Pole Dancing in Music Videos

Pole dancing has gotten more and more popular, even in music videos. Here are some that I know of, please share if you know more!

Enrique Iglesias feat. Usher - Dirty Dancer has more than 57 million views on Youtube, and luckily those dancers are actually good!

2 Chainz feat. Nicki Minaj - I Luv Dem Strippers is more... Well, what do you expect with that title? It's not all booty shaking, though.

Diplo feat. Lazerdisk Party Sex - Set It Off has AERA dancers Marlo, Mina, Nadia, Reiko, Michelle, Kyra, Autumn, Danielle and Crystal in their video. But honestly, what's with the description "Thanks to Director Ryan Staake we may finally know the answer to how many strippers it takes to get to outerspace"?

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PoleArt 2012 videos are here!

If you didn't make it to Stockholm and even missed out on the live stream provided by Poleranking (what's your excuse?) you can now watch the videos here. You definitely should, as PoleArt 2012 exceeded at least all my expectations - and that is saying something!

As you will know by now, Oona Kivelä won for the third time, followed by Natasha Wang as a runner-up. In the male category Saulo Sarmiento won, followed by a tie between Evgeny Greshylov and Steven Retchless.

In evaluation, equal emphasis was put on technical difficulty, execution, choreography and originality. The judges seemed to be as overwhelmed as the audience. Lu Nagata admitted that some artists brought her to tears and Anna de Carvalho commented that there was a lot of originality and many elements that had not been seen before. Serena Mon De Vienne told us how glad she was to see contestants trying to explore their own dance. She also said the evolution in pole dance has been so fast that it seems like 10 years have passed in the short history of PoleArt. It was Marina Cavallini who captured my thoughts the best using the word contemporary. She said the pieces were very strong, impressive, professional, breathtaking - and more contemporary than we have ever seen before.

I couldn't agree more - and couldn't be happier about it! This year was exactly what PoleArt is about. The venue, Göta Lejon theater from the 1920s, was stylish and exactly right for this event, and many performers seemed to have found the pole dancer in them. Many pieces were contemporary dance where pole was just one element of the dance. Patryk Rybarski, Evgeny Greshylov, Oona Kivelä and Laurence Hilsum all had dubstep(ish elements) in their music and showed some locking (or vogueing) moves, very trendy. There are always top tricks in all competitions. In last year's PoleArt the shoulder mount - outvert -flip was all the rage, this year we saw several starfish and chopsticks.

Below are Poleranking's YouTube videos with my comments - Please note that they are my personal opinions and feel free to comment and discuss! The videos are in the same order as they were performed in Stockholm. The first posts contain the first half of the videos, watch this space for my take on the remaining half!

Intellego Pole Company started the night with a performance that I personally found a bit disappointing - after their captivating performance in PoleArt 2011 my expectations were sky high. Their performance was called Female Exhaustion and called for freedom and democracy. I couldn't help but think about Pussy Riot in Russia. Very contemporary.

Patryk Rybarski still is a Dancer with a capital D. He danced to dubstep and showed us some cool locking moves, but his pole technique is still not quite clean. At the end of his act the poles seemed to be a bit too slippery for him and we even witnessed the only ass wipe of the night. But when he masters his pole technique in a year or two, there will be no stopping this guy. Can't wait.

Tracey Simmonds had a fierce look - Lisbeth Salander (of Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy) instantly came to mind, not a bad look for a competition in Sweden. Tracey didn't disappoint with her unique trick combos and solid floorwork.

Rafaela Montanaro started with a super strong one-handed handstand. The latin pop song she used was tacky but the rhythm sure was catchy. This style is what Rafaela does best, the same thing she always seems to do, but maybe it isn't right for PoleArt. However, I've never seen a pole dancer put more clothes on in the middle of her performance, so that was original. Take a look at the one-minute solid aysha combo in the end!

Phoenix Kazree blew our minds away with her mesmerizing performance. She portrayed pain or hurt, a classic theme, but she did it beautifully. One of the most contemporary pieces of a contemporary night.

Go to Poleranking.com to see read the entire post and see the rest of the videos! You don't need to register to view the post and the videos, but please do and share your opinions!

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PoleArt 2012 - new ladies on the block

PoleArt will be held in Stockholm in less than a week, on Saturday the 25th of August. PoleArt is widely considered one of the most prestigious international pole dancing competitions, and this year the list of competitors is even more impressive than ever before.

Female Competative 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

Many of the ladies and gentlemen are familiar from IPC 2012. Actually, of the competitors only Natalia Egorova and Polina Volchek were new names to me, so I took a closer look at them.

In Natalia's application video she starts with a hula hoop and then shows some very impressive tricks, making me think that she must be a former gymnast. There was a gymnast by the same name, but I think she must be older than this Natalia... Nevertheless, very impressive for someone I haven't even heard from previously.

Polina Volchek didn't sound familiar to me, but Pink Puma I know! She has a distinct style that will divide opinions, especially here in Scandinavia. She's something that many will consider very sexy and I certainly envy her flexibility. She's been pole dancing for only a year but has 10 years of experience in rhythmic gymnastics. Well, at least she's not one of those gymnast-turned-pole dancer whose background you can tell from a mile away. Even though Polina represents USA in PoleArt, she is actually a native of Ukraine and has even been on Ukraine's Got Talent.

By the way, what is that trick called that Polina does at 2:05? Natalia Egorova also did that in her application video.

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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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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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