Fit's ballet teacherAnna-Katariina if she could give a ballet class in our pole classroom. Normally the weekly ballet class is held in a gym classroom - plenty of mirrors but no bars to hold on to for support.

Pole4Fit's first, but hopefully not last, 90-minute Ballet on a Pole workshop was held today. Anna-Katariina had absolutely nailed it with her short choreographies combining classic ballet moves such as fondus, pas de bourrées and pirouettes with basic spins. We even got to play Little Swans from Swan Lake!

The last 10 minutes those of us who had pointe shoes spent practising raising onto pointe - a first for me! Only ten minutes, and one of my toes was already bleeding... Ok, just a tiny bit. Nothing to stop me from practising more. A vertical bar is just as good for support as a horisontal one.

We want more ballet/pole! Has anybody else tried a similar class?

You can read and discuss this post at Poleranking.

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Ballet for pole dancers

When I started pole dancing it soon became clear that alignment would be one of my biggest challenges. My fellow pole students immediately learned my name as the teachers kept making remarks "point your toes, Päivi!", "straighten your knees, Päivi!". I suggested they simply write NILKAT!! (Finnish for ankles) on the classroom wall to save them the trouble. While I appreciated quickly being on a first-name basis with the other polers, after a year of pole dancing it started to get a bit old that I just wouldn't learn to point my toes.

Pole4Fit offers a weekly ballet class and even though I thought I might hate it, I still went. And hated it. I despised the piano music and ballet was even harder than I had thought it would be. At that point I had taken dance classes for three years, but ballet technique is a different story altogether. Don't get me wrong, I've always been a ballet lover - as a spectator. I just thought I was doing a terrible crime to the whole discipline of ballet with my futile efforts at it.

I still decided to go back next week, as Miss Maleficent Simona Martini was guest teaching. What a waste of talent, Simona Martini teaching me ballet. When she puts her feet into fifth, it's difficult to tell which one is right and which one is left. Makes it quite challenging for a beginner to follow.

I hated ballet, but I hated the idea of quitting even more, so I kept going back. Even though the teachers at Pole4Fit were super nice, not like the ones you see in ballet movies, I still hated it for about six weeks. In six lessons I learned the very basics: the different positions and the most common terminology in French: Plié, Rond de Jamb, Fondu, Croisé, Grand Battement, Pas de Bourrée... Finally some use for all those French lessons in high school! I learned to tolerate the piano music and ballet lessons became somewhat indifferent to me. I didn't think about it much, I just went every week. There was a stretching class after ballet and ballet was good for warming up.

After six months, in the middle of a ballet class, I suddenly found myself rather enjoying it all. Ballet is structured and disciplined, and I knew what was coming next. I knew the song, I knew the routine, I knew what it should look like. And my interpretation of it was recognisable. Not beautiful, not feather-weight, but recognisable all the same. Ballet had made it's way into my comfort zone.

I've been taking those ballet classes for over a year now. I can honestly say that I love them. In pole class, I even remember to point my toes every now and then, at least as long as I'm doing something that I'm familiar with.

When pole dancers put their strong arms up, it doesn't look like your average ballet class. 

I think we also have more fun than one's supposed to.

I'll share a secret dream with you: I have a pair of pointe shoes waiting in the closet.

Baletin harrastamisesta on hyötyä tankotanssijalle etenkin linjausten kanssa. Kesti kuitenkin puoli vuotta ennenkuin opin pitämään balettitunneista.

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Aerial Hoop @Pole4Fit Helsinki

Major difference between pole dancing and aerial hoop: In the latter you don't want to expose your skin.

Pole4Fit offers aerial hoop classes once a week, and since I'm a member there, I can attend them with no extra charge. I'd been wanting to try it for ages, but I thought it's always the same people there and they don't want a newbie like me holding them back. Aerial hoop classes are right after one of my favourite pole classes, and a week ago someone suggested that next time I stay for aerial hoop as well "so that you can write about it in your blog!" How could I resist that?

