Apparently we have to wait two months for full videos of the performances in International Pole Championship 2012, which will then be published only at their own site. Luckily Poleranking has treated us to two exclusive previews.
One with previews of all the performances
and another with focus on the Ultimate Champion (don't you just love that title?) Oona Kivelä
Oona's victory was notified by German Spiegel Online and Danish News Break but apparently in the Ultimate Champion's native Finland only Voice found it interesting enough for their website - Despite statements and video clips sent to all media. I guess all the space was required for other Finnish athletes such as Kimi Räikkönen who qualified 18th in the Australian formula1 GP - right before another Finn Heikki Kovalainen who held his own at 19th.
Joudumme ilmeisesti odottamaan Hong Kongin esitysvideoita kaksi kuukautta, mutta tässä hieman esimakua Polerankingin tarjoamana!
Womens Division Pole Fit Winner: Rafaela Montanaro
Womens Division Pole Fit 1st runner-up: Tracey Simmonds
Mens Division Pole Fit Winner: Adam Tan
Mens Division Pole Fit 1st runner-up: Job Bautista
Other titles included:
Pole idol (Internet votes): Wilson Alexander (Editor's note: It must have been the Speedos...)
IPDFA Pole industry award: Kate (UK)
IPDFA Choreographer of the year: Kelly & Charlie
IPDFA Instructor of the year: Elena Gibson
IPDFA Studio of the year: BeSpun (Editor's note: I have to get there one day!)
Thank you Poleranking once again for being the first (and only!) source with up-to-date information!
Like I already lamented, we apparently have to wait two months for videos... Welcome to 2012, IPDFA! Can you think of any other sport where this would be acceptable?
P.S. Greetings from Tallinn! I'm on my way to a pole dancing lesson here... I promise to tell you all about it later!
Tomorrow, ladies and gentleman, it's finally time for the long-awaited International Pole Championships in Hong Kong. The competition's own site hasn't been updated for a while, but luckily one can count on Poleranking to know, and share, what's going on in international competitions.
Unfortunately there have been some cancellations. Alisa Pleskova, who I thought might be a strong contestant for top-3, can't make it. Neither can Cleo, the Australian rock chick who always puts on an interesting show. Neither of these ladies was my first choice for winner anyway, but Mens Division suffered a more serious blow as Saulo Sarmiento won't be able to compete due to an exclusive performance elsewhere. He was a clear candidate for winner! If I now have to name someone else, I'm going with the Colombian gymnast Wilson Alexander despite, you know, everything.
Order of competition is out as well:
1.TESSA YUNG
2.DEB ROACH
3.ADAM TAN
4.LAURENCE HILSUM
5.LIYE & NAOMI
6.ALESSANDRA MARCHETTI
7.PATRYK RYBARSKI
8.ERI KAMIMOTO
9.CHELLE HAFNER
10.CARLIE & TRAVIS
11.LENA GRZEGOLEC
12.DAVID HELMEN
13.NATASHA WANG
14.MASAYO & KAZUYA
15.RAFAELA MONTANARO
16.JOB BAUTISTA
17.TRACEY SIMMONDS
18.ENCHANTED
19.WILSON ALEXANDER
20.ZORAYA JUDD
21.MATTY & SHIMMY
22.OONA KIVELÄ
23.CHRIS MEASDAY
The event starts tomorrow, Thursday 7:30 P.M, that would be 1:30 P.M. EET in Helsinki. I'll get back to you with the results, even though we apparently have to wait two months for any performance videos. I do hope they were kidding.
IPC 2012 käydään huomenna Hong Kongissa. Kisat alkavat 13:30 Suomen aikaa, mutta valitettavasti Alisa Pleskova, Cleo ja Saulo Sarmiento eivät pääse kisaamaan. Oona Kivelä on esiintymisvuorossa toiseksi viimeisenä.
IPDFA’s International Pole Championship will be held in Hong Kong on Thursday. I previously commented on the somewhat disappointing male division, but the amazing ladies more than make up for it. Originally only six contestants were supposed to make it to the final, but somewhere along the way that changed to twelve. And what a breath-taking dozen they are!
