Steven Retchless's TRIXXX Workshop @Vertical Club

Steven Retchless blew us away in Stockholm with his Pole Art performance. Luckily he followed us to Finland to give two workshops at the new Vertical Club.

I attended the TRIXXX workshop described below:

TRIXXX

INT/ADV 75min

This class is all about the TRIXXX! This 75min workshop will PUMP YOU UP!!! With a detailed breakdown of power moves, flips, inverts, twists, contortion and introduction to original and creative new moves. if your above beginner come take this awesome class. The “trixxx” will be modified to fit your level. I know you can do it, I believe in you so, LET’S DO IT!!!

I walked in just as they were finishing the previous workshop, 8" Spike. It looked like a lot of fun! I wish I could move in heels the way Steven does. Even more I wish I could move like he moves barefoot. Goddammit.

It seems that Steven really wants his students to learn in his workshop. He continuously walked around the classroom, giving pointers and tiredlessly redemonstrating the moves.

Steven taught us the spin combination that he did at the beginning of his Pole Art 2012 routine. I shared a pole with Pole4Fit teacher Carmen, who nailed the spin quite quickly. Luckily we've kept on practising it in her classes.

I usually never do this but I had to have a photo with Steven Retchless - and post it on Facebook. And yes, those are his pants on the floor. He specifically wanted to take them off for this photo.

All in all, a great workshop. Everything from warm-up to cool down was original, very Steven-esque. I'll have to work on the butt cheek lifts, impressive stuff! All the tricks or variations of tricks that we learned were new to me, which is exactly what I hope from workshops. If you have the change to attend Steven's workshops, do it! Very inspiring.

Please come to Poleranking to discuss this topic!

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Natasha Wang's Signature Tricks @North Pole STHLM

Natasha Wang had just won a runner-up title at Pole Art the previous night and came to the North Pole studio still wearing the beautiful braids. She was met by 12 enthusiastic students, among them our group of five Finns.

The workshop description was:

Natasha Wang

"Signature tricks"

Level: Intermediate/Advanced

Price: 450 SEK (~53€, $68)

Class description: This tricks class will focus on unique transitions on and off the pole, innovative aerial tricks, Chinese pole techniques, as well as movement that transforms the human body into beautifully strange shapes. This will be a barefoot class, as we’ll be executing tricks that require all parts of the human body -- including the bottom of your foot!

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After a thorough warm-up we started with a beautiful but painful side climb variation. We practised several tricks that were completely new to all of us, such as the transition (more like a dive) from standing on the pole to scorpio (a.k.a. inside leg hang). We also practised several variations of the meat hook (see photo of me below) and from that flipping yourself back right-side up and grapping your front leg (see the quick snapshot of Natasha demonstrating this transition below).

Natasha has astonishingly beautiful lines, even if she's just quickly showing how something is done.

Natasha is also one of those teachers who does everything to help you get it just right.

My take on the meat hook.

Pole4Fit's students and teachers were all smiles after the workshop.

What an inspiring, fun and useful workshop! We all agreed that this was money well spent. Thank you Natasha!

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Jenyne Butterfly's Spin Sister workshop @North Pole STHLM

If you watched the live stream or watched the videos or if you were there yourself you already know that Pole Art 2012 was the most inspiring pole dancing event ever. But it wasn't just the amazing performances that inspired us mere mortals, the weekend was also filled with workshops with the best pole dancers in the world. I attended Natasha Wang's Signature Tricks class and Jenyne Butterfly's Spin Sister at North Pole Studio in Stockholm and Steven Retchless's TRIXXX at Vertical Club in Helsinki the following Tuesday. All the workshops were inspiring, but I'll start with the one that didn't quite meet my high expectations: Jenyne's Spin Sister workshop.

The class description was:

Jenyne Butterfly

"Spin Sister"

Level: Intermediate / Advanced

Price: 550 SEK (~65 €, $83)

Class description: This 2-hour workshop will focus on spinning pole and also spinning on static pole. You will learn take off and landing, how to lengthen your flight time with each spin, the importance of and how to condition your grip, what moves are good for spinning verses static, where the momentum comes from, the benefits of spinning pole, and an all-around basic understanding of graceful movement around the pole. Get ready to be dizzy lizzy!

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The spins on static were intermediate. I struggled with a one-handed spin that was supposed to end in a shoulder mount - I just didn't have the strength left to actually mount the pole. We also worked on bringing the popular breakdance move flare legs into a spin on the pole. I wish we had done more spin combinations like the pike spin - piroutte - backhook -spin that we did.

The part on static pole was fun, but that's not why I came to Jenyne's workshop as we have spin classes at Pole4Fit every week and we work on even more advanced spins in every class. I really came for some tips on rocking the spin mode. I haven't worked much on it even though I have a spinning pole even at home. For two weeks before Jenyne's Spin Sister I did a little bit of spinning pole every single night just to get used to it - I didn't want to throw up in the two-hour workshop!

However, the part on spinning pole was hardly intermediate/advanced. I'm a complete newbie on spinning pole and I still didn't really learn anything new. We practised the very basics of spin mode. I checked my watch to see that we should still have 20 minutes left of the workshop when Jenyne asked if anyone had any requests. I tried asking about inverted moves on the spinning pole but all I got was a very brief reply. We started stretching and ended the 65 € workshop 15 minutes ahead of schedule even though we had started late. So, understandably, I was a bit disappointed with the workshop, even though it's of course an honour to get practice with the likes of Jenyne Butterfly.

Jenyne gave us a good piece of advice: Do a freestyle every time you practise on the pole. Just put on song on and move. Even if you're tired, come on, it's a 3-minute song!

