Weekend Crush: Sadie, Coloradan Belly Dancer

Sadie's been on my Weekend-Crushes-to-be list for too long. She has some kind of voodoo magic that wants you want to watch her forever. You may even be fooled into thinking you can just get up from your belly dance induced trance and start dancing like a pro... okay, maybe that's just me, but is it ever hard! Her belly dance is inspired by her athletic background and it shows. I just want to have half her ability to isolate muscles!





Did you catch all that craziness around 2:00?? The most I've been able to achieve is isolating my upper and lower abs separately, and doing some sort of a belly roll. And these are doable with more defined abs, but I am partial to belly rolls with belly to them. If you are ever down about not having pole star abs, just remember you have belly dancer abs. You're Welcome. :)

Other than the ab, hip, and chest isolations to dream for I love that Sadie is this everyday Coloradan, originally from Wisconsin, who has turned her passion for the sensual, mysterious, and exotic belly dance into a reality. I have always wanted to see someone with a strong belly dance background do a pole and belly dance fusion (C'mon Sadie!). Mayhap we can pester Aerial Gypsy from Femtastic Dance to do one? If you've seen one, please do share in the comments! I suppose it would take a lot of strength to pole in a skirt, or maybe a shorter skirt? And no jingly coins.

I leave you to contemplate Sadie's America's Got Talent submission with her best friend, Kaya. (Ugh, Piers, you dolt. I still hate dislike him for being horrible to Steven.) Dance friends make everything about a million times better:

Weekend Crush: Lora Hill, Fights Bullying with Dance

"You know when Lora came to me a couple years ago with the idea, the first words that came out of her mouth were, it could be chaotic, it could be...' And I said 'Great!'"

Awesome. This is principal Kelly Halvorsen's response to a project to change high school kids' lives through dance. Lora had this crazy idea to get kids dancing on Friday mornings and it had some really interesting results.

"When it comes to music, we all stand together" --Lora Hill

Every Friday morning she sets up speakers and turns on the music. What's really cool is that all sorts of students join right in--even teachers dance. It is amazing to see everyone moving together; there are no words, just unity. You can watch video of it at the Ed Moments website. Ed moments is supported by Education Minnesota, a union of 70,000 Minnesotan educators and staff. Remember who else is Minnesotan? Uh huh, yours truly. I am so proud that our teachers are spreading this. I'm convinced that Minnesota has the best teachers (we certainly have awesome public schools) and it was my teachers that made me believe in myself in spite of growing up with an abusive mother.

“I know what can happen to the bullied,” she says. “Suicide. But I also know what can happen to bullies. Prison. “I’m committed to both.”

It's all about confidence. If you can give a student confidence you give them the power to be who they want to be. That kind of strength can stop both students from needing to victimize and students from allowing themselves to be bullied. This reminds me of the strength our pole dance community draws from engaging our bodies for expression and fitness. We come together because we are working on common fitness goals and we learn to embrace differences. That's powerful. I love what Lora Hill is doing and I hope she inspires people to find creative solutions rather than repeating the same hollow messages of what not to do. After all, unity and strength comes from action.

Photo: Lockers by Phil Roeder. Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License.

Weekend Crush: Sam Salter

Flexy February requires a special sort of Weekend Crush, and boy am I going to deliver, if I do say so myself. Want to see gravity defying splits? Sam Salter. Just, Sam Salter. I was trying not to fall in love with contemporary dance but it's too late, I'm head over heels and if you're not already you will be too:

Okay, did you see that coming? It starts out pretty sweet and sappy, right, then around 1:12 I was like "I love you toooo!" for just a second. You know you thought that too. (Sweetheart if you're reading this, now will you stretch with me?) At I 2:08 I wondered... Anyways will you look at that extension? I am torn between wanting him to also figure skate or pole dance. I bet he could give Steven Retchless a run for his money.

Also, that spin at 3:40? My heart stopped.

As for Sam himself, he's currently on a national tour of West Side Story. From, er, closely checking out his Twitter account he attended Laine Theatre Arts School in the UK. It goes without saying, his technique is amazing; I might not know much about dance as a technical art but it sure looks flawless! I mean, the spin. Mmm. So much for trying not to fall in love with so much dance!