Laurence Hilsum, France, is almost in a league of her own. Almost. I saw Laurence in PoleArt 2011 in Helsinki, where only one contestant was her superior. Laurence is definite Top-3 material also in Hong Kong.
Alisa Pleskova from Israel is also a strong contestant for Top-3. I lost count how many times she touches the back of her head with her toes. It's amazing, something I'm quite certain I'll never be able to do, but maybe there should be a thrice-per-choreo limit.
Rafaela Montanaro from Brazil is definitely one of my favourites. She has excellent rhythm and a unique spirit. I can’t quite put my finger on it but for some reason, watching her performance, I get the feeling that she would fun to hang out with. I guess you could call that charisma and it certainly appeals to me. No matter how flexible or strong or skilled the dancer is, if she doesn’t have charisma, watching her perform for four minutes often gets a bit boring. Rafaela is not the tallest nor the skinniest pole dancer that I’ve seen and I love it. One thing that I absolutely love about pole dancing is that you don’t have to be a certain height or a certain build like in ballet.
Natasha Wang, US pole champion 2011, obviously has clean, beautiful, flexible moves, but watching her entry video right after Rafaela Montanaro's, I have to admit that I’m a sucker for charisma and spirit. It's obvious that all these ladies love their poles, but the best performers love their audience even more.
Zoraya Judd, also from the US, is certainly a good entertainer, but in her entry video her style is bordering on striptease. Whereas rock chick Cleo from Australia can get away with chunky platforms and an outfit straight from early Madonna's or Lady Gaga's closet. I usually despise shoes worn on the pole, but in Cleo's entry video she wears them with the right attitude.
Another Australian Chelle Hafner won Asia Pacific Pole Dance Championships 2011 with her super strong Terminator routine. She wore trainers and pants in something that looks like faux leather (Where can I get a pair of those?) and started off with a death lay. With her strength she could compete in the male division if she wanted to. In another routine Chelle portrays Lara Croft. I bet she doesn't have to take any "oh so you're a stripper" comments from anyone. Not with those biceps.
The Italian Champion Alessandra Marchetti has been dancing since she was five, but pole dancing only for 1,5 years and she turns 37 this year! And she is amazing on pole, a real comfort for all of us who are not in our teens anymore!
The level of competition is so high in IPC 2012 that in makes fantastic pole dancers such as Tessa Yung or Lena Grzegolec look like basic spinners. I'm a little surprised that for example Anzhela Kulagina didn’t make it past the semifinal. Neither did Carlie Hunter, but you should still check out her absolutely hilarious entry video which brought her Best Performance and Professional Division Winner titles in Australian Capital Pole Championships 2011. The video can also be found on YouTube with the search "Granny on a pole". Circulate the link to all your colleagues first thing Monday morning. Another five minutes at the office well spent. Carlie will still compete in IPC 2012 together with Travis Scott in the douples division.
And while you’re at it, watching semi-finalist videos, please tell me what Alesia Vazmitsel does at 1:46 and teach me that! I hear she had to cancel her entry, otherwise at least I would have placed her in the final! Speaking of ladies who I would have loved to see in IPC 2012: Where are for example Marion Crampe and Anastasia Shukhtorova? Jenyne Butterfly and Marlo Fisken can be found among the judges.
Back to the finalists: Tracey Simmonds was the first international superstar whose workshop I attended at Pole4Fit and that already makes me a big fan of hers. Tracey’s pole dancing style is so precise and everything she does looks totally effortless, especially since she’s so lithe. Tracey visits Finland quite often, I think her last performance here was a showcase at the Helsinki Fashion Fair in October.
And then, last but never least is the natural force that we know as Oona Kivelä. I’m so biased when it comes to any Finn in an international sports contest, let alone Oona K. in a pole dancing contest, that you should take my praise with a pinch of salt. But she is really, really good, that much is certain. And it's not just about the tricks, it's also about attitude, spirit and presence, and that just might be decisive at this level. The beautiful music in her entry video, from Pole Dance World Championships 2010, is the Finnish band Apocalyptica playing Metallica's Nothing Else Matters.