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Aerial Yoga @Vertical Club Helsinki

"This is going to be FUN" was the first thought on my mind when I saw the green hammocks hanging from Vertical Club's ceiling. I'd done Hatha, Astanga, Iyengar, Yin and Bikram before I booked an Aerial Yoga class - on the very first day the sport arrived to Finland.

One of the founders of Vertical Club, Laura Gröhn, has studied Aerial Yoga in New York while practising with AERA. I attended an Aerial Yoga Lempeä ("Gentle") class which was instructed by Vilja Eskelinen. The class is suitable for beginners with no previous yoga or acrobatics background. We started on the floor and gradually moved onto movements done off the ground. The hammock is used to support some (or all) of the body's weight in different yoga postures, asanas. Those who have done Iyengar Yoga will find some similarities, as the props are meant to enable you to do the movements with proper alignments. It seems that this time all seven attendants were pole dancers as everyone managed to do even inversions, V-invert style.

Vilja helps Anni out...

That's how it's done. This move was called "Arkku" - a direct translation would be "The Chest".

It would be stupid to judge any sport after one class and I especially hate it when people think that all yoga is the same. My first impression is that Aerial Yoga is fun and it will probably build both strength and flexibility over time. However, as I recently got addicted to Bikram Yoga, "yoga" in my vocabulary has come to mean intensive 90-minute sessions in a room heated to 39C (102F). I'm not ready to switch practices just yet, even though I will miss relaxing inside the hammock...

Namaste!

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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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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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PowerPole-classes with Oona Kivelä

I told you before we're spoiled rotten here in Helsinki. Envy me all you want but I'm still going to tell you about the Powerpole-classes I've attended at Gymi in Kamppi, Helsinki with none other than Oona Kivelä.

I often hear people disregarding a pole dancer's competition success with "oh, but (s)he's a former gymnast/ ballet dancer/ whatever". As if doing other sports was somehow unfair to those contestants who only practise on the pole. Let me give a free piece of advice to all aspiring pole superstars: Do other stuff as well.

In this video you can see how Oona Kivelä trains. Most of it is shot at Gymi Kamppi so you can also see glimpses of the equipment that is available to all Gymi-goers.

I've only had the chance to attend twice so far (thanks Oona for letting me join mid-season!) but I've already realised what a difference some ancillary training can make. Some of the moves in PowerPole are, as the name suggests, pole moves - but not necessarily on the pole. Practising ayeshas on wall bars and hanging in a gemini on a parallel bar makes you pay attention to details in the move that you cannot necessarily see on a pole when you're worrying about grip among other things. We've also practised handstands, headstands and some basic moves on an aerial ring.

I've been way too busy and sweaty to bother with a camera, but take a look a this cool collage from Gymi's gallery.

I'm so glad Oona and her associate have realised that this stuff shouldn't be only for kids!

Olen käynyt nyt kahdesti Oona Kivelän PowerPole-tunneilla Kampin Gymillä ja voin suositella tunteja lämpimästi oheistreeniksi kaikille tankotanssijoille!

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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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Pole dancing in Tallinn

Pole Dance - It's Not Just For Strippers Anymore - holds true also in Tallinn. There were no platform heels or feather boas in sight at City Dance.

I travel to Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, a couple of times a year for work or just for fun and when a friend mentioned that she wants to check out the pole dancing scene there I was in. Elina goes to classes at Pole4Fit in Helsinki and also teaches there every now and then and she was looking for a place to work out at while studying in Tallinn.

Pole dancing, at least it's athletic variation, is only gaining popularity in Tallinn. City Dance was the most promising school we could find while searching online. The studio is only a 10-minute walk from Stockmann's, but it might be a tad difficult to find. I know this sounds bad, but when you see red lights, you've found the right place. The lights are architectural; inside it's fully lit and like any fitness center.

The school offers only two levels of pole technique classes, level 1 and level 2. We had no idea what they might include, but headed straight to the weekly level 2 class. The teacher, Oksana Veselova, apparently brought pole dancing to Estonia. After warming up we started doing one trick after another in quick progression: cupido to butterfly, shoulder mount to superman, scorpio-gemini-scorpio-scorpio-switches, iguana, bow and arrow, handspring, cartwheel mount - all on a spinning pole!

That's right, all the poles, eight in total, were 42mm spinning poles. They couldn't be made static at all, which turned out to be really good practice. But I still think it would be safer to practice new tricks on a static pole first. The ceiling was so low that I could touch it standing up and accidentally managed to kick it a couple of times.

I won't be surprised if City Dance soon features Elina as a workshop teacher!

There would have been a strip tease class right after the pole dance class, but unfortunately I had to catch the last ferry to Helsinki... I realized that I should have spent the night, had a nice dinner, stayed at a nice hotel, maybe had a massage the next day - Things that are still considerably cheaper in Tallinn than in Helsinki.

The Estonian Open Pole Dance & Fitness Championship 2012 will be held in May. The organizer is Estonian Pole Dance Union and they promote Papillon Spordiklubi which apparently has only recently started offering pole dancing with three poles.

When a pole dancing school advertises: "Surprise your man, learn sexy chair dance!"  you don't know whether you should take grip aids or fishnet stockings with you to class. Grip aids were the right choice for the pole technique class.

Tankotanssia voi harrastaa Tallinnassa City Dance -tanssikoululla. Kaikki kahdeksan tankoa ovat pyöriviä ja huone on hyvin matala, mutta 2-tason tunnilla tehtiin jo melko vaikeita liikkeitä - eikä kenelläkään ollut korkkareita!

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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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