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.

Posted in: ballet for pole dancers, Henriikka Roo, me, Pole4Fit