Weekend Crush: Michelle Stanek

I think after having Michelle Stanek's All the Time routine stuck in my head all this week it's time to make her my Weekend Crush! If you haven't seen it yet you are way overdue. And if you have seen it, I think you could use another look at her effortless standing splits at about 1:28. Just saying.

 

I know I just said sexy dance is not my style but this is really making me want to put in the work to dance like this. Michelle nails some crazy impressive and sultry moves. Of the sexy pole dancers out there she's the first to make me want to become her. Maybe that has a bit to do with said standing split.

Then, too--doesn't she look exactly like JJ from Criminal Minds here? My brain just jumped to JJ and Prentiss doing pole doubles. This needs to happen!

I am going to have my work cut out to nail any one of her moves. The standing split is going on my wishlist yesterday along with whatever that black magic is at :34. This may just be the motivation I need to get to my ab work after I have my baby. At least I can keep working on my splits in the meantime! I'm sure it helps that she has been dancing since she was a child. She definitely has great timing in all her performances and beautiful artistry from dance. Then on top of that all the sexy? An absolute dream.

Weekend Crush: Missy Franklin

I normally do not get into the Olympics, other than my love of figure skating, so this week's Weekend Crush is a little different for me. What's so special about Missy Franklin? For one her awesome performance in the 100 m dash even though she started out behind. Also, how cute is she in the US Olympic swimming team's Call Me Maybe parody? (below)

Feeling unsexy this summer?

(c) United Pole Artists, Used with permission

It's bikini season, the perfect time to show off rocking bodies and strut your sexy. In the pole world it's even bigger than that since UPA's Bringing Sexy Back is going on again (through today).  For some of us this turns into a bit of an issue because we don't feel that sexy. So what do we do?

I just finished reading yet another discussion on Facebook where one side trashed "imperfect" bodies and the other side promoted self-love. Seriously, this again? People, no one will work on her fitness level if she does not love her body! Does it appall me when people neglect their bodies to the point of unhealthy obesity? Yes, it does. But I can't decide this at a glance. And I'm not perfect--who could define perfect?--plus everyone deserves to be happy. 

Just like I don't like being judged as "must be anorexic" I won't be judging someone as "must be lazy and gluttonous." In fact, at my thinnest I was incredibly lazy and gluttonous. Genetics saved me from looking as unhealthy as I was. People more active than I am that eat better than me get

Weekend Crush: Grace Bruce

From being a flexibility guru on YouTube to playing a Snatcher in Harry Potter Deathly Hallows, Grace Bruce is a whole lot of awesome in one person. You know those moves where you kick past your head? Yeah, she can do that. Her strength and flexibility are incredible and serve her well in her varied pursuits, notably dance and martial arts.

Grace (right) and Chloe (left)
(c) Bruce Sistaz, Used with Permission

Even better, Grace and her sister Chloe help those of us aspiring to their levels of flexy. They have a series, Flexy Fridays, featuring tutorials on flexibility enhancing stretches. What I love is that they include really great warmups plus give valuable pointers along the way. It's not just a show-and-tell of their staggering flexibility, which by itself would still be awe inspiring. If you're not near their flexibility level you (like me) you can still benefit from their tutorials since they do suggest tips for beginners. One stretch I added to my routine is from their Stretches for Box Splits. I hate stretching box/middle splits but I just imagine Grace & Chloe's super kicks and bite the bullet :) Their teamwork makes me wish I could coerce convince my sister to do some pole fit or stretching for sure.

Of course, Grace didn't become flexible overnight. She's been involved in martial arts from a very young age.  I notice that in the Flexy Friday series not only do they include warmups but also ease into poses. It's nice to see that someone at her

So Dancers are NOT Athletes?

I was watching an episode of Rizzoli and Isles when Frost makes a comment about contemporary dancers not being athletes! Rizzoli, who studied ballet as a child, says they are just as athletic as figure skaters--prompting an eyebrow raise from Frost. He affirms, however, that golfers and even bowlers are athletes.  I love Rizzoli's response: she says something like, "but a ten year old with a six pack is not an athlete??"

