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...

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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....

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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! --- After a thorough warm-up...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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,...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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Friday fun: Trackshittaz at the Eurovision Song Contest 2012

The Eurovision Song Contest is held this year for the 57th time. The final will be held tomorrow in Baku, Azerbaijan. Trackshittaz represented Austria in the semifinals with their song Woki Mit Deim Popo (translates into shake your bottom). They didn't make it to the final, which might not surprise anyone, and this video is not worth watching even for the "pole dancing" (Ok, you can catch an invert or two if you watch closely) but the UV costumes on the dancers are fun. Watch when they turn off the lights at 1:57. You can also read and discuss this post at http://poleranking.com/threads/friday-fun-trackshittaz-at-the-eurovision-song-contest-2012.333/#post-...

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Friday Fun: More animals pole dancing

These keep coming up, here's the best of the rest: And how about this human... sorry, feline flag? You can also read and discuss this post at http://poleranking.com/threads/friday-fun-animals-pole-dancing.1...

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Friday fun: More Pole Dancing Comics

Last Friday I shared some pole dancing comics that didn't draw on the strip club history of pole dancing. Here are some of the funniest that do: ...

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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...

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