Tankotanssin kansainväliset IPC 2012 -kisat käydään Hong Kongissa torstaina. Tässä katsaus naisten sarjan finalisteihin, joiden joukosta löytyvät muun muassa ranskalainen, Suomen PoleArtissakin esiintynyt Laurence Hilsum sekä suomalainen Oona Kivelä.
IPDFA's International Pole Championship 2012 in Hong Kong are only a week away. Now we all know that Oona Kivelä is competing there, certainly about to make us Finns proud once again, like she did in Rio. But since it's International Women's Day, let's take a look at the male contestants first.
The seven male contestants in random order are David Helmen and Chris Measday from Australia, Job Bautista from the Philippines, Colombian Wilson Alexander, Adam Tan from Malaysia, Polish Patryk Rybarski and French Saulo Sarmiento.
It's International Women's Day. Here's a picture of Saulo Sarmiento for you that has nothing to do with pole dancing.
David Helmen originates from Israel, where he studied classical ballet from the tender age of six. He moved to a yoga ashram in New York at sixteen and became a yoga instructor. David has been training aerial acrobatics in Australia for six years. Ballet, yoga and aerial acrobatics - Talk about a perfect background for the pole! David placed third in Asia Pacific Pole Championships in 2011, after only a year of pole dancing. You can see in this video that his pole tricks were still not perfect back then, but he has had over six months to hone his skills. Ballet dancer or not, I'm hoping he'll go for something less tacky than Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake this time.
Chris Measday has been pole dancing for five years and made it to the Asia Pacific PC final three times, but apparently he still won't take his pants off. The result is impressive but not very original tricks that rely solely on his upper body strength. Unfortunately you can also see that he doesn't have much of a dance background, and the choice of song (Linkin Park from the Twilight soundtrack) makes Tchaikovsky seem like a brilliant idea. See his entry here.
Job, a.k.a. AJ Bautista won the Singapore Pole Challenge in 2011. Not a major event judging by the
ambience, and the choreography looks more like a freestyle, but you couldn't tell that he first started dancing as an adult. But guys, lose the pants, it's really good for grip.
Looking at Wilson Alexander's entry video I'm willing to take back my comment on the pants. At least, if you could find something else than Speedos, please. Wilson, an artistic gymnast, has learned pole dancing impressively in only ten months, but all the jades and allegras and what not leave me wanting for some masculinity. Even though you're pole dancing, you can still be a man!
Adam Tan has been training for three years: dancing, mostly hip hop, and pole dancing as well. He does look cool, but in his trainers (!) and jeans he might prefer a Chinese pole. If you watch his entry video, take a look at his Iron-X:s. Me too, Adam, I'm still struggling to hold them myself.
Patryk Rybarski is a Dancer with a capital D. Watching his video I find myself hoping that he wouldn't head straight back to the pole but keep on dancing instead. He's not bad on the pole, it's just that he is not extraordinary either. And his choice of song, Adam Lambert, makes the Twilight soundtrack seen like a classy choice...
Saulo Sarmiento, originally from the Canary Islands, started training gymnastics and dance 11 years ago and is my vote for the winner of IPC's male category this year. Check out his video and judge for yourselves. Last year he won the Compétition Francaise de Pole Dance. It's a shame Edouard Doyé wasn't in that competition, though, and it's a shame he's not in this one, either.
I have to say that I'm a tad disappointed with the male contestants in Hong Kong. They are obviously talented, it just seems that it's too early for some of them to be in a major international competition. The hilarious and über-talented Steven Retchless and the superb Edouard Doyé where both here in Helsinki, competing in PoleArt last October. None of the guys above reach their level. It just goes to show: Hong Kong, Shmong Kong, Helsinki IS the pole dancing capital of the world!
Tankotanssin maailmanlaajuiset IPC 2012 -kisat pidetään viikon päästä Hong Kongissa. Naistenpäivän kunniaksi pieni katsaus miesten sarjan kisailijoihin, joiden taso ei mielestäni kuitenkaan ole yhtä hyvä kuin Helsingissä pidetyssä PoleArtissa lokakuussa 2011.
5:35 PM
Päivi S.