So dancers are not athletes??

Ballerinas, for example, devote their lives from a young age to ballet, building incredible strength, flexibility, and agility. It is a physically demanding undertaking, altering (disfiguring) their feet and subjecting them to serious injury. Those airy leaps? They take immense muscular strength and control. Not just anyone has the persistence and dedication ballet takes--which make it sound suspiciously like a sport, doesn't it?

"Kelli" (c) mkd.
Used under Creative Commons 2.0 Attribution License

Figure skaters, especially with the change in the scoring system, are required to perform athletic leaps and present program elements such as complex footwork sequences. Anyone who says figure skating is not athletic need only check out the muscle tone on then nearest figure skater. Have you ever seen a figure skater without incredible abs?

I get as tired as a piece of lettuce in the sun from hearing that pole dance is not athletic. Some spiritual yoga article or a person hearing about pole dance for the first time (for the first time out of the context of some sleazy show) is always making some comment about "draping on a pole."

But what does "athlete" imply?

To some degree, maybe we don't want to be called athletes. Take a look at how figure skating has changed since the scoring system went from a more qualitative system to a rigid quantitative system requiring certain jumps--some would argue (like me) that it has taken some of the art out of skating. I have heard some talk among pole dancers that the scoring systems are changing in pole as well, and in the same direction. When a dancer or figure skater has to fill a time slot performing almost entirely acrobatic stunts, when can she or he fit in the art? When does it go from an artistic sport to a twitchy, trickster display?

To me the answer is that we can be athletic and also be dancers. It's about recognition. We know our dance is special, emotional--and yes, athletic. It would just be nice to hear it too, rather than be looked down on. In the end all we can do is believe in ourselves and in each other and let the world decide to catch up.

My Weekend Crush: Sheena LaShay

Photo (c) Glen Graham Photography

Do you live an authentic life?

 If you're Sheena, you can say yes, emphatically.

I first loved Sheena as the glue that holds the Pole Dancing Bloggers group together, along with the lovely Valentina. (Like so much pole awesomeness, I found out about this pole group from KiKi's Pole Blog.) If you aren't familiar with the Pole Dancing Bloggers group we do monthly themed posts and link up; it's a great way for the pole world to get more of what we love--to feed our pole addiction! (What else?) To have the kind of initiative and dedication it takes to keep the pole-blogiverse going, well, that's something special. So special it got me curious: who is this Sheena Lashay anyways?

Guys if you haven't clicked on over already, check her out. Unafraid to be sexy , unique, or to have her voice be heard, Sheena is a pole activist and more. She describes her two sirens and reminds us to be ourselves in a society that tells us to be everyone else. It is a message that is particularly important to us as pole dancers since we constantly find ourselves up against families and workplaces that say being a pole dancer is dirty. Sometimes we find ourselves stepping into a mold where we close off our sensuality to maintain that pole is athletic and artistic. Am I honest with myself when I write the "hello boys" trick off as "just not my thing," for example? I don't yet have an answer for myself in my internal dialogue.

Photo (c) Glen Graham Photography

Some of you may know this about me: my life experience includes sexual abuse and violence. I spent too many years trying to cover up for my mom so when I find someone who openly gives her views on sexual abuse I am glad. I am glad to hear the stories that make some people look away. We need to hear these conversations in our communities or how will we ever get past it and make a difference? We need to still be true to the sexy side. Sheena's right, being open with sensuality and changing what we think and say about it can help us take the "wrong" out of sexy. We can do this in our pole communities and our families and maybe then all of us that are not sure about our sexy side can figure out if and why we are shying away from it.

Sheena talks about having people in her life who can know the different sides of herself. I challenge you to think about the different sides of your own self and how to set them free. As pole dancers, we already have the unique advantage of a largely open-minded community to be parts of ourselves some of us can't be at work or maybe in our neighborhoods. Free your mind to who you are and live that authentic life.

Photo (c) Glen Graham Photography