Aerial hoop, also known as lyra, aerial ring and cerceau, resembles a hula hoop in size and hangs freely from the ceiling connected at one or two points of the ring. Pole4Fit's rings have a double tab configuration, which makes them a bit more steady and hence easier for beginners, like me. Aerial hoop is a circus sport and doesn't really have anything to do with pole dancing, but nevertheless I found many similarities. To a pole dancer inverting comes naturally, we are used to being upside-down and have the required strength to pull ourselves up. For the first time in my life I didn't totally suck at a new sport. You should see my bruises, though. Three days later the backs of my knees and my lower back are still sore. I don't think I'll be ready to go back next week, but maybe the week after that...

No matter how hard I tried I couldn't straighten my arms. I'll get back to my bridge stretches...

                                   

Finnish circus artist Jerina Hintikka on Aerial Hoop. Check out what happens at 4:40->

Pole4Fit Helsingissä tarjoaa myös rengastrapetsitunteja. Tankotanssiharrastuksesta oli selvästi hyötyä renkaalla, mutta komeat mustelmat siitä sai...

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So You want to Pole Dance in Helsinki?

This photo from Pole4Fit's gallery illustrates how literally supportive Pole4Fit's teachers are.

As you know, I started pole dancing in March 2010 at Pole4Fit. Pasila was a convenient location for me; the studio is five minutes from the busiest railway station in Finland (three, if you're in a hurry to catch a train). Starting up, I had no idea I would become a member later on, but even back then I preferred Pole4Fit's fitness-oriented website. The oldest pole dancing school in Helsinki, Rock the Pole, seemed to convey a more sensual image. I soon learned that both schools have excellent teachers and that teachers and students from both schools have competed in Finnish Pole Dancing Championships - even though this year there were no less than six contestants from Pole4Fit and zero from Rock the Pole.

Oona Kivelä's GYMi had opened it's doors in January 2010, but I didn't learn that they have pole dancing for adults until I had already made myself home at Pole4Fit. I've been meaning to visit both Rock the Pole and GYMi so many times, and I hereby solemnly swear that I'll visit both this year, but until then I can only tell what the lessons are like at Pole4Fit.

Pole4Fit's pole dancing lessons are divided into levels 1-4. Anyone can go to a Poletech1 lesson with no previous experience, or take a 120-minute Fresh Start! course. If you already have pole dancing experience you can contact the school and let them know what you can do and they'll recommend suitable lessons for you. All the teachers, and pretty much all students, know English and are willing to help you out. You really don't have to know the funny local language to pole dance in Helsinki.

Pole4Fit has featured workshops with Tracey Simmonds (four times in total), Jenyne Butterfly, Pantera, Edouard Doyé, Michelle Stanek, Simona Martini (who visits somewhat regularly to teach ballet and pole choreo), Oona Kivelä and Anastasia Shukhtorova. Not bad considering the school opened in August 2009, only 2,5 years ago. Regular teachers include Anna-Katariina Koponen, Anne Laakkonen, Anna Lehtonen and Gaëlle, who by the way gives all her lessons in English, even though she knows Finnish as well and sometimes uses the Finnish names for tricks: "And then you go from kaksonen into vesimies"...

All the teachers are good. I'm not just saying this, they are. I tried naming my favourites but just ended up listing them all. They have high standards for teachers and apparently zero-tolerance for bitchiness. Safety comes first for all of them, which means comprehensive warm-ups and step-by-step guidance. Even though there are four different levels and even sub-levels such as 1-2 or Poletech 2 beginners, it doesn't mean that everyone does the same tricks. If you can't do the shoulder mount, for example, the teachers will show you how to start practicing for it so that you'll gain the required muscles for it and will eventually be able to do it safely.

Pole4Fit also offers pole choreo, pole spin, pole pilates, pole workout, ballet, show dance, aerial hoop and stretching classes and sometimes workshops in acrobatics, burlesque and chinese pole. I usually go to 3-5 lessons per week, sometimes as many as eight, but other than my membership and the friends that I've made there I have no connection to the place. This is not a paid advertisement, just an honest opinion from a very satisfied customer. And like said, I've heard great things about GYMi and Rock the Pole as well. We are just spoiled rotten here in Helsinki.

