Poleranking is here, and I am there!

When I started blogging about pole dancing just two months ago I decided to do so in English. I wanted to reach out to all pole dancers around the world and let them know what it's like to practise pole dancing here in Helsinki. To be honest, I did hope that someone would ask my blog to be featured at a popular pole dancing site or something. I mean, if I could even find a pole dancing site that didn't send a strong stripper-vibe. And I did. Or they found me. 


The Poleranking site wasn't even open when they contacted me but I already liked them on Facebook - They are almost always the fastest and often only source for up-to-date information on international pole dancing competitions. I didn't have to think about it for very long, of course I wanted to join the prestigious ranks of Poleranking featured bloggers - along with the likes of Aerial Amy and Michelle Shimmy.

Poleranking.com opens today for those who requested an invite, and on Tuesday, May 1, to anyone who is interested in pole dancing! Poleranking is also giving out five sets of Tracey Simmonds' Comprehensive Guide to Pole Dance DVD-trilogies - I already have them and I can recommend them to anyone who has a pole at home but doesn't have the chance to attend as many lessons as they'd like.  If you got interested, you should watch the Poleranking Facebook-page for info on the contest!

See you there!

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"Pole dancing, huh? You must get a lot of 'oh so you're a stripper' -comments?"

I've been pole dancing for two years, and so far not a single person has mistaken me for a stripper. However, I've lost count how often I've heard "Pole dancing, huh? You must get a lot of 'oh so you're a stripper' -comments?" Basically what these people are saying is "I'm so civilized that I know pole dancing is a sport but I bet there are a lot of people that are less civilized than me". Without meaning to question anyone's level of sophistication: No, there aren't. Not here in Helsinki, anyway.

You would have had to live under a rock for the past two years in Finland to have missed Oona Kivelä's numerous appearances in magazines, newspapers, TV and radio and Henriikka Roo's performance's in Finland's Got Talent - She made it all the way to the final. And even if they had missed all that, people don't just randomly think that an educated professional all of a sudden starts working as a stripper and, moreover, enthuses about it over coffee. I'm glad you, Mr./Ms. Civilized realize it's a sport, but so does everybody else. Sure, strippers do pole dance, but so do managing directors. That doesn't make managing directors strippers nor strippers MDs.

What I actually get a lot is "Whoa, I know it's really good exercise, I've been wanting to try it for quite some time but haven't had the nerve. Where can I try it?"

End of idiotic stripper discussion.

Beware! You never know what will happen once you start pole dancing!

Kahden vuoden tankotanssikokemukseni mukaan tankotanssijoita, ainakaan allekirjoittanutta, ei todellakaan enää sekoiteta strippareihin, vaikka monet niin luulevatkin.

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Finnish Pole Dancing Championships 2012 make it to the 10 P.M. news... ...funnies

Half a million Finns tune in every night to watch the 10 o'clock news on MTV3. In a country of only six million people and numerous news broadcasts on several channels, that's a significant tradition. I missed the news broadcast on Saturday, as I was watching pole battle at The Tiger, but was glad to hear that the Finnish Pole Dancing Championships had made it to this most popular news broadcast. That is, until I heard pole dancing was not featured in the sports news but instead as the funny piece of news of the night - The last news slot reserved for cute baby animals born at Zoos, impressive bottle cap collections or wife carrying world championships.

Screen capture from the news piece: Hanna Knihtilä doing a strong shoulder mount. This former soccer player is all muscle these days. She thought me how to do an air shoulder mount!

The piece itself was very positive, featuring small interviews with Oona Kivelä and Henriikka Roo and video clips from seven different performances. There's an ongoing debate on retirement age in Finland and the anchors were wondering what the retirement age for pole dancers might be: "Well, working life needs to be lengthened, so maybe 67?"

You can watch the piece for a few more days here. The performances are also available on Youtube, below are some of my favourites.

Like said, Henriikka Roo was on fire!

Oona claimed that this was freestyle - Can you believe it? Many of the contestants said they had to improvise a bit as the spinning pole didn't spin properly.

                                       

Check out Anna Lehtonen's incredible handstands! I bet we'll be hearing a lot about her. She trains at Pole4Fit, like me.

TankoSM 2012 pääsi MTV3:n Kympin Uutisiin. Tosin ei Tulosruutuun, vaan loppukevennykseksi. Itse juttu oli positiivinen, ja loppuvitsinä uutisankkurit pohtivat tankotanssijoiden eläkeikää.

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