Helsingissä voi harrastaa tankotanssia Pole4Fitillä, Rock the Polella tai Oona Kivelän GYMillä. Itse olen käynyt kaksi vuotta Pole4Fitillä, jossa opettajat ovat todella päteviä ja mukavia, ja voin suositella sitä lämpimästi! Lupaan tämän vuoden aikana käydä myös Rock the Polella ja GYMillä!

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Two amazing years of pole dancing for yours truly

I don't have much of a background in sports. In fact, quite the opposite. I've always loved working out, and I tried a range of sports in my teens and twenties, but always had to drop out after a couple of months as I had severe, chronic pain in my lower back. I saw dozens of doctors, physiotherapists and what not and finally four years ago there was enough progress that I could start taking a weekly dance class and keep it up.

I know Oona Kivelä's mom through work and in January 2010 I happened to see her proudly showing this video from Oona's performance in PoleArt 2009 to a friend of hers.

I stood there mesmerized looking at the 2" display of her pocket camera. Amazing, I thought, but then I immediately felt sorry for myself that I could never do anything like that, thinking that pole dancing must require a background like Oona's (she's a former gymnast, as if you didn't know). 

I told my colleague/BFF about the video and she said that she's been dying to try pole dancing for quite some time. Her birthday was coming up and I decided to surprise her with a lesson, although I'm pretty sure she guessed when I asked her to take hotpants to work. Pole4Fit was conveniently located for us and I also liked their fitness-oriented web site better than Rock the Pole's, so that's where we headed. I took a painkiller beforehand and crossed my fingers that I'd make it through the lesson in one piece. Then our teacher Linda Helske walked in, put some Michael Jackson on and what followed were the most fun 60 minutes I'd had in a long time. My friend, a former gymnast, was clearly talented, doing an invert in the first lesson. But I was the one who was hooked.

I kept going back for more lessons, all the while thinking that I probably won't be able to do this for long so I shouldn't get too excited. I bought a 10-time ticket, then another one, then another one... After 6 months I bought my own Fitpole and 12 months in I realized that a membership would be cheaper than all those 10-time-tickets. My core muscles got stronger and my back a bit more flexible, and the formerly omnipresent back pain less and less frequent.

Fill in the blank: Pole dancing makes me feel like a ___________.

For my first pole dancing anniversary I made a Fitpole cake...

...But second anniversary calls for some champagne! Just remember kids, don't drink and pole dance!

Kaksi uskomatonta vuotta tankotanssia takana! Oonan videosta innostuneena vein voimistelua harrastaneen ystäväni Pole4Fitille synttäriyllärinä, mutta koukkuun jäinkin minä...

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Anastasia Shukhtorova's workshops at Pole4Fit Helsinki

Anastasia kindly let us video her tutoring. Not for public use, sorry, but for future references. I'll get back to this stuff in a year or so...

I had seen Anastasia Shukhtorova perform at PoleArt 2011 in Helsinki and when Pole4Fit announced that they had booked two exclusive workshops with her I wouldn't have missed it for the world. Anastasia is undoubtedly one of the most talented pole dancers in the world. This Russian belle placed third in the World Cup in Rio. 

Anastasia held two workshops at Pole4Fit, intermediate/ level 2-3 and advanced/ level 3-4. Unfortunately I couldn't make it to the first one and hence attended the advanced workshop, which I knew would be too much for me. But Anastasia herself suggested that we film her so that we can get back to the tricks later! Quite an act of kindness, something that not all visiting teachers allow, but I sure wish they would since we usually pay 30-70 € extra for those workshops. We naturally agreed not to publish any of the stuff, but I will keep my videos safe and certainly get back to them later! I want to nail that jamilla into superman into scorpio, preferably without the superman in the middle...

Anastasia Shukhtorova's PR photo for PoleArt2011. Don't worry, she warms up her back meticulously before doing any tricks like this one or her signature rainbow.

Anastasia Shukhtorova piti Pole4Fitillä kaksi workshoppia ja antoi ystävällisesti meidän kuvata opetusta, jotta voisimme palata myöhemmin mm. jamilla - supermies - skorpioni - vaihtoon...

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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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